Since September 11, we have been living in a tinderbox
of anger and confusion, anxiety and grief. Our world is much
less certain these days, despite a better sense of ourselves
and of those around us as capable of profound empathy and
selfless deeds. We are discovering our common humanity. We are
learning that everything, bad or good, has a ripple effect on
our general well-being. It is at such moments that we turn to
the wise, the beneficent, and the compassionate-the true
well-wishers of mankind. We listen in gratitude to the
peace-loving religious leaders of the world, and offer our
prayers to the legion of good-hearted workers everywhere who
labor in the cause of dignity and freedom. We share our
stories of those who have inspired us, and who have given us
hope
I was
privileged to know one such benefactor of humanity, the late
Swami Nitya-swarup-ananda-a legendary monk of the Ramakrishna
Order. He spent a lifetime in conversation with top scientists
and scholars, striving tirelessly to bring the timeless wisdom
of Vedanta into the mainstream of global thought and endeavor;
in the process, he inspired scholars, artists, and public
figures worldwide with his scheme to promote a truly humane
world civilization. The new global citizen, he said in
essence, must be culturally and scientifically aware while at
the same time perceiving the spiritual unity underlying all
aspects of human life.
Swami Nitya-swarup-ananda was himself a global citizen,
and another was his friend, the English historian Dr. Arnold
Toynbee. "At this supremely dangerous moment in human
history," Dr. Toynbee wrote in 1969, "the only way of
salvation for mankind is an Indian way." He was pointing to
the universal aspects of Indian thought that include a
reverence for all life and for all religions. This teaching is
right, he said, "because it flows from a true vision of
spiritual reality."
This vision of spiritual reality is embodied in the
Vedas, the oldest scriptures known to man; and its essence,
Vedanta philosophy, has been studied in India for thousands of
years. Vedanta spread in America after it was preached at the
1893 Parliament of Religions by the charismatic Swami
Vivekananda. His message of universal love and the acceptance
of all religions made a lasting impact at the Parliament, and
later throughout the Western world.
Swami Vivekananda preached a universal religion based
on Truth, and his legacy stands strong today. There are
Vedanta centers, monasteries, and retreats throughout the
world associated with the Ramakrishna Order that Swami
Vivekananda founded in 1897, including several dozen in the
United States. The numbers in this country are relatively
small, but the potency of this universal teaching has not been
diluted. The relevance of this ancient philosophy to the
technological age came into sharp focus recently when the role
of "Vedanta in the Third Millennium" was discussed at a
national conference arranged by the Vedanta center in
Chicago.
On the one hand, there is a natural affinity between
Vedanta philosophy and modern science. Both are experimental;
both demand proof. Vedanta has been called "the science of the
soul" because it probes the innermost life of the human
psyche, just as physics and biology probe the mysteries of the
phenomenal world. It is no coincidence that the unity of
matter discovered by physics echoes the unity of spirit that
the ancient sages discovered eons ago.
On the other hand, Vedanta is way ahead of modern
science when it comes to the universal wisdom that is needed
to temper technology's tremendous power. Wondrous scientific
advances have far outstripped mankind's moral capacity to cope
with the misuse of science for selfish ends or its hazardous
by-products. Thus, ease of communication and travel coexist
with the empowerment of brutal individuals to do unprecedented
harm. New energy sources coexist with stockpiles of hazardous
nuclear waste. Medical miracles coexist with serious ethical
dilemmas.
These and other global problems should come under the
scrutiny of a moral power that is equal to the world's
technological power-and in a form that is widely acceptable to
diverse dogmas and creeds. Vedanta is rooted in the perennial
spiritual principles that have been realized by the sages and
saints of every major faith-tradition, so there is a common
bond at the mystic core. In Vedanta, there is no proselytizing
and no need for conversion-only a spiritual deepening within
one's own faith-tradition and a heart-expanding awareness of
the human community as a whole.
On an individual level, many people are experiencing a
crisis of faith: "What sort of God would permit this slaughter
of innocents?" In this respect, too, Vedanta offers the
comfort of a universal viewpoint in that it holds God
blameless. From a transcendental perspective, God is
uncontaminated by the duality of the phenomenal world. Good
and evil are a matter of human choice, and we reap the
consequences of human actions. In times of crisis, good
thoughts and actions-the stepping-stones to our
enlightenment-are not so easy to come by and must be
consciously sought.
Vedanta is a pragmatic philosophy that stresses the
need for individual spiritual discipline, such as
self-reflection and meditation, in order to balance the head
and the heart and to make us more thoughtful, more loving,
more giving, and more expansive-in every way more expressive
of the divinity within. We may not be able to change the
world, but, as the Bhagavad Gita urges, we can treat ourselves
as friends rather than enemies, and lift ourselves up from
within. This positive approach is a practical tool for the
clergy who are counseling the bereaved while coping with
communal feelings of helplessness and rage
India's perennial wisdom, which sees every soul as
divine and every religion as a path, and which focuses
impartially on the science of spiritual realization, has been
a wellspring for today's interfaith dialogue and exploration
of pluralism. It can play an equally important-indeed a
crucial-role in lending its holistic spiritual perspective to
our current global crisis.
