吠陀宗教理想
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中文
1→吠陀宗教理想 2→ 3→与我们关系最密切的，乃是关于灵魂与神明及一切宗教事务的思想。我们将从本集（Samhitâs）入手。这些颂歌汇编构成了最古老的雅利安文献，准确地说，是世界上最古老的文学作品。在此之前或许存在若干零散文字，但那不成其为书籍，更谈不上文学。作为一部成体系的著作，这是世界上最古老的典籍，其中描绘了雅利安人最初的情感、渴望，以及围绕其风俗习惯所生发的种种疑问。在最开篇，我们便遭遇一个颇为奇特的观念。这些颂歌赞美着种种神明，即所谓的"提婆"（Devas）——光明之神。神明数量众多，其中一位名曰因陀罗（Indra），另一位名曰伐楼拿（Varuna），还有密多罗（Mitra）、波尔佳尼亚（Parjanya），等等。各种神话与寓言形象接连涌现——例如，雷神因陀罗击杀了那条截断雨水、令人间饥渴的巨蛇。他掷出雷霆，巨蛇毙命，大雨倾盆而下。人们欢欣鼓舞，向因陀罗献上供品：他们堆起祭坛，宰杀牲畜，将肉串于叉上炙烤，奉献给因陀罗。他们还有一种名为苏摩（Soma）的植物——今日已无人识得此植，它已彻底消失，但从典籍中可知，榨压之后会生成一种乳白色汁液，经过发酵，由此推断这种发酵的苏摩汁液具有令人醉醺的效力。他们将此物献给因陀罗及其他神明，自己也饮用。有时饮得过多，神明亦然。因陀罗偶尔也会醉酒。典籍中有段落记载，因陀罗一度饮了如此之多的苏摩汁，以至于语无伦次。伐楼拿亦如此。他是另一位神明，威力强大，同样守护着他的信徒，信徒们用苏摩酒液的奠祭来颂扬他。战神亦然，如此种种。然而，有一个流行的观念令本集（Samhitâs）的神话与其他神话迥然相异：在每一位神明的身旁，都附随着无限的理念。这种无限被抽象化，有时被描述为阿底底亚（Âditya），有时又附加于所有其他神明之上。以因陀罗为例：在某些典籍中，因陀罗拥有肉身，体魄强健，有时身披黄金铠甲，降临人间，与信徒同居共食，征伐恶魔，搏杀巨蛇，不一而足。然而在另一首颂歌中，因陀罗却被赋予崇高地位：他无处不在、无所不能，洞见每一众生的心魂。伐楼拿亦如此。此位伐楼拿乃气与水之神，职司与此前之因陀罗相近；然而突然之间，他被高高抬举，被称为无所不在、无所不能，等等。我将朗读一段关于伐楼拿崇高形象的文字，以便诸位领会我所要表达的意思。此段已被译成英文诗歌，故以此形式诵读更为妥当。 4→ 5→至高之主，虽远犹近，鉴察我等一切所为； 6→ 7→众神洞晓人间诸事，虽人欲掩其行，终难遁形； 8→ 9→或立或行，或窃步潜移， 10→ 11→或匿身于密室之中——众神皆追其踪迹。 12→ 13→若有二人密谋，自以为无人知晓， 14→ 15→伐楼拿王便在其间，以第三者之身，悉知其一切图谋。 16→ 17→此大地属于他，那浩渺无垠的苍穹亦归于他； 18→ 19→两海俱息于他之内，然他亦栖居于那浅浅的水洼， 20→ 21→纵有人欲振翼翱翔于天际之外， 22→ 23→亦无从逃脱伐楼拿王的掌握。 24→ 25→他的密探自天而降，游历世间； 26→ 27→千眼俯瞰，扫及大地最远的边陲。 28→ 29→至高之主，虽远犹近，鉴察我等一切所为； 30→ 31→众神洞晓人间诸事，虽人欲掩其行，终难遁形； 32→ 33→或立或行，或窃步潜移， 34→ 35→或匿身于密室之中——众神皆追其踪迹。 36→ 37→若有二人密谋，自以为无人知晓， 38→ 39→伐楼拿王便在其间，以第三者之身，悉知其一切图谋。 40→ 41→此大地属于他，那浩渺无垠的苍穹亦归于他； 42→ 43→两海俱息于他之内，然他亦栖居于那浅浅的水洼， 44→ 45→纵有人欲振翼翱翔于天际之外， 46→ 47→亦无从逃脱伐楼拿王的掌握。 48→ 49→他的密探自天而降，游历世间； 50→ 51→千眼俯瞰，扫及大地最远的边陲。 52→ 53→由此，我们可以在其他神明身上举出更多例证；他们一一登场，命运如出一辙——起初以神明之姿出现，继而被提升至宇宙无限人格神的概念。在伐楼拿的案例中，还萌生了另一个观念的胚芽——恐惧的观念——但这一胚芽旋即被雅利安人的心灵所压制。在另一处我们读到，人们惧怕自己曾犯下罪过，祈求伐楼拿宽恕。这些观念从未被允许在印度的土地上生根成长（缘由待后文阐明），但胚芽已然萌生——恐惧的观念，以及罪的观念。这便是众所周知的一神论观念。我们可以看到，这种一神论很早便传入了印度。贯穿整部本集（Samhitâs）——即其最古老的部分——一神论的观念无处不在。然而我们将发现，它并未能满足雅利安人的心灵；他们将其抛之脑后，视之为过于原始的观念，而向更深处探求——一如我们印度教徒所思的那样。当然，在阅读欧洲学者所撰的吠陀研究著作时，印度教徒不禁莞尔——因为这些著者的思想被他们既有的教育所浸染透了。凡从母乳中汲取了这样信念的人——"上帝的最高理想乃是人格神的理想"——自然不敢沿着这些古代印度思想家的路径去思考。他们发现，紧接着本集（Samhitâs）之后，充斥其中的一神论观念竟被雅利安人视为无用之物，不值得哲学家与思想家去追求，而他们为更具哲理性与超验性的观念奋力探索。一神论对他们而言过于人格化，尽管他们赋予了它诸如"整个宇宙皆安息于他之内"、"你是所有心灵的守护者"这样的描述。印度教徒思想大胆，这是他们值得称誉之处——他们的思想之大胆，足以令西方所谓的大胆思想家为之震栗。麦克斯·缪勒教授对这些思想家有过精辟的描述：他们攀登至那样的高度，只有他们的肺叶方能呼吸，而其他生命的肺叶早已爆裂。这些勇敢的人们循理而行，不计代价，纵然最珍贵的迷信被砸得粉碎，纵然社会对他们指指点点，他们都毫不在意；凡他们以为正确与真实的，他们便讲述，便宣扬。 54→ 55→在深入探讨这些古代吠陀圣贤的种种思辨之前，我们先来援引吠陀中一两个颇为奇特的例证。有一个独特的现象亟待解释：这些神明被一一拾起，高高抬举，升华，直至每一位都呈现为宇宙无限人格神的形象。麦克斯·缪勒教授认为此现象为印度教所独有，并为之创造了一个新词，称之为"单一神教"（Henotheism）。解释其实就在书中，无需舍近求远。就在那些神明被抬举升华之处的附近几步，我们便可找到解释。问题来了：印度教神话为何如此独特，与其他一切神话迥然相异？在巴比伦或希腊神话中，我们发现某一神明逐渐强大，占据一席之地，而其他神明则凋零消逝。在所有摩洛赫（Molochs）之中，耶和华（Jehovah）崛起为至高者，其他摩洛赫遭到遗忘，永久消失；他成为众神之神。希腊众神之中，宙斯走向前台，身量日益宏大，成为宇宙之神，其他神明则降格为次要的天使。这一过程在后世屡屡重演：佛教徒与耆那教徒将各自的先知升格为神性，并将其他神明置于佛陀或耆那的统辖之下。这是举世皆然的过程，然而在印度我们发现了一个例外。某一神明受到颂扬，并被称为其他所有神明皆服从其号令；而在下一部书中，颂扬伐楼拿的那位神明，又被抬举到最崇高的地位。他们轮流占据人格神的地位。然而解释便在书中，那是一个伟大的解释——它为印度此后所有思想提供了主旋律，并将成为全世界宗教的主旋律："唯一存在（Ekam Sat Viprâ Bahudhâ Vadanti）——存在者是唯一的，圣贤以不同名称称呼它。"在所有这些吟咏诸神的颂歌中，被感知的存在是同一个；正是感知者造成了差异。是颂歌的作者、先知、诗人，以不同语言、不同词句，颂扬着同一个存在。"存在者是唯一的，圣贤以不同名称称呼它。"由这一诗句生发出了影响深远的结果。诸位或许惊讶于这样一个事实：印度是世界上唯一一个从未发生宗教迫害、从未有人因宗教信仰而遭受骚扰的国度。有神论者与无神论者、一元论者、二元论者、一神论者，都在那里共存，从未受到干扰。唯物主义者被允许在婆罗门（Brahmin）神庙的台阶上宣讲，反对诸神，甚至反对神本身；他们走遍各地宣讲：神的观念不过是迷信，神明、吠陀（Vedas）与宗教，都是祭司为一己私利而捏造的把戏——他们被允许如此行事，无人阻挠。无论走到哪里，佛陀都试图将一切印度教的神圣之物彻底推翻，而佛陀安享天年，寿终正寝。耆那教徒亦然，他们嗤笑神的观念，问道："怎么可能有神？那不过是迷信。"诸如此类，例子不胜枚举。穆斯林浪潮涌入印度之前，印度从不知宗教迫害为何物；印度教徒只是以外来者对自身施加的迫害而有所体会。即便在今日，仍有一个显而易见的事实：印度教徒在多大程度上资助了基督教教堂的兴建，以及他们是多么乐于伸出援手。从未有过流血事件。连从印度脱胎而出的异端宗教亦受到同样的影响，佛教便是一例。佛教在某些方面是一种伟大的宗教，但将佛教与吠檀多（Vedanta）混为一谈，毫无意义——这两者的差异，就如同基督教与救世军的差异。佛教有许多伟大而美好之处，但这些伟大之处落入了无力妥善守护它们的人手中——哲学家的珍宝落入了大众之手，而大众拾取了其中的观念。他们有巨大的热情，一些奇妙的理念，伟大而人道主义的理念，但毕竟还需要别的东西——思想与智识——才能使一切得以稳固。无论何时，当最具人道主义的理念落入大众之手，你都可以注意到，第一个结果便是堕落。是学识与智识维系着事物的稳固。佛教作为世界上第一个传教性宗教，渗透了当时整个文明世界，从未为这一宗教流下一滴血。我们读到，在中国，佛教传教士遭受迫害，数千人被两三位相继即位的皇帝屠杀，但此后时来运转，一位皇帝提议向迫害者复仇，传教士们却予以拒绝。这一切皆归功于那一行诗句。这便是我要你们铭记它的缘由："他们所称的因陀罗（Indra）、密多罗（Mitra）、伐楼拿（Varuna）——存在者是唯一的，圣贤以不同名称称呼它。" 56→ 57→此句写就之年代，无人知晓，或许在八千年前，无论现代学者如何言说，也许在九千年前。这些宗教思辨中，没有一则是近代之物，然而它们今日仍如初作之时般清新，甚至更为清新——因为在那遥远的年代，人类尚未像我们今日所知的那般开化。他们尚未学会因兄弟与自己稍有思想之异便割断其咽喉；他们尚未以鲜血浸灌世界，尚未成为自己兄弟的恶魔。那时，他们不曾以人道之名屠戮大批人类。因此，这些话语在今日来到我们面前，依然如此清新，如此振奋人心、赋予生命——远比它们写就之时更加清新："存在者是唯一的，圣贤以不同名称称呼它。"我们还需学习的是：所有宗教，无论以何种名称冠之——印度教、佛教、伊斯兰教或基督教——皆信奉同一个神，而凡蔑视其中任何一者，便是蔑视他自己的神。 58→ 59→这便是他们所得出的答案。然而正如我所说，这种古老的一神论观念并未能令印度教徒满足。它走得还不够远，它无法解释这可见的世界——宇宙的统治者并不能解释宇宙，这是确定无疑的。宇宙的统治者无法解释宇宙，外在于宇宙之上的统治者更是如此。他或许是道德的指引者，宇宙中最伟大的力量，但这并非对宇宙的解释；于是我们发现，下一个问题开始浮现，日益壮大——那是关于宇宙的问题："它从何而来？""它如何而来？""它如何存在？"种种颂歌中可以找到这一问题苦苦挣扎、试图成形的痕迹，而以下这首颂歌将其表达得最为诗意、最为精妙： 60→ 61→"彼时既无有，亦无无，既无气，亦无空，亦无任何一物。何物覆盖一切？何物承载一切？彼时既无死，亦无不死，亦无昼夜之更迭。"此段译文已损失了许多诗意之美。"彼时既无死，亦无不死，亦无昼夜之更迭"——梵文原声本身便是音乐。"那存在了，那呼吸，如同笼罩着，那神性的存在；然而它尚未开始运动。"牢记这一观念颇为重要——它静止不动地存在——因为我们将看到，这一观念此后在宇宙论中如何萌芽；根据印度教形而上学与哲学，整个宇宙是一团振动，亦即运动；而在某些时期，这整团运动归于平息，变得愈来愈微细，在那种状态中停留一段时间。这便是此颂歌所描述的状态。它静止不动、无有振荡地存在；当这创造开始之时，它开始振动，而这整个创造便从中生发而出——那一口气息，宁静自持，其外别无他物。
1→"黑暗首先存在。"凡曾在印度或任何热带国家亲历季风破云而出的人，都会领会这几个字的壮美。我记得有三位诗人试图描绘这一情景：弥尔顿说，"无光，而宁是可见的黑暗"；迦梨陀娑（Kalidasa）说，"可以用针刺穿的黑暗"；然而没有一个人接近这吠陀的描述——"藏于黑暗中的黑暗"。万物焦灼龟裂，整个造化似乎都在燃烧殆尽，如此持续了数日，忽然在某个午后，天际一角出现一缕云丝，不消半个时辰，它已蔓延覆盖整片大地——云层堆叠，云上有云，而后倾泻成一场惊天骤雨。创造的原因被描述为意志（will）。最初存在的那个，转化为意志，而这意志开始将自身显现为欲望（desire）。我们也应铭记这一点，因为我们发现，这欲望的观念被称为我们所有一切的根因。这意志的观念既是佛教体系又是吠檀多体系的基石，后来又渗透进德国哲学，成为叔本华哲学体系的基础。我们在这里第一次听到它。 2→ 3→"今，欲望初生，心灵的原初种子。 4→ 5→圣贤，以智慧在心中探寻，发现了那联结， 6→ 7→存在与非存在之间的联结。" 8→ 9→"今，欲望初生，心灵的原初种子。 10→ 11→圣贤，以智慧在心中探寻，发现了那联结， 12→ 13→存在与非存在之间的联结。" 14→ 15→这是一个颇为奇特的表达；诗人以"或许连他也不知道"作结。我们发现，这首颂歌除其诗意价值之外，关于宇宙的追问已呈现出相当明确的形态，这些圣贤的心灵必已进化到这样的境地：一切寻常的答案都无法令其满意。我们发现，他们甚至对那位至高的统治者也不感满足。还有其他种种颂歌，同一问题在其中出现——这一切是如何而来的；我们已见到，当他们试图寻觅宇宙的统治者——一位人格神——之时，他们一一拾起某位提婆，将其高举至那一地位；而今我们将发现，在种种颂歌中，某一个别观念被拾取，被无限延展，被赋予负责宇宙中一切事物的职责。某一特定观念被视为支撑，万物皆安息并存在于其中，而那支撑已成为这一切。对于各种观念，他们如此依次尝试。他们用普拉纳（Prana）——生命原理——做了这样的尝试。他们将生命原理的观念延展，直至其成为宇宙性与无限的。正是生命原理在支撑着一切——不仅是人的身体，还有日月的光辉，它是推动一切的力量，是宇宙性的动力之源。其中一些尝试极为美丽，极富诗意。诸如"他引领美丽的清晨"这般的文字，以其描绘事物的方式达到了令人叹为观止的抒情境界。然后，这欲望——正如我们刚才所读到的，它作为创造的最初原始胚芽而生起——开始被无限延展，直至成为宇宙神明。然而这些观念无一令人满意。 16→ 17→在这里，这一观念被升华，最终被抽象为一种人格。"他独自存在于太初之时；他是一切存在的唯一主宰；他承载着宇宙；他是灵魂的创造者，是力量的创造者，是所有神明所礼敬的那一位，以其影子为生命，以其影子为死亡——我们还当礼敬谁？喜马拉雅的雪峰宣示着他的荣耀，各洋之水宣扬着他的荣耀。"如此这般，但正如我方才所告知你们的，这一观念同样未能令他们满足。 18→ 19→最终，我们看到一个极为特殊的处境。雅利安人的心灵长久以来一直在向外求索答案。他们追问了他们所能追问的一切——日、月、星辰——并从这条路上搜寻到了所能寻到的一切。整个自然界充其量只能教给他们一位宇宙统治者的人格神观念；它所能教导的，止步于此。简言之，从外在世界我们只能获得一位"设计者"的观念，即所谓的"设计论"。这不是一个非常有力的论证，我们都知道；其中有某种孩子气的东西，然而这却是我们能从外在世界获知的关于神的唯一一点点东西——这个世界需要一位建筑者。但这并非对宇宙的解释。这个世界的材料在他之前便已存在，而这位神明需要所有这些材料；最糟糕的反驳是：他必然受到材料的限制。建筑者无法在没有建材的情况下建造房屋——房屋所用的材料构成了它本身。因此他受到材料的限制；他只能做材料所能使他做到的事。所以，设计论所给出的神，充其量不过是宇宙的设计者，而且是受限的设计者；他受到材料的束缚与制约，根本不是自由的。他们那时已发现了这一点，许多其他心灵在这里便会停步不前。在其他国家，同样的情形也发生了：人类心灵无法在此安歇；思维敏锐、追根究底的心灵渴望走得更远，然而那些相对保守的人却抓住了他们，不允许他们成长。然而幸运的是，这些印度教圣贤不是那种会被人强行遏制的人；他们渴求一个答案，而如今我们发现，他们正离弃外在，转向内在。首先震动他们的认识是：我们并非以眼睛和感官来感知那外在世界、并借此获知任何关于宗教的知识；因此，第一个观念便是找出那个缺陷，而那个缺陷，正如我们将要看到的，既是物质层面的，也是道德层面的。其中一位圣贤说：你不知道这个宇宙的根因；你与我之间产生了巨大的差异——为什么？因为你一直谈论感官对象，满足于感官事物和宗教的种种仪式，而我已知晓了超越于此的神我（Purusha）。 20→ 21→在我试图为你们描绘的这条精神观念进化之路上，我只能对另一个生长因素略作提示——因为那与我们的主题无关，所以我无需详述——那便是仪轨的生长。正如那些精神观念以算术级数递进，仪轨观念则以几何级数递进。那古老的迷信至此已发展成庞大的仪轨体系，日益滋长，几乎扼杀了印度教的生命。直至今日，它仍在那里，已渗透到我们生活的每一个角落，使我们成了天生的奴隶。然而与此同时，我们发现，从最早的时日起，就有一种对仪轨蔓延的抗争。彼处提出的一个反驳是：痴迷于仪式，在特定时刻着装，以某种方式饮食，以及宗教的种种表演与形式主义——这些不过是外在的宗教，因为你满足于感官，不欲超越于此。这对我们每一个人而言，都是一种巨大的障碍。人们在想要聆听精神事物时，所依凭的标准至多是感官；一个人听了数日哲学、神明与超验之事的讲谈之后，问道：这终究能带来多少钱财，能带来多少感官享受？因为他的快乐仅在于感官，这是十分自然的。然而，对感官的那种满足，我们的圣贤说，正是在真理与我们自身之间散布遮蔽之纱的原因之一。对仪式的虔诚、对感官的满足，以及形形色色理论的建构，在我们与真理之间拉下了一道帷幕。这是另一个伟大的里程碑，我们必须追溯这一理想直至其终点，看它如何在后来发展成为吠檀多那令人叹为观止的幻相（Mâyâ）理论——这道帷幕将成为吠檀多的真正诠释，真理始终在那里，只是这道帷幕将其遮蔽了。 22→ 23→由此，我们发现这些古代雅利安思想家的心灵已开辟了一条新的路径。他们发现，在外在世界中，无论如何搜寻，都无法为他们的问题寻得答案。他们或许在外在世界中搜寻了千年万年，但他们的问题仍将无从解答。于是他们退而采用另一种方法；依此方法，他们被告知：对感官的渴望、对仪式与外在事物的渴望，已在他们与真理之间生成了一道帷幕，而这道帷幕无法通过任何仪式而消除。他们不得不退回到自身心灵之中，分析心灵，在自身内部寻找真理。外在世界失败了，他们转向内在世界，而从这里，便开始了真正的吠檀多哲学；这里是吠檀多哲学的起点，是吠檀多哲学的基石。随着我们前进，我们发现它的一切探究皆在内部。从一开始，他们似乎就宣示——不要在任何宗教中寻求真理；真理就在这里，在人类灵魂中——这是万奇迹中的奇迹，是所有知识的宝库，是一切存在的矿藏——在这里寻求吧。不在此处者，彼处亦无从寻觅。他们一步一步地发现：外在的不过是内在的微弱倒影。我们将看到，他们是如何拾取那个关于神明的古老观念——宇宙的统治者，外在于宇宙——并首先将他置于宇宙之内的。他不是外在的神，而是内在的神；他们将他从那里带入自己的心灵深处。他就在人的心灵之中，是我们灵魂的灵魂，是我们之中的实在。 24→ 25→为了恰当地把握吠檀多哲学的运作方式，需要理解几个重要观念。首先，它并非我们谈及康德哲学或黑格尔哲学时所说的那种哲学。它不是一部书，也不是某一个人的著作。吠檀多（Vedanta）是一系列著作在不同时代陆续写就的总名。有时，其中某一部作品中会同时涉及五十种不同的主题。它们也未经过妥善的编排；思想，可以说，是信手写下的。有时在其他无关紧要的内容中间，我们会发现某个绝妙的观念。然而有一个事实颇为显著：这些奥义书（Upanishads）中的观念始终处于进化之中。在那粗犷古朴的语言中，每一位圣贤心灵的运作，就仿佛被如实描绘了出来——观念起初是何其粗糙，继而愈来愈精细，直至最终抵达吠檀多的目标，而这一目标呈现出一个哲学性的名称。最初是对提婆——光明之神——的追寻，继而是宇宙的起源，而同一追寻又获得了另一个名称，更具哲学性，更为清晰——万物的统一——"知其一，则万物皆知。"
English
Vedic Religious Ideals
What concerns us most is the religious thought — on soul and God and all that appertains to religion. We will take the Samhitâs. These are collections of hymns forming, as it were, the oldest Aryan literature, properly speaking, the oldest literature in the world. There may have been some scraps of literature of older date here and there, older than that even, but not books, or literature properly so called. As a collected book, this is the oldest the world has, and herein is portrayed the earliest feeling of the Aryans, their aspirations, the questions that arose about their manners and methods, and so on. At the very outset we find a very curious idea. These hymns are sung in praise of different gods, Devas as they are called, the bright ones. There is quite a number of them. One is called Indra, another Varuna, another Mitra, Parjanya, and so on. Various mythological and allegorical figures come before us one after the other — for instance, Indra the thunderer, striking the serpent who has withheld the rains from mankind. Then he lets fly his thunderbolt, the serpent is killed, and rain comes down in showers. The people are pleased, and they worship Indra with oblations. They make a sacrificial pyre, kill some animals, roast their flesh upon spits, and offer that meat to Indra. And they had a popular plant called Soma. What plant it was nobody knows now; it has entirely disappeared, but from the books we gather that, when crushed, it produced a sort of milky juice, and that was fermented; and it can also be gathered that this fermented Soma juice was intoxicating. This also they offered to Indra and the other gods, and they also drank it themselves. Sometimes they drank a little too much, and so did the gods. Indra on occasions got drunk. There are passages to show that Indra at one time drank so much of this Soma juice that he talked irrelevant words. So with Varuna. He is another god, very powerful, and is in the same way protecting his votaries, and they are praising him with their libations of Soma. So is the god of war, and so on. But the popular idea that strikes one as making the mythologies of the Samhitas entirely different from the other mythologies is, that along with every one of these gods is the idea of an infinity. This infinite is abstracted, and sometimes described as Âditya. At other times it is affixed, as it were, to all the other gods. Take, for example, Indra. In some of the books you will find that Indra has a body, is very strong, sometimes is wearing golden armour, and comes down, lives and eats with his votaries, fights the demons, fights the snakes, and so on. Again, in one hymn we find that Indra has been given a very high position; he is omnipresent and omnipotent, and Indra sees the heart of every being. So with Varuna. This Varuna is god of the air and is in charge of the water, just as Indra was previously; and then, all of a sudden, we find him raised up and said to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and so on. I will read one passage about this Varuna in his highest form, and you will understand what I mean. It has been translated into English poetry, so it is better that I read it in that form.
The mighty Lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies;
The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise;
Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place,
Or hides him in his secret cell — the gods his movements trace.
Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone,
King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known.
This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies;
Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies,
Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing.
He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the King.
His spies, descending from the skies, glide all this world around;
Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound.
The mighty Lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies;
The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise;
Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place,
Or hides him in his secret cell — the gods his movements trace.
Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone,
King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known.
This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies;
Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies,
Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing.
He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the King.
His spies, descending from the skies, glide all this world around;
Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound.
So we can multiply examples about the other gods; they all come, one after the other, to share the same fate — they first begin as gods, and then they are raised to this conception as the Being in whom the whole universe exists, who sees every heart, who is the ruler of the universe. And in the case of Varuna, there is another idea, just the germ of one idea which came, but was immediately suppressed by the Aryan mind, and that was the idea of fear. In another place we read they are afraid they have sinned and ask Varuna for pardon. These ideas were never allowed, for reasons you will come to understand later on, to grow on Indian soil, but the germs were there sprouting, the idea of fear, and the idea of sin. This is the idea, as you all know, of what is called monotheism. This monotheism, we see, came to India at a very early period. Throughout the Samhitas, in the first and oldest part, this monotheistic idea prevails, but we shall find that it did not prove sufficient for the Aryans; they threw it aside, as it were, as a very primitive sort of idea and went further on, as we Hindus think. Of course in reading books and criticisms on the Vedas written by Europeans, the Hindu cannot help smiling when he reads, that the writings of our authors are saturated with this previous education alone. Persons who have sucked in as their mother's milk the idea that the highest ideal of God is the idea of a Personal God, naturally dare not think on the lines of these ancient thinkers of India, when they find that just after the Samhitas, the monotheistic idea with which the Samhita portion is replete was thought by the Aryans to be useless and not worthy of philosophers and thinkers, and that they struggled hard for a more philosophical and transcendental idea. The monotheistic idea was much too human for them, although they gave it such descriptions as "The whole universe rests in Him," and "Thou art the keeper of all hearts." The Hindus were bold, to their great credit be it said, bold thinkers in all their ideas, so bold that one spark of their thought frightens the so-called bold thinkers of the West. Well has it been said by Prof. Max Müller about these thinkers that they climbed up to heights where their lungs only could breathe, and where those of other beings would have burst. These brave people followed reason wherever it led them, no matter at what cost, never caring if all their best superstitions were smashed to pieces, never caring what society would think about them, or talk about them; but what they thought was right and true, they preached and they talked.
Before going into all these speculations of the ancient Vedic sages, we will first refer to one or two very curious instances in the Vedas. The peculiar fact — that these gods are taken up, as it were, one after the other, raised and sublimated, till each has assumed the proportions of the infinite Personal God of the Universe — calls for an explanation. Prof. Max Müller creates for it a new name, as he thinks it peculiar to the Hindus: he calls it "Henotheism". We need not go far for the explanation. It is within the book. A few steps from the very place where we find those gods being raised and sublimated, we find the explanation also. The question arises how the Hindu mythologies should be so unique, so different from all others. In Babylonian or Greek mythologies we find one god struggling upwards, and he assumes a position and remains there, while the other gods die out. Of all the Molochs, Jehovah becomes supreme, and the other Molochs are forgotten, lost for ever; he is the God of gods. So, too, of all the Greek gods, Zeus comes to the front and assumes big proportions, becomes the God of the Universe, and all the other gods become degraded into minor angels. This fact was repeated in later times. The Buddhists and the Jains raised one of their prophets to the Godhead, and all the other gods they made subservient to Buddha, or to Jina. This is the world-wide process, but there we find an exception, as it were. One god is praised, and for the time being it is said that all the other gods obey his commands, and the very one who is said to be raised up by Varuna, is himself raised up, in the next book, to the highest position. They occupy the position of the Personal God in turns. But the explanation is there in the book, and it is a grand explanation, one that has given the theme to all subsequent thought in India, and one that will be the theme of the whole world of religions: "Ekam Sat Viprâ Bahudhâ Vadanti — That which exists is One; sages call It by various names." In all these cases where hymns were written about all these gods, the Being perceived was one and the same; it was the perceiver who made the difference. It was the hymnist, the sage, the poet, who sang in different languages and different words, the praise of one and the same Being. "That which exists is One; sages call It by various names." Tremendous results have followed from that one verse. Some of you, perhaps, are surprised to think that India is the only country where there never has been a religious persecution, where never was any man disturbed for his religious faith. Theists or atheists, monists, dualists, monotheists are there and always live unmolested. Materialists were allowed to preach from the steps of Brahminical temples, against the gods, and against God Himself; they went preaching all over the land that the idea of God was a mere superstition, and that gods, and Vedas, and religion were simply superstitions invented by the priests for their own benefit, and they were allowed to do this unmolested. And so, wherever he went, Buddha tried to pull down every old thing sacred to the Hindus to the dust, and Buddha died of ripe old age. So did the Jains, who laughed at the idea of God. "How can it be that there is a God?" they asked; "it must be a mere superstition." So on, endless examples there are. Before the Mohammedan wave came into India, it was never known what religious persecution was; the Hindus had only experienced it as made by foreigners on themselves. And even now it is a patent fact how much Hindus have helped to build Christian churches, and how much readiness there is to help them. There never has been bloodshed. Even heterodox religions that have come out of India have been likewise affected; for instance, Buddhism. Buddhism is a great religion in some respects, but to confuse Buddhism with Vedanta is without meaning; anyone may mark just the difference that exists between Christianity and the Salvation Army. There are great and good points in Buddhism, but these great points fell into hands which were not able to keep them safe. The jewels which came from philosophers fell into the hands of mobs, and the mobs took up their ideas. They had a great deal of enthusiasm, some marvellous ideas, great and humanitarian ideas, but, after all, there is something else that is necessary — thought and intellect — to keep everything safe. Wherever you see the most humanitarian ideas fall into the hands of the multitude, the first result, you may notice, is degradation. It is learning and intellect that keep things sure. Now this Buddhism went as the first missionary religion to the world, penetrated the whole of the civilised world as it existed at that time, and never was a drop of blood shed for that religion. We read how in China the Buddhist missionaries were persecuted, and thousands were massacred by two or three successive emperors, but after that, fortune favoured the Buddhists, and one of the emperors offered to take vengeance on the persecutors, but the missionaries refused. All that we owe to this one verse. That is why I want you to remember it: "Whom they call Indra, Mitra, Varuna — That which exists is One; sages call It by various names."
It was written, nobody knows at what date, it may be 8,000 years ago, in spite of all modern scholars may say, it may be 9,000 years ago. Not one of these religious speculations is of modern date, but they are as fresh today as they were when they were written, or rather, fresher, for at that distant date man was not so civilised as we know him now. He had not learnt to cut his brother's throat because he differed a little in thought from himself; he had not deluged the world in blood, he did not become demon to his own brother. In the name of humanity he did not massacre whole lots of mankind then. Therefore these words come to us today very fresh, as great stimulating, life-giving words, much fresher than they were when they were written: "That which exists is One; sages call It by various names." We have to learn yet that all religions, under whatever name they may be called, either Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan, or Christian, have the same God, and he who derides any one of these derides his own God.
That was the solution they arrived at. But, as I have said, this ancient monotheistic idea did not satisfy the Hindu mind. It did not go far enough, it did not explain the visible world: a ruler of the world does not explain the world — certainly not. A ruler of the universe does not explain the universe, and much less an external ruler, one outside of it. He may be a moral guide, the greatest power in the universe, but that is no explanation of the universe; and the first question that we find now arising, assuming proportions, is the question about the universe: "Whence did it come?" "How did it come?" "How does it exist?" Various hymns are to be found on this question struggling forward to assume form, and nowhere do we find it so poetically, so wonderfully expressed as in the following hymn:
"Then there was neither aught nor naught, nor air, nor sky, nor anything. What covered all? Where rested all? Then death was not, nor deathlessness, nor change to night and day." The translation loses a good deal of the poetical beauty. "Then death was not, nor deathlessness, nor change to night and day;" the very sound of the Sanskrit is musical. "That existed, that breath, covering as it were, that God's existence; but it did not begin to move." It is good to remember this one idea that it existed motionless, because we shall find how this idea sprouts up afterwards in the cosmology, how according to the Hindu metaphysics and philosophy, this whole universe is a mass of vibrations, as it were, motions; and there are periods when this whole mass of motions subsides and becomes finer and finer, remaining in that state for some time. That is the state described in this hymn. It existed unmoved, without vibration, and when this creation began, this began to vibrate and all this creation came out of it, that one breath, calm, self-sustained, naught else beyond it.
"Gloom existed first." Those of you who have ever been in India or any tropical country, and have seen the bursting of the monsoon, will understand the majesty of these words. I remember three poets' attempts to picture this. Milton says, "No light, but rather darkness visible." Kalidasa says, "Darkness which can be penetrated with a needle," but none comes near this Vedic description, "Gloom hidden in gloom." Everything is parching and sizzling, the whole creation seems to be burning away, and for days it has been so, when one afternoon there is in one corner of the horizon a speck of cloud, and in less than half an hour it has extended unto the whole earth, until, as it were, it is covered with cloud, cloud over cloud, and then it bursts into a tremendous deluge of rain. The cause of creation was described as will. That which existed at first became changed into will, and this will began to manifest itself as desire. This also we ought to remember, because we find that this idea of desire is said to be the cause of all we have. This idea of will has been the corner-stone of both the Buddhist and the Vedantic system, and later on, has penetrated into German philosophy and forms the basis of Schopenhauer's system of philosophy. It is here we first hear of it.
"Now first arose desire, the primal seed of mind.
Sages, searching in their hearts by wisdom, found the bond,
Between existence and non-existence."
"Now first arose desire, the primal seed of mind.
Sages, searching in their hearts by wisdom, found the bond,
Between existence and non-existence."
It is a very peculiar expression; the poet ends by saying that "perhaps He even does not know." We find in this hymn, apart from its poetical merits, that this questioning about the universe has assumed quite definite proportions, and that the minds of these sages must have advanced to such a state, when all sorts of common answers would not satisfy them. We find that they were not even satisfied with this Governor above. There are various other hymns where the same idea, comes in, about how this all came, and just as we have seen, when they were trying to find a Governor of the universe, a Personal God, they were taking up one Deva after another, raising him up to that position, so now we shall find that in various hymns one or other idea is taken up, and expanded infinitely and made responsible for everything in the universe. One particular idea is taken as the support, in which everything rests and exists, and that support has become all this. So on with various ideas. They tried this method with Prâna, the life principle. They expanded the idea of the life principle until it became universal and infinite. It is the life principle that is supporting everything; not only the human body, but it is the light of the sun and the moon, it is the power moving everything, the universal motive energy. Some of these attempts are very beautiful, very poetical. Some of them as, "He ushers the beautiful morning," are marvellously lyrical in the way they picture things. Then this very desire, which, as we have just read, arose as the first primal germ of creation, began to be stretched out, until it became the universal God. But none of these ideas satisfied.
Here the idea is sublimated and finally abstracted into a personality. "He alone existed in the beginning; He is the one Lord of all that exists; He supports this universe; He who is the author of souls, He who is the author of strength, whom all the gods worship, whose shadow is life, whose shadow is death; whom else shall we worship? Whose glory the snow-tops of the Himalayas declare, whose glory the oceans with all their waters proclaim." So on it goes, but, as I told you just now, this idea did not satisfy them.
At last we find a very peculiar position. The Aryan mind had so long been seeking an answer to the question from outside. They questioned everything they could find, the sun, the moon, and stars, and they found all they could in this way. The whole of nature at best could teach them only of a personal Being who is the Ruler of the universe; it could teach nothing further. In short, out of the external world we can only get the idea of an architect, that which is called the Design Theory. It is not a very logical argument, as we all know; there is something childish about it, yet it is the only little bit of anything we can know about God from the external world, that this world required a builder. But this is no explanation of the universe. The materials of this world were before Him, and this God wanted all these materials, and the worst objection is that He must be limited by the materials. The builder could not have made a house without the materials of which it is composed. Therefore he was limited by the materials; he could only do what the materials enabled him to. Therefore the God that the Design Theory gives is at best only an architect, and a limited architect of the universe; He is bound and restricted by the materials; He is not independent at all. That much they had found out already, and many other minds would have rested at that. In other countries the same thing happened; the human mind could not rest there; the thinking, grasping minds wanted to go further, but those that were backward got hold of them and did not allow them to grow. But fortunately these Hindu sages were not the people to be knocked on the head; they wanted to get a solution, and now we find that they were leaving the external for the internal. The first thing that struck them was, that it is not with the eyes and the senses that we perceive that external world, and know anything about religion; the first idea, therefore, was to find the deficiency, and that deficiency was both physical and moral, as we shall see. You do not know, says one of these sages, the cause of this universe; there has arisen a tremendous difference between you and me — why? Because you have been talking sense things and are satisfied with sense-objects and with the mere ceremonials of religion, while I have known the Purusha beyond.
Along with this progress of spiritual ideas that I am trying to trace for you, I can only hint to you a little about the other factor in the growth, for that has nothing to do with our subject, therefore I need not enlarge upon it — the growth of rituals. As those spiritual ideas progressed in arithmetical progression, so the ritualistic ideas progressed in geometrical progression. The old superstitions had by this time developed into a tremendous mass of rituals, which grew and grew till it almost killed the Hindu life And it is still there, it has got hold of and permeated every portion of our life and made us born slaves. Yet, at the same time, we find a fight against this advance of ritual from the very earliest days. The one objection raised there is this, that love for ceremonials, dressing at certain times, eating in a certain way, and shows and mummeries of religion like these are only external religion, because you are satisfied with the senses and do not want to go beyond them. This is a tremendous difficulty with us, with every human being. At best when we want to hear of spiritual things our standard is the senses; or a man hears things about philosophy, and God, and transcendental things, and after hearing about them for days, he asks: After all, how much money will they bring, how much sense-enjoyment will they bring? For his enjoyment is only in the senses, quite naturally. But that satisfaction in the senses, says our sage, is one of the causes which have spread the veil between truth and ourselves. Devotion to ceremonials, satisfaction in the senses, and forming various theories, have drawn a veil between ourselves and truth. This is another great landmark, and we shall have to trace this ideal to the end, and see how it developed later on into that wonderful theory of Mâyâ of the Vedanta, how this veil will be the real explanation of the Vedanta, how the truth was there all the time, it was only this veil that had covered it.
Thus we find that the minds of these ancient Aryan thinkers had begun a new theme. They found out that in the external world no search would give an answer to their question. They might seek in the external world for ages, but there would be no answer to their questions. So they fell back upon this other method; and according to this, they were taught that these desires of the senses, desires for ceremonials and externalities have caused a veil to come between themselves and the truth, and that this cannot be removed by any ceremonial. They had to fall back on their own minds, and analyse the mind to find the truth in themselves. The outside world failed and they turned back upon the inside world, and then it became the real philosophy of the Vedanta; from here the Vedanta philosophy begins. It is the foundation-stone of Vedanta philosophy. As we go on, we find that all its inquiries are inside. From the very outset they seemed to declare — look not for the truth in any religion; it is here in the human soul, the miracle of all miracles in the human soul, the emporium of all knowledge, the mine of all existence — seek here. What is not here cannot be there. And they found out step by step that that which is external is but a dull reflection at best of that which is inside. We shall see how they took, as it were, this old idea of God, the Governor of the universe, who is external to the universe, and first put Him inside the universe. He is not a God outside, but He is inside; and they took Him from there into their own hearts. Here He is in the heart of man, the Soul of our souls, the Reality in us.
Several great ideas have to be understood, in order to grasp properly the workings of the Vedanta philosophy. In the first place it is not philosophy in the sense we speak of the philosophy of Kant and Hegel. It is not one book, or the work of one man. Vedanta is the name of a series of books written at different times. Sometimes in one of these productions there will be fifty different things. Neither are they properly arranged; the thoughts, as it were, have been jotted down. Sometimes in the midst of other extraneous things, we find some wonderful idea. But one fact is remarkable, that these ideas in the Upanishads would be always progressing. In that crude old language, the working of the mind of every one of the sages has been, as it were, painted just as it went; how the ideas are at first very crude, and they become finer and finer till they reach the goal of the Vedanta, and this goal assumes a philosophical name. Just at first it was a search after the Devas, the bright ones, and then it was the origin of the universe, and the very same search is getting another name, more philosophical, clearer — the unity of all things — "Knowing which everything else becomes known."
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。