According to the Sankhya philosophy, the reactive state of the mind called Buddhi or intellect is the outcome, the change, or a certain manifestation of the Mahat or Cosmic Mind The Mahat becomes changed into vibrating thought; and that becomes in one part changed into the organs, and in the other part into the fine particles of matter

After an incalculable time this evolution ceases and involution begins, everything being resolved back through finer and finer forms into the original Akasha and Prana, when a new cycle follows Now there is something beyond Akasha and Prana

Even in very ancient times the commentators on the Vedanta philosophy formed themselves into the three celebrated Hindu sects of dualists, qualified non - dualists,and non - dualists The ancient commentaries are perhaps lost; but they have been revived in modern times by the post - buddhistic commentators, Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva

The Vedanta, then, practically forms the scriptures of the Hindus, and all systems of philosophy that are orthodox have to take it as their foundation Even the Buddhists and Jains, when it suits their purpose, will quote a passage from the Vedanta as authority

The Vedas are divided mainly into two portions: the Karma-kanda and the Jnana - kanda--the work - portion and the knowledge - portion To the Karma - kanda belong the famous hymns and the rituals of Brahmanas

Vedantists admit that the Atman or God is not only the efficient cause of this universe, but also the material cause But they only say so in so many words

Several great ideas have to be understood, in order to grasp properly the workings of the Vedanta philosophy In the first place it is not philosophy in the sense we speak of the philosophy of Kant and Hegel

That was the solution they arrived at But,as I have said,this ancient monotheistic idea did not satisfy the Hindu mind

"Gloom existed first" Those of you who have ever been in India or any tropical country, and have seen the bursting of the monsoon, will understand the majesty of these words

One particular idea is taken as the support,in which everything rests and exists,and that support has become all this So on with various ideas

It is not a very logical argument, as we all know; there is something childish about it, yet it is the only little bit of anything we can know about God from the external world, that this world required a builder But this is no explanation of the universe

Thus we find that the minds of these ancient Aryan thinkers had begun a new theme They found out that in the external world no search would give an answer to their question

Along with this progress of spiritual ideas that I am trying to trace for you, I can only hint to you a little about the other factor in the growth, for that has nothing to do with our subject, therefore I need not enlarge upon it -- the growth of rituals As those spiritual ideas progressed in arithmetical progression, so the ritualistic ideas progressed in geometrical progression

Is the Bible true Can we trust the texts we read today

Does God exist Does evolution explain our existence

In June 1986 archaeologists of Tel Aviv University announced discovery of two small silver amulets These two silver scrolls were found in 1979 deep inside a burial cave at a site known as Ketef Hinnom, west of the old city of Jerusalem

Buddhism is a great religion in some respects,but to confuse Buddhism with Vedanta is without meaning; anyone may mark just the difference that exists between Christianity and the Salvation Army There are great and good points in Buddhism,but these great points fell into hands which were not able to keep them safe

In all these cases where hymns were written about all these gods, the Being perceived was one and the same; it was the perceiver who made the difference It was the hymnist,the sage, the poet,who sang in different languages and different words, the praise of one and the same Being

Before going into all these speculations of the ancient Vedic sages, we will first refer to one or two very curious instances in the Vedas The peculiar fact -- that these gods are taken up, as it were, one after the other,raised and sublimated,till each has assumed the proportions of the infinite Personal God of the Universe -- calls for an explanation

So we can multiply examples about the other gods; they all come,one after the other, to share the same fate -- they first begin as gods, and then they are raised to this conception as the Being in whom the whole universe exists, who sees every heart, who is the ruler of the universe And in the case of Varuna, there is another idea,just the germ of one idea which came,but was immediately suppressed by the Aryan mind, and that was the idea of fear