Part II My Philosophy.
1921 original text, YOGeBooks typeset transcription; original text extent only
So, here in the roar of mortal things
I have a place where my spirit sings,
In the hollow of God’s palm.”
Arriving at a very fundamental truth from the purely philosophical standpoint, Henri Bergson has put what one might almost term his basic thought as follows: “Everything,” he says, “that exists is the manifestation of a life‑force, the ‘elan vital’ which is perpetually recreating itself. This is the ‘creative evolution’ of which I have written. There is in each of us a particle of life‑force, which is above intellect just as much as it is above our physical powers. We grow and progress because the life‑force wills that we should do so.
“The life‑force which we find in every living thing must have come
from a source. That source is unceasing life, action, freedom—you may
call it God. It must always have existed, for otherwise there would have
been nothing. And nothing is unthinkable. According to my views, the
original source always existed in time, but out of space.
“Life is a constant springing upward. To exist is to change, to change
is to mature, and to mature is to go on creating oneself indefinitely. In
each of us is this life‑force, which is above our intellect and all our other
faculties. This life‑force is shown in the form of intuition, which all of us
possess more or less, and which at times permits us to catch glimpses
of the very nature of our existence.”
And from out the little old‑world city of Jena, hallowed forever in the minds of many with the life there, and the thought, of Goethe, and Schiller, and Hegel, and Fichte, and Schelling, come these thoughts—almost the ripest life thought—of Rudolph Eucken: “The union of the Divine and human nature is the fundamental truth of religion, and its deepest mystery consists in the fact that the Divine enters into the compass of the Human without impairing its Divinity. With this new phase life is completely renewed and elevated. Man becomes immediately conscious of the infinite and eternal, of that within him which transcends the world. For the first time the love of God becomes the ruling motive of his life, and brings him into an inner relation with the whole scope of reality.…Religion is not merely a belief in some supreme Power, nor do I consider it to be the establishment of relations of any kind between this supreme Power and ourselves. It is an inner identification with it and the creation of a new life through it. The problem may be, therefore, defined in this way: Does man in the wholeness of his being experience an impulse to acknowledge a divine element, and if so, can he identify himself with it and rise to its lofty height without transforming his previous condition?…Religion thus understood is judged by the new life which it brings forth.
“As soon as man acknowledges the manifestation of this divine
element and participates in this new creation through divine power
and grace, life will be altogether transformed. Now, at last, we are
standing in the great river of Life, of which we were allowed to touch
no more than the brink in our first stage of development; it is here that
we find a new self, our true Spiritual Life. The cleavage in the depth
of our souls is bridged over at last. That inner estrangement, so often
felt, has disappeared and the whole universe is now part of regenerate
man’s experience.…That feeling of isolation disappears, which has so
often depressed us, and we are conscious of partaking in that ‘inner life’
common to all of us. And this autonomous creation of a true spiritual
life is the great wonder, and the only certain evidence on behalf of
religion—without this religion no true civilization is possible.
“The life of every individual person is affected by this ‘Problem
of Religion.’ I cannot conceive of the development of a powerful
personality, a deep‑rooted and profound mind, or a character rising
above this world, without his having experienced this divine life.”
I have brought these brief fragments of thought of philosophers and poets from Sweden, from England, from America, from France and from Germany, because I have wanted to show a certain unanimity of thought on the part of them all in connection with the matters we are considering. I want to add to it another brief paragraph, which might be said to contain an epitome, or at least the key note of his philosophy, by Spinoza, the eminent Jewish philosopher who lived in the little old city of Rhijnsburg, near Leiden, in Holland—Spinoza the lens grinder, whose house is still preserved there: “There is a universal substance which is God, the causa immanens, not the causa transiens. This is the origin of all things, the all‑pervading force diffused throughout the universe, ‘the one eternal unity.’ This eternal and universal substance consists of an infinite number of attributes, each one expressing eternal and infinite being. The human mind itself is part of the infinite mind of God.”
And then coming down through the centuries we hear that clear untrammeled voice of the Judean Teacher as out on the hillside, by the lakeside, out under the clear stars of heaven, He gives forth His message of the divinity of man, and the majesty and power of the human spirit when it once realizes its identity with the Divine spirit: God is spirit, and they that worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth. I and my Father are one. As I am ye shall be. Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these shall ye do. Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. And again: “Say not ‘Lo here,’ and ‘Lo there,’ know ye not that the Kingdom of God is within you?”
The knowledge that has come to the human mind during the last fifty years, the knowledge of the methods through which the creative power works—through the gradual and orderly process of evolution—and all through great systems of law, is to my mind, with possibly one exception, the greatest knowledge that has ever come to the human kind. The other is that Jesus with His wonderful powers of perception, was able to perceive this power as Being, as Life—the one Life—and to identify His own life with it, and taught all men so to identify theirs.
All is law. The process of evolution is still going on, slowly but gradually raising all forms of life to higher and finer levels. The secret of all life is harmony—to know the law and to live in harmony with it.
As human beings we are either pulled or we are pushed, in that we are wise enough and diligent enough to learn the laws of life, the laws of the mental, the physical, and the spiritual life, and the laws of the universe about us, and obey them, by harmonizing our lives with them and reaping the beneficent results that always result through this method; or, through shiftlessness, or ignorance, or willfulness, we fail to observe them, and suffer the ill‑effects, the losses that inevitably come from the violation of law. Whether through ignorance or knowingly, whether unintentionally or intentionally, the violation of law brings its own punishment. It is inherent in the law itself.
God does not punish. He works through great systems of law. He has given us mind, intelligence to apprehend, to know, and to obey these laws. The choice is in ourselves. The law itself will have obedience.
There has never been any man big enough, keen enough, to violate the law and to escape the punishment that the law inflicts. It is through suffering and loss, and at times degradation even of mind, of body, or of both, that brings him to his senses and to the point where he says: “I will arise and go to my Father.”