摩耶与自由
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中文
1→第五章 2→ 3→幻象与自由 4→ 5→（1896年10月22日讲于伦敦） 6→ 7→"我们携着荣光的云彩而来，"诗人如是说。然而我们并非人人都是携着 8→荣光的云彩而来；其中有些人是携着黑色浓雾而来的—— 9→这一点无庸置疑。但我们每一个人来到这个世界，都是为了战斗， 10→仿佛置身战场。我们哭着来到这里，尽力拼搏， 11→为自己在这无边的生命汪洋中开辟道路；我们向前 12→迈进，身后有漫长的岁月，面前有无垠的旷野。如此前行， 13→直至死神降临，将我们从战场上带走——胜利还是失败，我们浑然不知。 14→这便是幻象[Maya]。 15→ 16→希望在孩提心中占据主导。整个世界在儿童初睁的眼中是一片金色的景象； 17→他认为自己的意志至高无上。随着他向前迈进，在每一步上， 18→自然如一道坚硬如金刚的高墙横亘在前，阻断他的 19→前进道路。他也许会一次又一次地向它猛力冲撞，奋力穿越。他走得越远， 20→理想退得越远，直至死亡降临， 21→也许才得以解脱。这便是幻象。 22→ 23→一位科学家崛起，他渴求知识。没有什么牺牲太大，没有什么奋斗太绝望。 24→他向前迈进，一个接一个地发现自然的秘密，从自然最深处的心脏中探寻 25→奥秘——而为了什么？这一切为了什么？为何我们要赐予他荣耀？为何 26→他要获取声名？自然难道不是无限地超过任何人类所能做到的吗？ 27→——而自然是迟钝、无知觉的。为何模仿 28→迟钝、无知觉者值得称颂？自然能将任何大小的雷霆投向任何距离。 29→若一人能做到其中的一小部分，我们便赞扬他、颂扬他 30→至天空。为何？为何我们要赞扬他模仿自然，模仿 31→死亡，模仿迟钝，模仿无知觉？引力之力 32→能将有史以来最大的物体拉碎；然而它是无知觉的。 33→模仿无知觉有何荣耀可言？然而我们都在努力 34→追求那个。这便是幻象。 35→ 36→感官将人的灵魂拖拽到外部。人在寻求快乐与幸福， 37→而它永远无法在这里被找到。无数个时代以来，我们都被教导 38→这是徒劳无益的，这里没有幸福。但我们无法 39→学到这一点；除了通过自身的经历，我们不可能做到。 40→我们尝试了，一记打击降临。我们那时学到了吗？即便那时也没有。 41→如同飞蛾扑向火焰，我们一次又一次地 42→投身感官享乐，希望在那里找到满足。我们 43→一次又一次地带着新鲜的活力回来；如此我们前行，直到残废而 44→受骗地死去。这便是幻象。 45→ 46→我们的智性也是如此。在我们渴望解开宇宙之谜时， 47→我们无法停止追问，我们感到必须知晓，无法相信 48→毫无知识可得。走几步，便升起那无始无终时间的高墙， 49→我们无法翻越。走几步，便 50→出现那无垠空间的高墙，无法翻越，而 51→整体被因果之墙不可挽回地围困。我们无法超越它们。 52→然而我们奋斗，且仍须奋斗。这便是幻象。 53→ 54→随着每一次呼吸，随着心脏的每一次跳动，随着我们每一个 55→动作，我们认为我们是自由的，然而就在同一刻，我们被证明 56→并非如此。被束缚的奴隶，自然的奴隶，在身体上，在心智上，在我们所有的 57→思想中，在我们所有的感受中。这便是幻象。 58→ 59→从来没有一位母亲不认为自己的孩子是天生的天才， 60→是有史以来最非凡的孩子；她溺爱自己的孩子。她的 61→整个灵魂都在孩子身上。孩子长大了，也许成了酒鬼， 62→一个粗人，虐待母亲，而他越是虐待她，她的 63→爱就越增长。世界称赞它为母亲无私的爱， 64→丝毫未曾想到母亲是一个天生的奴隶，她无法自拔。她 65→宁愿千次甩掉这个重担，但她做不到。于是她 66→用大量鲜花将其覆盖，她称之为奇妙的爱。这便 67→是幻象。 68→ 69→在这个世界上，我们都是如此。一个传说讲述了那罗陀如何曾对 70→奎师那说："主啊，让我看见幻象。"几天过去了，奎师那请 71→那罗陀与他同往一片沙漠，走了 72→数英里之后，奎师那说："那罗陀，我渴了；你能去给我取些水吗？" 73→"我马上去，先生，给您取水来。"于是那罗陀去了。在 74→不远处有一个村庄；他进入村庄寻找 75→水，敲响一扇门，一位极为美丽的年轻 76→少女开了门。一见到她，他立即忘记了主人在等待 77→水，也许正为缺水而濒死。他忘记了一切，开始 78→与少女交谈。那一整天他都未回到主人身边。 79→第二天，他又在那户人家，与少女交谈。那谈话成熟为 80→爱情；他向父亲求娶女儿，他们结了婚， 81→住在那里，有了孩子。如此十二年过去了。他的岳父 82→去世了，他继承了财产。他过着他以为非常 83→幸福的生活，有妻子和孩子，有田地和牲畜，如此 84→等等。然后洪水来了。一夜之间，河水上涨，漫过两岸， 85→淹没了整个村庄。房屋倒塌，人与动物被冲走淹死， 86→一切都在急流中漂浮。 87→那罗陀不得不逃跑。他一只手拉着妻子，另一只手拉着两个 88→孩子；另一个孩子在他肩上，他试图 89→涉过这巨大的洪流。走了几步，他发现水流太急， 90→肩上的孩子跌落，被水流冲走。那罗陀发出一声 91→绝望的呼喊。在试图救那个孩子时，他松开了 92→另一个孩子的手，那个孩子也失去了。最后，他用尽全力紧握的妻子 93→被水流夺走，他被抛在 94→岸边，痛哭哀嚎，悲恸欲绝。在他身后传来 95→一个温柔的声音："我的孩子，水在哪里？你去取水， 96→我在等你；你已经出去了整整 97→半个小时。""半个小时！"那罗陀惊呼。整整十二年在他心中 98→流过，而所有这些场景都发生在半小时内！ 99→这便是幻象。 100→ 101→以某种形式，我们全都身在其中。这是一种极为困难 102→复杂的状态，难以理解。它在每一个 103→国家被宣讲，处处被教导，但只有少数人相信， 104→因为直到我们自己获得经历，我们才能信服。它显示了什么？ 105→某种极为可怕的东西。因为这一切都是徒劳的。时间，万物的复仇者， 106→到来了，什么也没有留下。它吞噬了圣者和 107→罪人，国王和农夫，美丽的和丑陋的；它什么 108→也不留下。一切都在向那唯一的目标奔涌——毁灭。我们的 109→知识、我们的艺术、我们的科学，一切都在向它奔涌。没有人 110→能阻住这股潮流，没有人能将其拦截一分钟。我们也许试图忘记 111→它，正如瘟疫肆虐的城市中的人们试图通过饮酒、跳舞 112→和其他徒劳的努力来制造遗忘，从而 113→变得麻木。我们也是如此，试图忘记，试图通过各种各样的 114→感官享乐来制造遗忘。这便是幻象。 115→ 116→两种方式被提出。一种方法，每个人都知道，非常 117→普遍，那就是："也许这很真实，但不要去想它。如俗语所说， 118→'趁阳光明媚时多晒草'。这一切都是真的，是事实， 119→但不要在意它。抓住你所能抓住的少许快乐，尽力做好些许的事， 120→不要看画面阴暗的一面，而要始终朝向 121→充满希望的、积极的一面。"这其中有些真理，但也有 122→危险。真理在于它是一种良好的动力。希望和积极的 123→理想对我们的生活来说是非常好的动力，但其中有某种 124→危险。危险在于我们在绝望中放弃奋斗。 125→那些宣扬如下教义的人便是如此："接受世界的本来面目，尽可能 126→平静舒适地坐下来，满足于所有这些苦难。 127→当你受到打击时，说那不是打击而是鲜花； 128→当你像奴隶一样被驱使时，说你是自由的。日日夜夜 129→对他人和对你自己的灵魂说谎，因为那是 130→幸福生活的唯一方式。"这就是所谓的实际智慧，而它从未像 131→在十九世纪这样盛行于世；因为从未有比现在更猛烈的打击， 132→从未有比现在更激烈的竞争， 133→从未有人类对同胞如此残酷；因此， 134→必须提供这种安慰。它以最强有力的方式在 135→当今被提出；但它失败了，正如它注定要失败一样。我们无法用 136→玫瑰遮掩腐尸；这是不可能的。它不会长久奏效；因为很快 137→玫瑰就会凋谢，腐尸会比以往更糟。我们的生命亦然。我们也许试图用 138→金布掩盖我们古老腐烂的疮口， 139→但终将有一天金布被揭去，疮口 140→以其全部的丑陋暴露出来。 141→ 142→那么没有希望了吗？诚然，我们全都是幻象的奴隶，生于 143→幻象，活在幻象之中。那么没有出路，没有希望了吗？我们全都是 144→悲惨的，这个世界真的是一座监狱，甚至我们所谓的 145→美丽不过是一所牢房，甚至我们的智性和 146→心智都是牢房——这已被一个又一个时代所知晓。从来没有 147→一个人，从来没有一个人类的灵魂，不曾在某个时候感受到这一点， 148→无论他如何谈论。而老人感受最深， 149→因为在他们身上积累着整个一生的经历，因为他们 150→无法轻易被自然的谎言所欺骗。没有出路吗？我们发现 151→尽管如此，尽管这个可怕的事实摆在我们面前，在悲哀与苦难之中， 152→甚至在这个生死同义的世界里， 153→甚至在此，有一个细小的声音贯穿着 154→所有的时代，穿越每一个国家，在每一颗心中响起："这我的幻象是 155→神圣的，由德性构成，极难渡越。然而那些来到我这里的， 156→能渡越生命之河。""凡劳苦担重担的， 157→都到我这里来，你们便到我这里来，我就使你们得安息。"这是引领 158→我们前行的声音。人类已听到它，并在所有时代都在聆听它。这 159→声音在一切似乎都失去、希望已逃离的时候来到人们心中， 160→当人依靠自身力量的信念被击溃，一切 161→似乎都在指尖消融，生命是绝望的废墟时。那时他 162→听到了它。这被称为宗教。 163→ 164→因此，一方面是大胆的宣言：这一切都是无稽之谈， 165→这便是幻象，但与此同时，还有最充满希望的宣言： 166→在幻象之外，有一条出路。另一方面，实际的人告诉 167→我们："不要为宗教和 168→形而上学这类无稽之谈烦恼。活在这里；这确实是个很糟糕的世界，但尽力 169→而为吧。"用平白的语言来说，就是：过一种虚伪的、撒谎的生活， 170→一种持续欺诈的生活，尽可能掩盖所有的疮口。继续 171→一层又一层地打补丁，直到一切失去，你成了 172→一大团补丁。这就是所谓的实际生活。那些 173→满足于这种补丁生活的人永远不会来接触宗教。宗教始于 174→对事物现状、对我们的生活极度不满，始于 175→对生命的这种打补丁极度厌恶，始于 176→对生命的打补丁，对欺诈与谎言强烈的、无边的厌恶。唯有那些敢于 177→坚定宣告的人才能有宗教，正如伟大的佛陀曾在菩提树下， 178→当这种实际性的理念出现在他面前，他看出它是无稽之谈， 179→却找不到出路时，所宣告的那样。当诱惑来临，要他放弃 180→对真理的追求，回到世间，过那种欺诈的旧生活， 181→用错误的名称称呼事物，对自己和对每个人撒谎时，他， 182→这位巨人，征服了它，说道："死亡胜于一种 183→在无明中蹉跎的生活；宁可在战场上战死，也不要过一种 184→失败的生活。"这是宗教的基础。当一个人持这种立场时，他 185→走在找到真理的路上，他走在奔向上帝的路上。那种决心 186→必定是成为宗教人的第一冲动。我将为自己开辟一条道路。 187→我将认识真理，否则在尝试中付出我的生命。因为在 188→这一边，它是虚无，它已逝去，它每天都在消逝。今日 189→美丽、充满希望的年轻人，是明日的老兵。希望、 190→欢乐与快乐将如鲜花般随明日的霜冻而凋零。那是 191→一边；另一边，有征服的巨大魅力，对生命所有苦难的胜利， 192→对生命本身的胜利，对 193→宇宙的征服。在那一边，人可以挺立。因此，那些敢于为 194→胜利、为真理、为宗教而奋斗的人，走在正确的道路上；而那正是 195→吠陀所宣扬的：不要绝望，这条路极为艰难，如同走在 196→剃刀的边缘；然而不要绝望，起来，觉醒，找到理想， 197→找到目标。 198→ 199→现在所有这些宗教的不同显现，无论以何种形式 200→来到人类，都有这一个共同的中心基础。它是 201→自由的宣讲，是走出这个世界的道路。它们从未来 202→调和世界与宗教，而是来斩断戈尔迪之结，在自身的理想中确立 203→宗教，而不与世界妥协。这 204→是每一种宗教所宣讲的，而吠檀多的职责是协调 205→所有这些渴望，使世界上所有宗教的共同基础显现， 206→最高的与最低的都包括在内。我们所称的 207→最赤裸裸的迷信与最高的哲学，实际上有一个共同的目标， 208→因为它们都试图指出走出同一困境的道路，而在 209→大多数情况下，这条路是通过某个自身不受 210→自然法则束缚的人的帮助——一言以蔽之，某个自由的人。尽管关于 211→那唯一自由者的本质存在重重困难和意见分歧， 212→无论他是人格神，还是像人一样有感知的存在，无论是 213→男性、女性还是中性——而争论已经无穷无尽—— 214→基本的理念是相同的。尽管不同体系之间存在几乎无望调和的矛盾， 215→我们仍然发现有一条统一的金线贯穿 216→所有这些，而在这一哲学中，这条金线被追溯 217→出来，逐渐显现在我们眼前，而这一启示的第一步 218→便是共同的基础：所有人都在向着自由前进。 219→
1→在我们所有的欢乐与悲苦、困境与奋斗之中，有一个奇特的事实始终存在： 2→我们正确实地朝着自由迈进。问题实际上是这样的： 3→"这个宇宙是什么？它从何而起？它归向何处？"而答案是："它在自由中升起， 4→在自由中安息，在自由中消融。"这个自由的理念， 5→你 6→无法放弃。你的行为，乃至你的整个生命，离开它便将失去意义。 7→每一刻，自然都在证明我们是奴隶而非自由。然而， 8→与此同时，另一个理念也随之升起：我们依然是自由的。在每一步上， 9→我们仿佛都被幻象击倒，被证明是被束缚的；然而就在同一时刻， 10→与这打击同来、与这被束缚的感觉同来的，是另一种感觉：我们是自由的。某种内在的 11→声音告诉我们：我们是自由的。但若我们试图实现那种自由， 12→将其彰显出来，我们便会发现困难几乎难以逾越。然而，尽管如此， 13→它仍坚持在内心主张："我是自由的，我是自由的。"而 14→若你研究世界上各种不同的宗教，你会发现这一理念皆有表达。不仅是宗教—— 15→你不可以狭义地理解这个词—— 16→而是社会整体的生活本身，就是对那一自由原则的宣示。 17→所有运动都是对那一自由的宣示。那个声音已被每一个人听到， 18→无论他是否知晓——那个宣告 19→"凡劳苦担重担的，都到我这里来"的声音。也许 20→语言不同，表达方式有异，但以某种形式， 21→那个呼唤自由的声音一直伴随着我们。是的，我们正是因为 22→那个声音而诞生于世；我们每一个动作都为了那个声音。我们 23→全都向着自由奔涌，我们全都追随着那个声音， 24→无论我们是否知晓；正如村中的孩子们被笛手的音乐所吸引， 25→我们全都在不知不觉中追随着那音乐的声音。 26→无论是否知晓；正如村中的孩子们被笛手的音乐所吸引， 27→我们全都在不知不觉中追随着那声音的音乐， 28→浑然不知。 29→ 30→当我们追随那声音时，我们便是合乎道德的。不仅人的灵魂， 31→从最低等到最高等的一切众生都听到了那声音，都向它奔涌； 32→在奋斗中，它们或彼此联合， 33→或相互排挤。由此产生了竞争、欢乐、 34→奋斗、生命、快乐与死亡，而整个宇宙不过是 35→这场向那声音奔涌的疯狂奋斗的结果。这便是 36→自然的显现。 37→ 38→那么接下来发生什么？景象开始转变。一旦你认识那声音 39→并理解它是什么，整个景象便改变了。同一个曾是幻象可怕战场的世界， 40→现在变成了某种美好的 41→东西。我们不再诅咒自然，也不再说世界是可怕的、 42→一切都是徒劳的；我们不再需要哭泣哀嚎。一旦我们 43→理解了那声音，我们便看到这里为何必须有这种奋斗， 44→这种争斗，这种竞争，这种困难，这种残酷，这些小小的 45→快乐与欢乐；我们看到它们在事物的本性之中，因为 46→没有它们，便不会有向那声音迈进的可能，而达到它是我们的 47→命运，无论我们是否知晓。所有人类生命，整个自然， 48→因此，都在努力达到自由。太阳在向那目标运动， 49→地球也是如此，在围绕太阳旋转；月亮也是如此，在 50→围绕地球旋转。向那目标，行星在运行，空气在吹拂。 51→一切都在向那里奋力前进。圣者在向那声音迈进 52→——他无法自拔，这对他来说毫无荣耀可言。罪人亦然。慈善的 53→人正在直奔那声音，无法被阻拦；吝啬鬼 54→也在向同一目的地前进：最伟大的行善者 55→在内心听到同一声音，他无法抵抗，他必须向那 56→声音前进；最无可救药的懒汉亦然。一个人比另一个跌倒更多， 57→跌倒更多的我们称之为恶，跌倒较少的我们称之为善。善 58→与恶从来不是两种不同的事物，它们是同一件事； 59→差异不在于种类，而在于程度。 60→ 61→现在，若这种自由力量的显现真正统治着 62→整个宇宙——将此应用于宗教，我们的专项研究——我们发现这 63→理念一直是一以贯之的宣示。以最低形式的宗教为例， 64→其中有对先祖或某些强大残忍神灵的崇拜；关于神灵或先祖， 65→最突出的理念是什么？ 66→他们超越于自然，不受其约束。崇拜者毫无疑问对自然有 67→非常有限的理解。他自己无法穿墙而过， 68→也无法飞上天空，但他所崇拜的神灵能做这些事。从哲学上说这意味着什么？ 69→意味着自由的宣示在那里，他所崇拜的神灵 70→超越于他所知晓的自然之上。崇拜更高存在的人亦然。 71→随着自然的理念扩展，那超越于 72→自然之上的灵魂的理念也随之扩展，直到我们达到所谓的一神论， 73→它认为有幻象（自然），且有某个存在是 74→这幻象的统治者。 75→ 76→吠檀多从这里开始，从这些一神论理念首次出现之处。但 77→吠檀多哲学要求进一步的解释。这种解释——有一个 78→超越幻象所有这些显现的存在，他超越于 79→幻象之上，独立于幻象，正在吸引我们走向他，而我们 80→都在走向他——是非常好的，吠檀多如是说，然而 81→感知尚不清晰，视野尚昏暗模糊，尽管它并不 82→直接与理性相矛盾。正如你们的诗歌中所说，"越来越靠近我的神"， 83→同一首诗歌对吠檀多信奉者来说也很美好，只是他会 84→改变一个词，将其改为"越来越靠近我的神，走向我"。那目标 85→遥远、远在自然之外、吸引我们所有人走向它的理念，必须被带 86→得越来越近，同时不使其降格或退化。天堂之神 87→成为自然之神，自然之神成为那是 88→自然的神，而那是自然的神成为这身体神庙内的神， 89→而住在身体神庙中的神最终成为 90→神庙本身，成为灵魂和人——而在那里它达到了它所能教导的 91→最后一句话。智者们一直在所有这些地方寻找的他 92→就在我们自己的心中；你所听到的声音是对的，吠檀多说， 93→但你给予那声音的方向是错的。你所感知的那种自由的理想 94→是正确的，但你将它投射到了自身之外， 95→那便是你的错误。将其带得越来越近，直到你发现它 96→一直就在你内部，它就是你自我的真我[Atman]。那种自由 97→就是你本来的本性，这幻象从未束缚过你。自然对 98→你从来没有支配力。像一个受惊的孩子，你在梦中认为它正在扼住你， 99→而从这种恐惧中解脱便是目标：不仅是从智性上看见它， 100→而是感知它、实现它，比我们感知这个世界远为清晰。那时我们将知道我们是自由的。那时，也唯有那时， 101→一切困难将消失，那时心灵所有的困惑 102→将被理顺，所有的弯曲将被拉直，那时将消失 103→多元性与自然的幻象；而幻象非但不再是可怕的、 104→绝望的梦，而今的样子，而将变得美丽，这片土地，非但不再是 105→一所牢房，将成为我们的游乐场，甚至危险与 106→困难，甚至所有的苦难，都将被神化，向我们展示其 107→真实的本性，将向我们展示，在一切背后，作为 108→一切的实质，他在那里挺立，他就是那唯一的真实真我[Atman]。 109→ 110→
English
CHAPTER V
MAYA AND FREEDOM
( Delivered in London, 22nd October 1896 )
"Trailing clouds of glory we come," says the poet. Not all of us come as trailing clouds of glory however; some of us come as trailing black fogs; there can be no question about that. But every one of us comes into this world to fight, as on a battlefield. We come here weeping to fight our way, as well as we can, and to make a path for ourselves through this infinite ocean of life; forward we go, having long ages behind us and an immense expanse beyond. So on we go, till death comes and takes us off the field — victorious or defeated, we do not know. And this is Mâyâ.
Hope is dominant in the heart of childhood. The whole world is a golden vision to the opening eyes of the child; he thinks his will is supreme. As he moves onward, at every step nature stands as an adamantine wall, barring his future progress. He may hurl himself against it again and again, striving to break through. The further he goes, the further recedes the ideal, till death comes, and there is release, perhaps. And this is Maya.
A man of science rises, he is thirsting after knowledge. No sacrifice is too great, no struggle too hopeless for him. He moves onward discovering secret after secret of nature, searching out the secrets from her innermost heart, and what for? What is it all for? Why should we give him glory? Why should he acquire fame? Does not nature do infinitely more than any human being can do? — and nature is dull, insentient. Why should it be glory to imitate the dull, the insentient? Nature can hurl a thunderbolt of any magnitude to any distance. If a man can do one small part as much, we praise him and laud him to the skies. Why? Why should we praise him for imitating nature, imitating death, imitating dullness imitating insentience? The force of gravitation can pull to pieces the biggest mass that ever existed; yet it is insentient. What glory is there in imitating the insentient? Yet we are all struggling after that. And this is maya.
The senses drag the human soul out. Man is seeking for pleasure and for happiness where it can never be found. For countless ages we are all taught that this is futile and vain, there is no happiness here. But we cannot learn; it is impossible for us to do so, except through our own experiences. We try them, and a blow comes. Do we learn then? Not even then. Like moths hurling themselves against the flame, we are hurling ourselves again and again into sense-pleasures, hoping to find satisfaction there. We return again and again with freshened energy; thus we go on, till crippled and cheated we die. And this is Maya.
So with our intellect. In our desire to solve the mysteries of the universe, we cannot stop our questioning, we feel we must know and cannot believe that no knowledge is to be gained. A few steps, and there arises the wall of beginningless and endless time which we cannot surmount. A few steps, and there appears a wall of boundless space which cannot be surmounted, and the whole is irrevocably bound in by the walls of cause and effect. We cannot go beyond them. Yet we struggle, and still have to struggle. And this is Maya.
With every breath, with every pulsation of the heart with every one of our movements, we think we are free, and the very same moment we are shown that we are not. Bound slaves, nature's bond-slaves, in body, in mind, in all our thoughts, in all our feelings. And this is Maya.
There was never a mother who did not think her child was a born genius, the most extraordinary child that was ever born; she dotes upon her child. Her whole soul is in the child. The child grows up, perhaps becomes a drunkard, a brute, ill-treats the mother, and the more he ill-treats her, the more her love increases. The world lauds it as the unselfish love of the mother, little dreaming that the mother is a born slave, she cannot help it. She would a thousand times rather throw off the burden, but she cannot. So she covers it with a mass of flowers, which she calls wonderful love. And this is Maya.
We are all like this in the world. A legend tells how once Nârada said to Krishna, "Lord, show me Maya." A few days passed away, and Krishna asked Narada to make a trip with him towards a desert, and after walking for several miles, Krishna said, "Narada, I am thirsty; can you fetch some water for me?" "I will go at once, sir, and get you water." So Narada went. At a little distance there was a village; he entered the village in search of water and knocked at a door, which was opened by a most beautiful young girl. At the sight of her he immediately forgot that his Master was waiting for water, perhaps dying for the want of it. He forgot everything and began to talk with the girl. All that day he did not return to his Master. The next day, he was again at the house, talking to the girl. That talk ripened into love; he asked the father for the daughter, and they were married and lived there and had children. Thus twelve years passed. His father-in-law died, he inherited his property. He lived, as he seemed to think, a very happy life with his wife and children, his fields and his cattle and so forth. Then came a flood. One night the river rose until it overflowed its banks and flooded the whole village. Houses fell, men and animals were swept away and drowned, and everything was floating in the rush of the stream. Narada had to escape. With one hand be held his wife, and with the other two of his children; another child was on his shoulders, and he was trying to ford this tremendous flood. After a few steps he found the current was too strong, and the child on his shoulders fell and was borne away. A cry of despair came from Narada. In trying to save that child, he lost his grasp upon one of the others, and it also was lost. At last his wife, whom he clasped with all his might, was torn away by the current, and he was thrown on the bank, weeping and wailing in bitter lamentation. Behind him there came a gentle voice, "My child, where is the water? You went to fetch a pitcher of water, and I am waiting for you; you have been gone for quite half an hour." "Half an hour! " Narada exclaimed. Twelve whole years had passed through his mind, and all these scenes had happened in half an hour! And this is Maya.
In one form or another, we are all in it. It is a most difficult and intricate state of things to understand. It has been preached in every country, taught everywhere, but only believed in by a few, because until we get the experiences ourselves we cannot believe in it. What does it show? Something very terrible. For it is all futile. Time, the avenger of everything, comes, and nothing is left. He swallows up the saint and the sinner, the king and the peasant, the beautiful and the ugly; he leaves nothing. Everything is rushing towards that one goal destruction. Our knowledge, our arts, our sciences, everything is rushing towards it. None can stem the tide, none can hold it back for a minute. We may try to forget it, in the same way that persons in a plague-striker city try to create oblivion by drinking, dancing, and other vain attempts, and so becoming paralysed. So we are trying to forget, trying to create oblivion by all sorts of sense-pleasures. And this is Maya.
Two ways have been proposed. One method, which everyone knows, is very common, and that is: "It may be very true, but do not think of it. 'Make hay while the sun shines,' as the proverb says. It is all true, it is a fact, but do not mind it. Seize the few pleasures you can, do what little you can, do not look at tile dark side of the picture, but always towards the hopeful, the positive side." There is some truth in this, but there is also a danger. The truth is that it is a good motive power. Hope and a positive ideal are very good motive powers for our lives, but there is a certain danger in them. The danger lies in our giving up the struggle in despair. Such is the case with those who preach, "Take the world as it is, sit down as calmly and comfortably as you can and be contented with all these miseries. When you receive blows, say they are not blows but flowers; and when you are driven about like slaves, say that you are free. Day and night tell lies to others and to your own souls, because that is the only way to live happily." This is what is called practical wisdom, and never was it more prevalent in the world than in this nineteenth century; because never were harder blows hit than at the present time, never was competition keener, never were men so cruel to their fellow-men as now; and, therefore, must this consolation be offered. It is put forward in the strongest way at the present time; but it fails, as it always must fail. We cannot hide a carrion with roses; it is impossible. It would not avail long; for soon the roses would fade, and the carrion would be worse than ever before. So with our lives. We may try to cover our old and festering sores with cloth of gold, but there comes a day when the cloth of gold is removed, and the sore in all its ugliness is revealed.
Is there no hope then? True it is that we are all slaves of Maya, born in Maya, and live in Maya. Is there then no way out, no hope? That we are all miserable, that this world is really a prison, that even our so-called trailing beauty is but a prison-house, and that even our intellects and minds are prison-houses, have been known for ages upon ages. There has never been a man, there has never been a human soul, who has not felt this sometime or other, however he may talk. And the old people feel it most, because in them is the accumulated experience of a whole life, because they cannot be easily cheated by the lies of nature. Is there no way out? We find that with all this, with this terrible fact before us, in the midst of sorrow and suffering, even in this world where life and death are synonymous, even here, there is a still small voice that is ringing through all ages, through every country, and in every heart: "This My Maya is divine, made up of qualities, and very difficult to cross. Yet those that come unto Me, cross the river of life." "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." This is the voice that is leading us forward. Man has heard it, and is hearing it all through the ages. This voice comes to men when everything seems to be lost and hope has fled, when man's dependence on his own strength has been crushed down and everything seems to melt away between his fingers, and life is a hopeless ruin. Then he hears it. This is called religion.
On the one side, therefore, is the bold assertion that this is all nonsense, that this is Maya, but along with it there is the most hopeful assertion that beyond Maya, there is a way out. On the other hand, practical men tell us, "Don't bother your heads about such nonsense as religion and metaphysics. Live here; this is a very bad world indeed, but make the best of it." Which put in plain language means, live a hypocritical, lying life, a life of continuous fraud, covering all sores in the best way you can. Go on putting patch after patch, until everything is lost, and you are a mass of patchwork. This is what is called practical life. Those that are satisfied with this patchwork will never come to religion. Religion begins with a tremendous dissatisfaction with the present state of things, with our lives, and a hatred, an intense hatred, for this patching up of life, an unbounded disgust for fraud and lies. He alone can be religious who dares say, as the mighty Buddha once said under the Bo-tree, when this idea of practicality appeared before him and he saw that it was nonsense, and yet could not find a way out. When the temptation came to him to give up his search after truth, to go back to the world and live the old life of fraud, calling things by wrong names, telling lies to oneself and to everybody, he, the giant, conquered it and said, "Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat." This is the basis of religion. When a man takes this stand, he is on the way to find the truth, he is on the way to God. That determination must be the first impulse towards becoming religious. I will hew out a way for myself. I will know the truth or give up my life in the attempt. For on this side it is nothing, it is gone, it is vanishing every day. The beautiful, hopeful, young person of today is the veteran of tomorrow. Hopes and joys and pleasures will die like blossoms with tomorrow's frost. That is one side; on the other, there are the great charms of conquest, victories over all the ills of life, victory over life itself, the conquest of the universe. On that side men can stand. Those who dare, therefore, to struggle for victory, for truth, for religion, are in the right way; and that is what the Vedas preach: Be not in despair, the way is very difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor; yet despair not, arise, awake, and find the ideal, the goal.
Now all these various manifestations of religion, in whatever shape and form they have come to mankind, have this one common central basis. It is the preaching of freedom, the way out of this world. They never came to reconcile the world and religion, but to cut the Gordian knot, to establish religion in its own ideal, and not to compromise with the world. That is what every religion preaches, and the duty of the Vedanta is to harmonise all these aspirations, to make manifest the common ground between all the religions of the world, the highest as well as the lowest. What we call the most arrant superstition and the highest philosophy really have a common aim in that they both try to show the way out of the same difficulty, and in most cases this way is through the help of someone who is not himself bound by the laws of nature in one word, someone who is free. In spite of all the difficulties and differences of opinion about the nature of the one free agent, whether he is a Personal God, or a sentient being like man, whether masculine, feminine, or neuter — and the discussions have been endless — the fundamental idea is the same. In spite of the almost hopeless contradictions of the different systems, we find the golden thread of unity running through them all, and in this philosophy, this golden thread has been traced revealed little by little to our view, and the first step to this revelation is the common ground that all are advancing towards freedom.
One curious fact present in the midst of all our joys and sorrows, difficulties and struggles, is that we are surely journeying towards freedom. The question was practically this: "What is this universe? From what does it arise? Into what does it go?" And the answer was: "In freedom it rises, in freedom it rests, and into freedom it melts away." This idea of freedom you cannot relinquish. Your actions, your very lives will be lost without it. Every moment nature is proving us to be slaves and not free. Yet, simultaneously rises the other idea, that still we are free At every step we are knocked down, as it were, by Maya, and shown that we are bound; and yet at the same moment, together with this blow, together with this feeling that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free. Some inner voice tells us that we are free. But if we attempt to realise that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable Yet, in spite of that it insists on asserting itself inwardly, "I am free, I am free." And if you study all the various religions of the world you will find this idea expressed. Not only religion — you must not take this word in its narrow sense — but the whole life of society is the assertion of that one principle of freedom. All movements are the assertion of that one freedom. That voice has been heard by everyone, whether he knows it or not, that voice which declares, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden." It may not be in the same language or the same form of speech, but in some form or other, that voice calling for freedom has been with us. Yes, we are born here on account of that voice; every one of our movements is for that. We are all rushing towards freedom, we are all following that voice, whether we know it or not; as the children of the village were attracted by the music of the flute-player, so we are all following the music of the voice without knowing it.
We are ethical when we follow that voice. Not only the human soul, but all creatures, from the lowest to the highest have heard the voice and are rushing towards it; and in the struggle are either combining with each other or pushing each other out of the way. Thus come competition, joys, struggles, life, pleasure, and death, and the whole universe is nothing but the result of this mad struggle to reach the voice. This is the manifestation of nature.
What happens then? The scene begins to shift. As soon as you know the voice and understand what it is, the whole scene changes. The same world which was the ghastly battle-field of Maya is now changed into something good and beautiful. We no longer curse nature, nor say that the world is horrible and that it is all vain; we need no longer weep and wail. As soon as we understand the voice, we see the reassert why this struggle should be here, this fight, this competition, this difficulty, this cruelty, these little pleasures and joys; we see that they are in the nature of things, because without them there would be no going towards the voice, to attain which we are destined, whether we know it or not. All human life, all nature, therefore, is struggling to attain to freedom. The sun is moving towards the goal, so is the earth in circling round the sun, so is the moon in circling round the earth. To that goal the planet is moving, and the air is blowing. Everything is struggling towards that. The saint is going towards that voice — he cannot help it, it is no glory to him. So is the sinner. The charitable man is going straight towards that voice, and cannot be hindered; the miser is also going towards the same destination: the greatest worker of good hears the same voice within, and he cannot resist it, he must go towards the voice; so with the most arrant idler. One stumbles more than another, and him who stumbles more we call bad, him who stumbles less we call good. Good and bad are never two different things, they are one and the same; the difference is not one of kind, but of degree.
Now, if the manifestation of this power of freedom is really governing the whole universe — applying that to religion, our special study — we find this idea has been the one assertion throughout. Take the lowest form of religion where there is the worship of departed ancestors or certain powerful and cruel gods; what is the prominent idea about the gods or departed ancestors? That they are superior to nature, not bound by its restrictions. The worshipper has, no doubt, very limited ideas of nature. He himself cannot pass through a wall, nor fly up into the skies, but the gods whom he worships can do these things. What is meant by that, philosophically? That the assertion of freedom is there, that the gods whom he worships are superior to nature as he knows it. So with those who worship still higher beings. As the idea of nature expands, the idea of the soul which is superior to nature also expands, until we come to what we call monotheism, which holds that there is Maya (nature), and that there is some Being who is the Ruler of this Maya.
Here Vedanta begins, where these monotheistic ideas first appear. But the Vedanta philosophy wants further explanation. This explanation — that there is a Being beyond all these manifestations of Maya, who is superior to and independent of Maya, and who is attracting us towards Himself, and that we are all going towards Him — is very good, says the Vedanta, but yet the perception is not clear, the vision is dim and hazy, although it does not directly contradict reason. Just as in your hymn it is said, "Nearer my God to Thee," the same hymn would be very good to the Vedantin, only he would change a word, and make it, "Nearer my God to me." The idea that the goal is far off, far beyond nature, attracting us all towards it, has to be brought nearer and nearer, without degrading or degenerating it. The God of heaven becomes the God in nature, and the God in nature becomes the God who is nature, and the God who is nature becomes the God within this temple of the body, and the God dwelling in the temple of the body at last becomes the temple itself, becomes the soul and man — and there it reaches the last words it can teach. He whom the sages have been seeking in all these places is in our own hearts; the voice that you heard was right, says the Vedanta, but the direction you gave to the voice was wrong. That ideal of freedom that you perceived was correct, but you projected it outside yourself, and that was your mistake. Bring it nearer and nearer, until you find that it was all the time within you, it was the Self of your own self. That freedom was your own nature, and this Maya never bound you. Nature never has power over you. Like a frightened child you were dreaming that it was throttling you, and the release from this fear is the goal: not only to see it intellectually, but to perceive it, actualise it, much more definitely than we perceive this world. Then we shall know that we are free. Then, and then alone, will all difficulties vanish, then will all the perplexities of heart be smoothed away, all crookedness made straight, then will vanish the delusion of manifoldness and nature; and Maya instead of being a horrible, hopeless dream, as it is now will become beautiful, and this earth, instead of being a prison-house, will become our playground, and even dangers and difficulties, even all sufferings, will become deified and show us their real nature, will show us that behind everything, as the substance of everything, He is standing, and that He is the one real Self.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。