Jnana Yoga

THE VEDÂNTA SOCIETY 135 West 80th Street NEW YORK

NEW YORK THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 EAST 17TH ST.

The lectures given in this volume were originally delivered by Swâmi Vivekânanda in New York in the beginning of 1896, and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. Their purely philosophical character, however, made it doubtful as to whether they would appeal to the general public, and for that reason they were not brought out in book form at once. The great success of the London lectures on Jnâna Yoga, which were published several years ago and which have already gone through two editions, now encourages the belief that this series will meet with an equally favorable reception. The conception of Jnâna according to Vedânta is a bold and daring one, and reaches the highest possible ideal, for it teaches the absolute unity of all existence. As will be easily understood by the students of the former volume, Jnâna Yoga is purely monistic on the highest spiritual plane. Speaking about this phase of Vedânta, Prof. Max Müller writes: “None of our philosophers, not excepting Heraclitus, Plato, Kant, or Hegel has ventured to erect such a spire, never frightened by storms or lightnings. Stone follows on stone in regular succession after once the first step has been made, after once it has been clearly seen that in the beginning there can have been but One, as there will be but One in the end, whether we call It Âtman or Brahman.” This may be a difficult thought for many to grasp at the outset, but it is worth careful study, and once understood will be a never-failing light to guide the enquiring soul to the crowning truth of all philosophy.

INTRODUCTION 9

THE SÂNKHYA COSMOLOGY 21

PRAKRITI AND PURUSHA 44

SÂNKHYA AND ADVAITA 69

THE FREE SOUL 94

ONE EXISTENCE APPEARING AS MANY 121

UNITY OF THE SELF 141

THE HIGHEST IDEAL OF JNÂNA YOGA 157

This universe of ours, the universe of the senses, the rational, the intellectual, is bounded on both sides by the illimitable, the unknowable, the ever unknown. Herein is the search, herein are the inquiries, here are the facts, from this comes the light which is known to the world as religion. Essentially, however, religion belongs to the supersensuous and not to the sense plane. It is beyond all reasoning and is not on the plane of intellect. It is a vision, an inspiration, a plunge into the unknown and unknowable, making the unknowable more than known, for it can never be “known.” This search has been in the human mind, as I believe, from the very beginning of humanity. There cannot have been human reasoning and intellect in any period of the world’s history without this struggle, this search beyond. In our little universe, this human mind, we see a thought arise. Whence it arises we do not know, and when it disappears, where it goes we know not either. The macrocosm and the microcosm are, as it were, in the same groove, passing through the same stages, vibrating in the same key.