自然与人
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中文
自然与人
现代西方关于自然的观念仅包括宇宙中显现于物质层面的那一部分。通常被理解为心灵的东西不被视为自然的一部分。
那些致力于证明意志自由的哲学家将心灵排斥在自然之外；因为既然自然受法则——严格的、不可更改的法则——所约束和支配，那么如果认为心灵也属于自然，它便同样要受法则的约束。这种主张将摧毁自由意志的学说；因为受法则约束之物如何能够自由？
印度哲学家则持相反的立场。他们认为一切物质生命，无论已显现还是未显现，都受法则的约束。他们主张心灵与外在自然一样受法则约束，而且是同一法则。如果心灵不受法则约束，如果我们所思考的念头不是先前念头的必然结果，如果一种心理状态不是由另一种心理状态所产生并随之而来，那么心灵就是非理性的；又有谁能在主张自由意志的同时否认理性的运作呢？另一方面，谁又能承认心灵受因果律支配的同时声称意志是自由的呢？
法则本身就是因果的运作。某些事情的发生取决于之前发生的某些事情。每一个前因都有其后果。自然中的一切莫不如此。如果这种法则的运作也存在于心灵之中，那么心灵就是受束缚的，因而不是自由的。不，意志不是自由的。它怎么可能是呢？但我们都知道，我们都感到，自己是自由的。如果我们不是自由的，生命将毫无意义，不值得去活。
东方哲学家接受了这一学说，或者更确切地说是提出了这一学说：心灵和意志处于时间、空间和因果之中，与所谓的物质并无二致；因此它们同样受因果律的约束。我们在时间中思考；我们的思想受时间的约束；一切存在之物都存在于时间和空间之中。一切都受因果律的约束。
那么，我们所称的物质和心灵实为同一实体。唯一的差别在于振动的频率。振动频率极低的心灵就是我们所知的物质。振动频率极高的物质就是我们所知的心灵。两者本为同一实体；因此，正如物质受时间、空间和因果的约束，心灵——作为高频振动的物质——同样受同一法则的约束。
自然是同质的。分化只存在于显现之中。梵文中"自然"一词为原质（Prakriti），字面意思即为"分化"。万物皆为一体，但以多种形式显现。
心灵变为物质，物质又反过来变为心灵，这不过是振动频率的问题。
取一根钢棒，施加足够的力使其振动，会发生什么？如果在暗室中进行此实验，你首先会感知到的是声音——一种嗡鸣声。增大力量，钢棒便会发光；再进一步增大力量，钢棒将完全消失。它变成了心灵。
再举一例：若我十天不进食，便无法思考。我脑中只有几个零星的念头。我极度虚弱，也许连自己的名字都不知道。然后我吃了些面包，不一会儿便开始能思考了；我心灵的力量恢复了。面包变成了心灵。同样地，心灵降低其振动频率，显现为身体，成为物质。
至于哪个在先——物质还是心灵——让我来做个比喻：一只母鸡下了一个蛋；蛋孵出另一只母鸡；那只母鸡又下了一个蛋；那个蛋又孵出另一只母鸡，如此无穷无尽。那么，哪个在先——蛋还是鸡？你无法想象一个蛋不是由母鸡所下，也无法想象一只母鸡不是从蛋中孵出。哪个在先并不重要。我们的观念几乎都陷入了这种鸡与蛋的循环之中。
最伟大的真理因其极其简单而被遗忘。伟大的真理之所以简单，是因为它们具有普遍的适用性。真理本身总是简单的。复杂性源于人的无明。
人的自由意志不在心灵之中，因为心灵是受束缚的。那里没有自由。人不是心灵，人是灵魂。灵魂永远自由、无限、永恒。人的自由就在于此——在灵魂之中。灵魂始终是自由的，但心灵认同于自身短暂的波动，便迷失了对灵魂的觉知，陷入时间、空间与因果的迷宫——摩耶（Maya）之中。
这就是我们束缚的根源。我们总是将自己等同于心灵及心灵的现象性变化。
人的自由意志建立在灵魂之上，而灵魂意识到自身的自由，便不断地宣示这一事实，尽管心灵受着束缚："我是自由的！我即是我所是！我即是我所是！"这就是我们的自由。灵魂——永远自由、无限、永恒——经无量劫又无量劫，通过其工具——心灵——越来越充分地显现自己。
那么人与自然的关系是什么？从最低等的生命形态到人类，灵魂一直在通过自然来显现自己。灵魂的最高显现蕴含在最低等的显现生命形态之中，并通过被称为进化的过程向外发展。
整个进化过程就是灵魂努力显现自身的奋斗。这是一场与自然不断进行的抗争。使人成为人的，是与自然的抗争，而非对自然的顺应。我们听到许多关于与自然和谐相处、与自然合拍的说法。这是一个错误。这张桌子、这个水壶、矿物、一棵树，都与自然和谐相处。那里有完美的和谐，毫无不协调之处。与自然和谐相处意味着停滞与死亡。人是怎样建造这座房屋的？是通过与自然和谐相处吗？不。是通过与自然抗争。构成人类进步的，是与自然的持续抗争，而非对自然的顺从。
English
NATURE AND MAN
The modern idea of nature includes only that part of the universe that is manifested on the physical plane. That which is generally understood to be mind is not considered to be nature.
Philosophers endeavouring to prove the freedom of the will have excluded the mind from nature; for as nature is bound and governed by law, strict unbending law, mind, if considered to be in nature, would be bound by law also. Such a claim would destroy the doctrine of free will; for how can that be free which is bound by law?
The philosophers of India have taken the reverse stand. They hold all physical life, manifest and unmanifest, to be bound by law. The mind as well as external nature, they claim, is bound by law, and by one and the same law. If mind is not bound by law, if the thoughts we think are not the necessary results of preceding thoughts, if one mental state is not followed by another which it produces, then mind is irrational; and who can claim free will and at the same time deny the operation of reason? And on the other hand, who can admit that the mind is governed by the law of causation and claim that the will is free?
Law itself is the operation of cause and effect. Certain things happen according to certain other things which have gone before. Every precedent has its consequent. Thus it is in nature. If this operation of law obtains in the mind, the mind is bound and is therefore not free. No, the will is not free. How can it be? But we all know, we all feel, that one are free. Life would have no meaning, it would not be worth living, if we were not free.
The Eastern philosophers accepted this doctrine, or rather propounded it, that the mind and the will are within time, space, and causation, the same as so-called matter; and that they are therefore bound by the law of causation. We think in time; our thoughts are bound by time; all that exists, exists in time and space. All is bound by the law of causation.
Now that which we call matter and mind are one and the same substance. The only difference is in the degree of vibration. Mind at a very low rate of vibration is what is known as matter. Matter at a high rate of vibration is what is known as mind. Both are the same substance; and therefore, as matter is bound by time and space and causation, mind which is matter at a high rate of vibration is bound by the same law.
Nature is homogeneous. Differentiation is in manifestation. The Sanskrit word for nature is Prakriti, and means literally differentiation. All is one substance, but it is manifested variously.
Mind becomes matter, and matter in its turn becomes mind, it is simply a question of vibration.
Take a bar of steel and charge it with a force sufficient to cause it to vibrate, and what would happen? If this were done in a dark room, the first thing you would be aware of would be a sound, a humming sound. Increase the force, and the bar of steel would become luminous; increase it still more, and the steel would disappear altogether. It would become mind.
Take another illustration: If I do not eat for ten days, I cannot think. Only a few stray thoughts are in my mind. I am very weak and perhaps do not know my own name. Then I eat some bread, and in a little while I begin to think; my power of mind has returned. The bread has become mind. Similarly, the mind lessens its rate of vibration and manifests itself in the body, becomes matter.
As to which is first—matter or mind, let me illustrate: A hen lays an egg; the egg brings out another hen; that hen lays another egg; that egg brings out another hen, and so on in an endless chain. Now which is first—the egg or the hen? You cannot think of an egg that was not laid by a hen, or a hen that was not hatched out of an egg. It makes no difference which is first. Nearly all our ideas run themselves into the hen and egg business.
The greatest truths have been forgotten because of their very simplicity. Great truths are simple because they are of universal application. Truth itself is always simple. Complexity is due to man's ignorance.
Man's free agency is not of the mind, for that is bound. There is no freedom there. Man is not mind, he is soul. The soul is ever free, boundless, and eternal. Herein is man's freedom, in the soul. The soul is always free, but the mind identifying itself with its own ephemeral waves, loses sight of the soul and becomes lost in the maze of time, space, and causation—Maya.
This is the cause of our bondage. We are always identifying ourselves with the mind, and the mind's phenomenal changes.
Man's free agency is established in the soul, and the soul, realising itself to be free, is always asserting the fact in spite of the mind's bondage: "I am free! I am what I am! I am what I am!" This is our freedom. The soul— ever free, boundless, eternal—through aeons and aeons is manifesting itself more and more through its instrument, the mind.
What relation then does man bear to nature? From the lowest form of life to man, the soul is manifesting itself through nature. The highest manifestation of the soul is involved in the lowest form of manifest life and is working itself outward through the process called evolution.
The whole process of evolution is the soul's struggle to manifest itself. It is a constant struggle against nature. It is a struggle against nature, and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is. We hear a great deal about living in harmony with nature, of being in tune with nature. This is a mistake. This table, this pitcher, the minerals, a tree, are all in harmony with nature. Perfect harmony there, no discord. To be in harmony with nature means stagnation, death. How did man build this house? By being in harmony with nature? No. By fighting against nature. It is the constant struggle against nature that constitutes human progress, not conformity with it.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。