THE GRIP OF THE INNER WORLD ON THE INDIAN MIND
Swami Nirvikarananda
Swami Vivekananda
(Continued from
The Unification of All Experiences). The study of nature in its manifestation as Man is a study fraught with momentous philosophical and spiritual consequences. These consequences are bound to be faulty and harmful if that study is entirely conditioned by the sciences of external nature. It is a fruitless attempt to solve the mystery of Man with the help of sciences like physics, chemistry, astronomy, or physiology only. These sciences deal only with the surface man, the ‘Man the known’. This aspect of Man is only the continuation in him of physical nature. But the real man, the ‘Man the unknown’ in the language of Alexis Carrel, eludes the grasp of these sciences. There is another science which deals with this subject and which dares to penetrate into the human nature and unravel its mysteries and through such unravelling, unravels also the mysteries of the rest of nature. This is Adhyatmavidya, the science of the inner self, the science of the ‘within’ of things, which gripped the attention of the sages of the Upanishads and which has continued to grip the attention and interest of the Indian mind down the ages.Ancient India did not neglect the sciences of external nature. Inspired by the idea that all knowledge is sacred, she pursued the investigation of external nature with zest in both theoretical and practical disciplines and wrested from nature many a hidden truth and developed the ways of applying these truths for the good of Man. In the course of these investigations, she came across the mystery of the phenomenon of Man and became intrigued by it. It became clear to her thinkers that the mystery of the external physical nature was overshadowed by the mystery of inner spiritual nature. And this new mystery gripped their minds and later hearts as well. It is no exaggeration to say that no people on earth have devoted so much time and thought to this subject and that consistently for thousands of years as the people of India. They chose it as their subject of specialization and reaped both the good and the bad fruits of all specializations.
Continued in The Bold Approach of the Upanishads.