| Vedanta and the Voice of
Freedom In faith: a Vedanta view | by Linda Prugh The word Vedanta means the culmination of knowledge. Thousands of years ago, Indian sages had a passionate thirst to find Truth, and through deep meditation they discovered many universal, spiritual laws. These experiences were later recorded in scriptures known as the Vedas. The highest transcendental experiences of these sages form the concluding portion of the Vedas, so those sections are called the Vedanta. Vedanta is the philosophical source of Hinduism, but it is not confined to Hinduism or to any religion. Vedanta embraces all spiritual laws, all spiritual striving and endeavor and all spiritual discovery, and it leaves the door open for future discoveries. The main tenet of Vedanta is: that we are divine by nature; that our soul is pure and perfect, free and eternal; and that the goal of life is to realize our own divinity and manifest It in every thought, word and action. Vedanta says, first see God within, then see God everywhere! Vedanta is experiential, not doctrinal. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886). Vivekananda left India in 1893 to bring the message of Vedanta to the West. He was inspired by the experiences of his guru, who had tested for himself the validity of many religious paths, including those of Tantra, Vedanta, Christianity and Islam. Ramakrishna had declared by his own experience that all spiritual paths, if followed sincerely, lead to the same realization of God. Vivekananda wanted the universal, eternal truths of Vedanta to be made practical, and he told his students: "The moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him -- that moment I am free. This is the most practical of all worship." In another talk, Vivekananda defined freedom, saying: "Freedom, O Freedom! is the song of the soul. All worship, all desire for miracles, is, at bottom, this thirst for Freedom. Science on her countless watchtowers signals back to the asking soul, 'No, not yet! Nature has no freedom. She is all law.' This is why the idea of God is essential to the Mind. There must be the concept of some being or beings with Freedom. Embodied Freedom, the Master of Nature, is what we call God." Freedom behind bars The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but it is we who actually grant that freedom to one another. When a member of one faith looks down on members of other faiths, declaring them as heretics or considers that their religion is not as good as his own, he is denying the validity of that Constitutional guarantee, and he is trying to take away from others the right to experience religious freedom . Freedom also comes through the power of adjustment. For the past year I have been corresponding with an inmate at one of Missouri's maximum-security prisons. Mr. Mica (not his real name) first wrote to the Vedanta Society of Kansas City in the fall of 2002. We could see that here was a person deeply interested in spiritual life, who, despite his prison circumstances, was achieving something in the nature of freedom behind bars. In one of his letters he wrote: "Do you realize that prison life for those who are sincerely truth seekers is similar to living in a monastery? Although we are confronted with a lot of abuse much of the time, yet we are sincere about finding God, and we see this as a blessing and a measuring stick for determining the extent of our own spiritual development and growth. When I was put in prison this time, I came to an abrupt change in my life. Pain and suffering, disappointments and all sorts of things caused me to stop and think, to check out my mind, and to recognize that I was the one who caused all my misery through ignorance. Then I realized I could reverse the situation through right thinking and actions. I am blessed and free indeed." Mr. Mica practices prayer and meditation, and he reads both the Bible and Vedanta daily, finding many parallels. He has been in prison for more than 20 years and has another 20 to go, but just see his peace and inner joy! In one of his letters he wrote, "I don't care what a man's faith is. I don't even care if he doesn't believe in God. When someone comes to me all depressed, I look into his face and I try to see God there. God helps me to say the right thing to him, and when he goes away feeling a little better, I get great joy in my heart." When one practices prayer and meditation, one becomes peaceful. And the peaceful soul becomes a magnet for others seeking inner peace. Swami Vivekananda defined religion as realization of God -- not temples, nor books, nor prophets. He said: "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, that it was the Self of your own self." Linda Prugh has been a member of the Vedanta Society of Kansas City, Mo., for more than 30 years and serves as an observer for the Kansas City Interfaith Council. She has written a number of articles on spiritual life and is the author of the biography Josephine MacLeod and Vivekananda's Mission, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India. Copyright © 2003 Linda Prugh |
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