What Vedanta Means to Me

PLATT CLINE

During his long career as a journalist, Platt Cline was a reporter, editor, publisher and president at the Arizona Daily Sun. Before retiring in 1976, he became part-owner of the newspaper. For his journalistic efforts and tireless service to his community, he received many awards and honors including being named Flagstaff's Citizen of the Year and later, Flagstaff's Citizen of the Century. Cline passed away on October 3, 2001 at the age of 90.

What attracted you to Vedanta? What do you find in it that you apparently failed to find in a church? What do the swamis have for you that you could not just as well get from your local priest or minister? These are legitimate questions and, whether or not actually voiced, must be in the minds of relatives and friends of those of us who have chosen to follow Vedanta.

The vast religious literature of India is fundamentally Vedantic, and those who bring Vedanta to us today are almost all natives of India. And while the philosophy can be found in the teachings of all major religions, nowhere has it been so clearly stated and formulated as in India. For this reason, Vedanta appears in the West at this time in Oriental garb.

But if one is seriously seeking a way out of meaninglessness, hopelessness, and the 'rat race' of life, cultural differences and outer trappings of religious teachings become quite unimportant.

What does Vedanta mean to me? It means a great many things, but for the purpose of this article I will couch my answer in three words: 'freedom, authority, and practice.'

First, Freedom: Regarding this, Vedanta makes a few basic assumptions: that man's real nature is divine; that the object of human life is to unfold and manifest this divinity; and that truth is universal. Vedanta has no dogmas; it requires no confession of faith; it requires no agreement with any interpretation of historical events; it excludes no religious idea. It assumes that all religious philosophies, however primitive or advanced, are useful to some. Again and again teachers of Vedanta use the simile of countless streams seeking the sea, each of them being so many different ways to God, the ocean of truth.

Vedanta teaches reverence and respect for all of the world's great prophets and religious teachers. It believes that there has been not just one incarnation of God, but many, and it reveres them all.

Typical of Vedanta's emphasis on freedom in religious matters is a statement by Swami Vivekananda who lectured and taught around the turn of the century. Over and over he emphasized this theme, repeating that experience is the only real source of knowledge--and that the spiritual seeker should have this experience for himself. He said:

'Avoid everyone, however great or good he may be, who asks you to believe blindly. It is healthier for the individual or race to remain wicked than to be made apparently good by such morbid, extraneous control--beware of everything that takes away your freedom ... no one of these Yogas gives up reason ... or asks you to deliver your reason into the hands of priests of any type whatsoever ... each one of them tells you to cling to your reason, hold fast to it.'

The nondogmatic approach of Vedanta is well summed up in this statement by Dr. Radhakrishnan, a famous Indian philosopher, 'Hinduism is wholly free from the strange obsession of some faiths that the acceptance of a particular religious metaphysic is necessary for salvation, and non-acceptance thereof is a heinous sin meriting eternal punishment in hell.'

This emphasis on freedom and reason in religious life may fall with a strange, possibly refreshing, sound on some ears. And no doubt it will make some uncomfortable. For me, freedom is the only cornerstone on which an acceptable religious life may be erected.

Second, Authority: I do not use this word in the sense of the right or power possessed by an individual or organization to enforce obedience or conformity. By authority I mean the authority of experience and achievement possessed by the swamis, our gurus or teachers. These men have the 'commission' to preach and teach, not simply by having completed extensive courses of study in monasteries (they have done that, too) but by having actually advanced along one of the paths to realization of the truth. Individual instruction at a Vedanta center--free for the asking for really serious aspirants--is given only by one who you may be sure instructs and guides from personal experience. Such men, who have travelled along the path of enlightenment, radiate an authority and attraction clearly felt by most of those who come within their range.

It is a tradition in India for people, sometimes whole families including children, to seek out holy men and simply sit in their presence, to enjoy and benefit from this example and atmosphere of good. This is called 'taking darshan.' These men exert a powerful spiritual force. They radiate a joy and peace which is contagious. I believe they are the happiest people I have ever met. Here you find no opportunism, no 'oneupmanship', no greed, no vanity, no self-seeking. They are surrounded by an aura of peace and love.

How did they get that way? They can show you, knowing the path to travel, the pitfalls to avoid, by actual, personal experience. Yes, they have authority. And it comes from living experience.

Third, Practice: It is certainly true that enlightened spiritual guides are very rare, but Vedantists believe that there are enough to go around if diligently sought. Of course, not all such men are in Vedanta. They appear occasionally in the Christian framework but their services are apt to depend on the student's assent to dogma which many cannot sincerely accept. Both the Buddhists and Moslem Sufis have disciplines aimed at encouraging the development of such teachers.

Vedanta seems able to attract or produce a very high percentage of men who qualify to become guides, out of first-hand experience. These persons have access to the accumulated knowledge of several thousand years of experience in spiritual practice, and make this knowledge live through their own experience and authority. Few spiritual guides outside the traditions of the Orient have any systematic knowledge of the different personality and temperament types, and the approaches best suited to each. Some in the West, with the best intentions in the world, attempt to guide all students along the same path, perhaps one for which at least some of them are temperamentally unsuited. The guru has this knowledge. He approaches each aspirant in a way best suited to him. He will guide the individual along a path which will bring him what he seeks if he pursues it with devotion.

Vedantists do not believe that man's experience of God ended with Moses, Krishna, the Prophets, Jesus, Mohammed, or Ramakrishna, but can be accomplished today if certain changes are effected in the devotee, changes which are in complete accord and agreement with the seldom-heeded teachings of all great religions. Vedanta realizes that for some, a simple confession of faith in a church, rule, or book is not enough; that these people require a personal knowledge in matters spiritual.

Vedanta offers through its gurus an unbroken chain of apostolic succession extending over many thousands of years. These teachers learned the way from other enlightened souls, who in turn learned at the feet of still others.

This then, is what Vedanta means to me: Its emphasis is not on what I am to do but what I can become!