The Integral Method
Divine Life
Society Publication: Part I, Chapter 3 – The Foundations of Philosophy by Sri Swami
Krishnananda
Swami Sivananda’s method
combines revelation, meditation and reason in one. Infallible knowledge is to
be had only in the intuition of Reality, and all knowledge derived through the
senses, understanding and reason falls short of it in an enormous degree. No
other method of approach to Truth than communion with being as such can give us
ultimately reliable knowledge. Unless the knower and the known are identified
in knowledge, knowledge is not true, but gives us only a semblance of what we
really seek to obtain. Swami Sivananda is a faithful follower of Sankara in his
basic presuppositions, though he is equally friendly with Ramanuja, Madhva and
the other dualistic and pluralistic philosophers.
To Swami Sivananda, philosophy
is the way of the attainment of Brahman, and his method includes all that is
best in every school of philosophy. The experience of the nature of the
individual in relation to the universe, of which it is a content, becomes the
basis of philosophical enquiry, which culminates in spiritual meditation and realisation.
Sruti, Yukti and Anubhava—authority, reason and intuition—are the stages of the
ascent of the soul aspiring for eternal life. Sravana, Manana and
Nididhyasana—hearing (or study), reflection and meditation—sum up the practical
method of the spiritual aspirant. Hearing and reflection comprise the entire
gamut of speculative philosophy, and Nididhyasana is the final fruition in
meditation, leading to Sakshatkara or
realisation. Aspiration for the Eternal is the greatest incentive to
philosophical enquiry, whose aim is not only to know, but to be.
Human knowledge, for Swami
Sivananda, is not an exact representation of reality, nor is the world a mere
projection of the human mind. The world is the objective appearance of the
Absolute, thus being ideal, but is also the cause of the representation of the
same in human knowledge, thus being real. The world is ideal as contained in
the Absolute, real as being outside the finite minds. We should not make
assertions or take active steps without first ascertaining the powers of the
instruments of knowledge and action. “We must understand what knowing is, in
order to explain anything at all, so that any proposed explanation of knowing
would necessarily presuppose that we understood what knowing is” (Prichard: Kant’s
Theory of Knowledge).
The central aim of the
philosophy of Swami Sivananda is the living of the highest life, a life fixed
in the knowledge of the principles which are the ultimate regulators of all
things. An enlightened life of peace joy is the goal of his sublime philosophy.
And this blessedness can be attained only in the Divine Being. Dharma, the
ethical value; Artha, the material value; and Kama, the vital value, are all
based on Moksha which is the supreme value of existence. The aim of life is the
attainment of Moksha. The sight of evil and suffering, pain and death, directs
one’s vision to the causes of these phenomena; and this, in its turn,
necessitates an enquiry into the reality behind life as a whole.
Swami Sivananda teaches that
the bondage of man consists in his ignorance of the true nature of his Self and
that his freedom is in the knowledge of the Self. By bondage he means
subjection to the process of birth and death and the consequent experience of
suffering and pain. Self-knowledge can be attained even in this very life,
provided one puts forth sufficient effort towards this end. True happiness can
be had only in the Self, and it is futile to search for it in this temporal
world, which does not partake of the nature of Reality. The knowledge that man
has to strive for is not a theoretical understanding but is the consciousness
of the Self.
The philosophy of Swami
Sivananda is not any secret way capable of being trodden only by a select few.
It is an all-inclusive method which comprises all existent means of communion
with Reality. It is not a speculative system reserved for intellectual
pleasantry during leisure hours, but is the food of the higher understanding
and the light of the innermost Self of man. The Vedanta is as simple as life
is; and also it is as complex as life is!
It is ignorance and wrong
understanding that make certain people think that the philosophy of the Atman
or Brahman is an other-worldly theory concerning only a life which follows
death. It can and ought to be applied in the daily life of everyone. Without it
life would be a perpetual groping in darkness. What is man, if not a thought, a
feeling, or a group of thoughts and feelings? And the Vedanta is the light that
illumines the world of thought, of feeling, of willing, of understanding.
The Vedanta of Swami Sivananda
does not teach that one should detest the world or isolate oneself in some
world other than this. It does not proclaim that anyone should forsake his
duties in life or put on a grave face or behave in any conspicuous manner. His
Vedanta declares that one should not be selfish or attached to any fleeting
object, that one should live in the consciousness of the loving brotherhood and
unity of the Self in the universe, that the truth of existence is one and
indivisible, that division or separation, hatred, enmity, quarrel and
selfishness are against the nature of the Self, that the pain of birth and
death is caused by desire generated by the ignorance of the Self, that the
highest state of experience is immortal life or the realisation of Brahman,
that everyone is born for this supreme purpose, that this is the highest duty
of man, that all other duties are only aids or auxiliaries to this paramount
duty, that one should perform one’s prescribed duties with the spirit of
non-attachment and dedication of oneself and one’s actions to the Supreme
Being, that every aspect of one’s life should get consummated in this
Consciousness.
The question is not of
abandoning something or holding on to something, but of a change in the Drishti or the vision of life. It
is a reorientation in the way of the functioning of the volitional, the
conceptual and the perceptual consciousness that is required by the philosophic
life. The body will be there; its activities will be there; but these will be
transformed into the lustrous gold of the liberated life of Jivanmukti, by the
touch of the philosopher’s stone of the knowledge of the Self. This life of
Self-knowledge is life in its splendid perfection and plenitude. This is the blessed
gnosis, the state of freedom or Moksha. The way to such realisation is
Vedanta-Sadhana. It commences with the analysis and study of the nature of the
Atman, and comprises the inner techniques and processes of Yoga, Bhakti and
Karma.
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