By Platt Cline 
Flagstaff Citizen of the Century
(Longer Web version)

What attracted you to Vedanta? What do you find in it that you apparently failed to find in a church? What do the swamis have for you that you could not just as well get from your local priest or minister? These are legitimate questions and, whether or not actually voiced, must be in the minds of relatives and friends of those of us who have chosen to follow Vedanta. Before answering them, however, let us make a preliminary approach.

We observe at the outset that the outer trappings of Vedanta, as they appear to Westerners, are alien, "foreign." This presents a difficulty, and perhaps repels some who might otherwise be attracted by Vedanta's teachings. Vedanta, as presented to Westerners at this time, necessarily appears in the matrix of Indian culture. While the basic teachings and assumptions of Vedanta are perennial and universal, they certainly have reached their most elaborate development in India.

The vast religious literature of India is fundamentally Vedantic, and those who bring Vedanta to us today are almost all natives of India. And while the philosophy can be found in the teachings of all major religions, nowhere has it been so clearly stated and formulated as in India. For this reason, Vedanta appears in the West at this time in Oriental garb.

Possibly, even probably as years pass, Vedanta will take on outward forms less alien to the Westerner. (In this regard, we might remind ourselves that Christianity as it first came to the Western world, also from the East, appeared in foreign dress but in due time became Westernized).a

Let us admit that Vedanta's oriental "outwardness" may be an obstacle. But it is certainly not an insurmountable one, as many Western students of Vedanta have found. Some, in fact, believe this very difficulty may serve a useful purpose in sorting out the real seekers from the simply curious. If one is seriously seeking a way out of meaninglessness, hopelessness, and the "rat race" of life, cultural differences and outer trappings become quite unimportant. It is also true that many find Sanskrit words and terms for religious and spiritual concepts helpful in getting them around or over mental and emotional blocks they may have for their English equivalents. To some, the familiar coinage of such words has been worn, too thin to be any longer of value.

Those making their first contacts with Vedanta may find things less confusing if they understand that at Vedanta centers such as those in Hollywood, San Francisco, or New York, at least two major activities are going on: one, teachings in Vedanta philosophy and practice through public lectures and private interviews by senior swamis; and two, a program of ceremonial and social activity for those who feel a need or attraction for them. These latter include worship services, specia1 observances of what might be called "saint's days," congregational singing, and what in another context would be called "church socials," It is not necessary for the student to become involved in this second activity. However, it is certainly true that it satisfies a need for many, and it is also true that eventually most students take part in and enjoy this phase of the center's activity.

A typical reaction of many seekers who are newcomers to Vedanta is the expression of relief and delight that it really takes religion — man's relationship with God — seriously. To the Vedantist, religion is not simply something to which proper people pay perfunctory respect; it is what life is about. Taking religion seriously doesn't mean that it is taken grimly. We might say that Vedantists attempt to practice religion seriously — with joy!

These several questions then, might be summed up in one: what does Vedanta mean to me? It means a great many things, but for the purpose of this article I will couch my answer in three words: "freedom, authority, and practice," which together uniquely characterize Vedanta, and which I will discuss in order.

  First, freedom.

Regarding this, Vedanta makes a few basic assumptions: that man's real nature is divine; that the object of human life is to unfold and manifest this divinity; and that truth is universal. Vedanta has no dogmas; it requires no confession of faith; it requires no agreement with any interpretation of historical events; it excludes no religious idea. It assumes that all religious philosophies, however primitive or advanced, are useful to some. Again and again teachers of Vedanta use the simile of countless streams seeking the sea, each of them being so many different ways to God, the ocean of truth. Sometimes the search for God is compared with many paths up a mountain, all different but all inevitably leading to the same summit.

Vedanta teaches reverence and respect for all of the world's great prophets and religious teachers. It believes that there has been not just one incarnation of God, but many, and it reveres them all. This generosity of attitude toward all creeds, and emphasis on complete freedom in religion, is a theme repeated constantly in Vedanta.

Demonstration of the truth of the idea that all paths, if seriously and devotedly followed, lead to God, seems to me to have been the unique contribution of Sri Ramakrishna, the great 19th century Bengali saint, who some believe to have been an incarnation of God. During his lifetime he experimented with a number of major religious paths, including Hindu, Christian, and Moslem, and found that all, if pursued devotedly, led to the same goal — the experience of the Divine Reality. This unlettered man of peasant origins, who spent his life in comparative obscurity, was at the least a tremendous fountain of spirituality, and his influence resulted among other things in the spread of Vedanta to the West. The Vedanta centers now flourishing in North and South America and Europe, to say nothing of India, were founded by his disciples and their disciples.

Typical of Vedanta's emphasis on freedom in religious matters is a statement by Swami Vivekananda, one of Ramakrishna's principal disciples, who lectured and taught in America and Europe around the turn of the century. Over and over he emphasized this theme, repeating that experience is the only real source of knowledge — and that the spiritual seeker should have this experience for himself.

"Avoid everyone, however great or good he may be, who asks you to believe blindly. It is healthier for the individual or race to remain wicked than to be made apparently good by such morbid, extraneous control — beware of everything that takes away your freedom."

In discussing the four Vedantic paths or Yogas to realization, each being suited to various personality types, he said: "No one of these Yogas gives up reason ... or asks you to deliver your reason into the hands of priests of any type whatsoever ... each one of them tells you to cling to your reason, hold fast to it. "

The nondogmatic approach of Vedanta is well summed up in this statement by Dr. Radhakrishnan, the present-day Indian philosopher, widely read and recognized in the West: "Hinduism is wholly free from the strange obsession of some faiths that the acceptance of a particular religious metaphysic is necessary for salvation, and non-acceptance thereof is a heinous sin meriting eternal punishment in hell."

This emphasis on freedom and reason in religious life may fall with a strange, possibly refreshing, sound on some ears. And no doubt it will make some uncomfortable. For me, freedom is the only cornerstone on which an acceptable religious life may be erected.

  Second, Authority.

I do not use this word in the sense of the right or power possessed by an individual or organization to enforce obedience or conformity. By authority I mean the authority of experience and achievement possessed by the swamis, our gurus or teachers. These men have the "commission" to preach and teach, not simply by having completed extensive courses of study in monasteries (they have done that, too) but by having actually advanced along one of the paths to realization of the truth. Individual instruction at a Vedanta center — free for the asking for really serious aspirants — is given only by one who you may be sure instructs and guides from personal experience. Such men, who have travelled along the path of enlightenment, radiate an authority and attraction clearly felt by most of those who come within their range.

It is a tradition in India for people, sometimes whole families including children, to seek out holy men and simply sit in their presence, to enjoy and benefit from this example and atmosphere of good. This is called "taking darshan." These men exert a powerful spiritual force. They radiate a joy and peace which is contagious. I believe they are the happiest people I have ever met. Here you find no opportunism, no "oneupmanship," no greed, no vanity, no self-seeking. They are surrounded by an aura of peace and love. Certainly they are completely "integrated personalities," to use the modem psychological vernacular.

How DID they attain these attributes? How did they get that way? They can show you, knowing the path to travel, the pitfalls to avoid, by actual, personal experience. Yes, they have authority. And it comes from living experience.

  Third, Practice.

It is certainly true that enlightened spiritual guides are very rare, but Vedantists believe that there are enough to go around if diligently sought. Of course, not all such men are in Vedanta. They appear occasionally in the Christian framework but their services are apt to depend on the student's assent to dogma which many cannot sincerely accept. Both the Buddhists and Moslem Sufis have disciplines aimed at encouraging the development of such teachers; however, for practical purposes the modern Westerner who seeks spiritual guidance is not apt to find it immediately at hand.

Vedanta seems able to attract or produce a very high percentage of men who qualify to become guides, out of first-hand experience. These persons have access to the accumulated knowledge of several thousand years of experience in spiritual practice, and make this knowledge live through their own experience and authority. Few spiritual guides outside the traditions of the Orient have any systematic knowledge of the different personality and temperament types, and the approaches best suited to each. Some in the West, with the intentions in the world, attempt to guide all students along the same path, perhaps one for which at some of them are temperamentally unsuited. The guru has this knowledge. He approaches each aspirant way best suited to him. He will guide the individual along a path which will bring him what he seeks if he pursues it with devotion. This is "practice," the availability of definite programs and systems in spiritual development — ways which are in agreement with the teachings of all of the world's great prophets and Sons of God. The guru does not ask the student to place blind faith in him or anything else. He asks only that the student should come with a sincere desire to know Reality — should approach the program with a craving for personally-proved religious conviction.

Vedantists do not believe that man's experience of God ended with Moses, Krishna, the Prophets, Jesus, Mohammed, or Ramakrishna, but can be accomplished today if certain changes are effected in the devotee, changes which are in complete accord and agreement with the seldom-heeded teachings of all great religions.

Vedanta realizes that for some, a simple confession of faith in a church, rule, or book is not enough; that these people require a personal knowledge in matters spiritual.

Vedanta offers through its gurus an unbroken chain of apostolic succession extending over many thousands of years. These teachers learned the way from other enlightened souls, who in turn learned at the feet of still others.

This then, is what Vedanta means to me: freedom in spiritual matters, authority which comes from actual achievement and experience, and practice which has proved its effectiveness for many centuries. Its emphasis is not on what I am to do but what I can become!

During his long career as a journalist, Platt Cline was a reporter, editor publisher and president at the Arizona Daily Sun. Before retiring in 1976, he became part-owner of the newspaper. During his retirement, Cline wrote several history books about Flagstaff and Northern Arizona University. For his journalistic efforts and tireless service to his community, he received many awards and honors including being named Flagstaff’s Citizen of the Year and later, Citizen of the Century. Cline passed away on October 3, 2001, at the age of 90.

This essay appeared in the July-August 1968 issue of Vedanta and the West, published by the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Reprinted with permission from the Vedanta Society of Southern California, www.vedanta.org.