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LECTURE I<br/>Sacrificial Mysticism<br/>1. Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, the earliest religious<br/>documents of the human race. Their probable dates.<br/>2. Atharva Veda consists mainly of hymns, of charms,<br/>and of incantations. Rig Veda consists mainly of<br/>hymns and of prayers for prescribed rituals.<br/>3. Nature of Vedic ritualism.<br/>4. Strictest accuracy in the performance of all ritual<br/>istic details was deemed indispensably necessary for<br/>realising the fruits of the sacrifices; since reason<br/>was unable to discover why this should be so, the<br/>hymns and the ritualistic directions were above rea<br/>son and therefore had no author; they were self-ex<br/>istent and eternal.<br/>* 5. The entire Vedic literature was conceived as being<br/>only a body of commands. This conception of com<br/>mands did not imply any commander.<br/>6. The mysterious,powers of the sacrifices can produce<br/>all kinds of physical advantages.<br/>7. The mysterious conception of Vedic commands.<br/>8. Simple prayers of the primitive sages of the Vedas<br/>show how deeply they were impressed by the in<br/>explicable phenomena of nature which led them to<br/>believe in deities presiding over these phenomena.<br/>9. Revelation in the Vedic sense. The Vedic com<br/>mands are impersonal, infallible, and eternal.<br/>10. Reason must be subordinated to Vedic revelation.<br/>and truths discovered by reason should be attested<br/>by reference to the Vedas.<br/>11. Definition of mysticism.<br/>12. Special features of sacrificial mysticism.<br/>13. Development of sacrificial mysticism into substi<br/>tution-meditations.<br/>14. Some forms of substitution-meditations are found<br/>even now in India amoig certain sections of the<br/>people.<br/>15. The development of substitution-meditations marks<br/>a new stage of advance towards the liberation of<br/>thought from the narrow limitations of sacrificial<br/>mysticism. Loose generalisation of thought made<br/>such an advance possible.<br/>16. How the substitution-meditations contributed towards<br/>the development of the idea of Brahman, the supreme<br/>reality, as the identity of being, thought and bliss.<br/>17. How the monotheistic Vedic hymns c(Hitributed to<br/>wards the formation of the concept of Brahman.<br/>18. The mysterious force of sacrifices and the idea of<br/>Brahman.<br/>19. The dawn of a quest of Brahman.<br/>20. Transition from the worship of deities to the highest<br/>realisation of truth and reality, the Brahman.<br/>21. The rise of the Upanishad literature, i^ich deals .<br/>with the growth and development of the concept of<br/>Brahman, also called the Vedanta.<br/>LECTURE II<br/>Mysticism of the Upanishads<br/>1. Monotheistic hymn of Hiranyagarbha.<br/>2. Though monotheistic passages arcf found in the sac<br/>rificial manuals, the emphasis is nevertheless almost<br/>wholly on the sacrificial system.<br/>3. The science of Brahman is based wholly on the fact<br/>that the spiritual needs of man always tend to transcend<br/>the limitations of his mundane necessities.<br/>Modern civilisation tends to stifle this higher call of<br/>man by seducing him to earthly desires. The story<br/>of Prajapati and Virocana.<br/>4. The story of Maitreyi and Yajnavalkya illustrates<br/>the spiritual longing of man in Maitreyi's craving<br/>for immortality.<br/>5. The highest state of immortality is a supra-conscious,<br/>ineffable state of mystic experience, where there is<br/>not the duality of the knower and the known.<br/>6. The supra-conscious experience underlies our so-called<br/>personality as its background, essence or truth—as<br/>the true self which is dearest and nearest to us and<br/>for which everything is dearer to us.<br/>7. This experience is ultimate and fundamental in its<br/>nature—the ultimate reality, as the ground of all<br/>things.<br/>8. This quest after the highest reality which is also our<br/>ultimate intuitional experience—^a belief in a superior<br/>impersonal principle, the inmost essence of man, which<br/>enlivens our thoughts, actions and feelings is the<br/>chief feature of Upanishad mysticism.<br/>9. The story of Naciketas and "what becomes of man<br/>after death." Philosophical quest of truth preferable<br/>to a life of mundane comforts.<br/>10. Growth of materialistic civilisation leads us away<br/>from the transcendent spiritual ideals of life.<br/>11. The highest spiritual essence can be realised only by<br/>inner intuitive'contact and not by logical reasoning.<br/>12. The fundamental essence of man is the inner illu<br/>mination of pure thought, which is also the ultimate<br/>principle underlying all things.<br/>13. This immortal essence cannot be grasped by intellect,<br/>but only realised by superior intuition, and this is<br/>the mysticism of the Upanishads.<br/>14. There is another and different line of thought which<br/>conceives Brahman as the supreme lord who moves<br/>our life and sense faculties to activity.<br/>15. A mythical story to illustrate the fact that all nat<br/>ural objects, such as fire, wind, etc., derive their re<br/>spective functions and power from this supreme<br/>lord.<br/>16. Yet this supreme creator and sustalner of the uni<br/>verse, and the inner controller of us all, is in some<br/>other passages spoken of as having become the vis<br/>ible many of the universe though he is in Himself<br/>17. The dualistic tendency of God, soul and the world,<br/>is very prominent in some passages, while side by<br/>side with it there are many passages of an apparently<br/>pantheistic import.<br/>18. Yet the Upanishads seem to emphasise very strongly<br/>the view of ineffable and ultimate experience realised<br/>by direct intuition.<br/>19. Interpreters of the Upanishads differ as to which of<br/>these strains of Upanishad thought is most funda<br/>mental. But in the life of a true Upanishad mystic<br/>all the apparently contradictory lines of thought find<br/>an untold harmony and - expression incomprehensible<br/>to logical thought.<br/>20. The mystic experience in the Upanishads can be at<br/>tained only through the most rigorous moral discipline<br/>of self-abnegation, self-control and peace, by untiring<br/>and patient search and by inner intuitive vision of the<br/>spirit. The highest state is absolutely indescribable.<br/>LECTURE III<br/>Yoga Mysticism<br/>1. Perfecting of moral life is indispensable for the real<br/>isation of Upanishad truth, and references to selfcontrol<br/>are found in some of the Upanishad passages.<br/>2. Modes of sense-control prevalent in India since at<br/>least 700 or 800 B. C.<br/>3. Story of a hypnotic trance in the Mahabharata.<br/>4. The root of most forms of Indian mysticism is its<br/>theory of the self as pure consciousness and the ulti<br/>mate principle of all that exists.<br/>5. The concept of "I" and the true self.<br/>6. It is difficult for modern Western people correctly to<br/>understand and appreciate the spiritual aspirations of<br/>the great sages of ancient India—so different are the<br/>physical and social environments of the restful hermi<br/>tages of ancient India from the modern centres of<br/>civilisation of Western countries.<br/>7. Spirit and mind distinguished. The ultimate aim is<br/>to break the bondage of the mind.<br/>8. Mind grows through conscious and subconscious im<br/>pressions and states, and yoga consists in the ces<br/>sation of all mental states.<br/>9. The seer is sensitive to the slightest pain, and his<br/>aim is to uproot all pains and future possibilities.<br/>10. The great positive virtues which a yogin must prac<br/>tice.<br/>11. Indispensable moral acquirements of a yogin.<br/>12. In addition to these, a certain course of bodily and<br/>mental discipline is also considered indispensable.<br/>13. Various bodily practices, including breath control,<br/>etc., have to be undertaken to stop all movements of<br/>the body, voluntary and involuntary.<br/>14. Some of the processes of purifying the body by in<br/>ternal washings.<br/>13. The aim of yoga concentration by which the mind is<br/>steadied is different from ordinary concentration. By<br/>it the mind becomes fixed in an object, and for the<br/>time all mental functions of differentiation, associa<br/>tion, etc., cease—absorptive concentration or samadhi,<br/>16, Gradual advancement on yoga lines through faith and<br/>energy,<br/>17, The intuitional knowledge of prajna—final destruction<br/>of the mind necessary for the liberation of the<br/>spirit.<br/>LECTURE IV<br/>Buddhistic Mysticism<br/>1. Detachment from antipathy and attachment, supreme<br/>self-control, and absolute desirelessness considered<br/>indispensable by yoga for the liberation of the spirit.<br/>2. Legendary account of the way in which the Buddha<br/>was led to the path of yoga.<br/>3. The way to Nirvana as absolute extinction of the<br/>mind is through absolute desirelessness, right disci<br/>pline, and yoga concentration.<br/>4. Difference between the system of the Buddha and the<br/>system of Patanjali with regard to the ultimate goal.<br/>5. Goal as Nirvana and as the absolute liberation of the<br/>spirit.<br/>6. Belief in Nirvana is the basis of Buddhist mysticism.<br/>7. The idea of liberation and the idea of essenceless<br/>I Nirvana are very similar to each other.<br/>8. A digression in the way of referring to other forms<br/>of mysticism, as, for example, a belief in tapas, as<br/>ceticism and self-mortification as able to lead to our.<br/>highest realisation.<br/>9- Different types of ascetics.<br/>10. Supernatural power ascribed to tapas or self-mortifi<br/>cation.<br/>11. Tapas as*self-mortification contrasted with tapas as<br/>the power of endurance of physical privations and as<br/>self-control.<br/>12. The Buddha found the old course of excessive selfmortification<br/>and rigor undesirable and took to a<br/>moderate course.<br/>13. Virtues of universal friendship, compassion, etc.<br/>14. In the Hindu scheme of virtues, caste virtues and<br/>caste duties oftentime narrowed the scope of universalism.<br/>15. Universal friendship was the active creed in Mahayana<br/>Buddhism.<br/>16. Different grades of Buddhas.<br/>17. Story of Aryadeva's universal compassion.<br/>18. The career of a Bodhisattva.<br/>19. The virtues of a Bodhisattva.<br/>20. The moral progress of a Bodhisattva.<br/>21. Universal good the ultimate aim of the Bodhisattva.<br/>LECTURE V<br/>Classical Forms of Devotional Mysticism.<br/>1. Yoga ideal of individualistic perfection.<br/>2. Hindu system of life not individualistic, but based<br/>on a caste system of the social order.<br/>3. Hindu system of caste duties.<br/>4. Philosophy of the Gita emphasises the need of the<br/>dedication of all actions and their fruits to God.<br/>5. Self-surrender to God is the ideal of the yogin of the<br/>Gita.<br/>6. The itjeal of love of God in the Puranas.<br/>7. Ramanuja's conception of love of God as ceaseless<br/>contemplation of God.<br/>8. Bhakti or devotion to God is found to be a revival<br/>of the yoga method in later times.<br/>9. Love of God as a supreme emotion in the Bhagavata<br/>Purana.<br/>10. Special features of the path of Bhakti contrasted<br/>with the older path.<br/>11. For whom is the path of devotion intended?<br/>12. Vallabha's definition of Bhakti; his doctrine of prapatti<br/>or self-surrender.<br/>13. The doctrine of prapatti contrasted with the doctrine<br/>of Bhakti of the Bhagavata.<br/>14. Mysticism in the emotion of Bhakti.<br/>15. Love of God an indispensable factor of religious psy<br/>chology.<br/>16. Place of reason and emotion in religion.<br/>17. Passion for God as illustrated in the life of Chaitanya<br/>of Bengal.<br/>18. The legend of Krishna.<br/>19. Chaitanya's life.<br/>20. Chaitanya's passionate love of God.<br/>LECTURE VI<br/>Popular Devotional Mysticism<br/>1. God as great and God as the dearest.<br/>2. Spiritualisation of the events of Krishna legends and<br/>vicarious participation in the life-drama of Krishna.<br/>3. God as father and mother.<br/>4. Different concepts of Bhakti.<br/>5. Vallabha's notion of Bhakti as pushti.<br/>6. How human love becomes divine.<br/>7. Candidasa's ideal of the transformation of human<br/>love into divine.<br/>8. Love of God in South-India, in the songs of the<br/>Alvars.<br/>9. Relation of the old Bhakti .school to the new school<br/>of Bhakti—Khecar, the teacher of Namdev.<br/>10. Essence of Namdev's teachings.<br/>11. Tukaram and his hymns of devotion.<br/>12. Love of God in the North-Indian saints.<br/>13. Kabir, his reformatory spirit and his love of God.<br/>14. Love of God a great leveller.<br/>15. Some hymns of Kabir showing his reformatory zeal.<br/>16. Some hymns of Kabir illustrating his views on purifition<br/>and his great intoxication for God.<br/>17. The mystic Rui Das.<br/>18. The mystic Mira Bai.<br/>19*. Mira Bai's hymns illustrating her great love of God.<br/>20. The mystic poet and Saint Tulsidas.<br/>21. Mystic feelings of the people in general who are often<br/>illiterate.<br/>22. The value of spiritual longing cannot be expressed<br/>in terms of utility. |
