SWAMI RANGANATHANANDA
Swami Ranganathananda (1908-2005) was the 13th President of the Ramakrishna Order. He was a prolific writer and a speaker of international acclaim. The following are excerpts from his books, Dynamic Spirituality for a Globalized World, Citizens’ Committee, Birth Centenary Celebrations of Swami Ranganathananda, Hyderabad, 2008 and Practical Vedanta and Science of Values, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata.
Growth of the Inner Man
A spiritual growth takes place from individuality to personality. He or she ceases to be merely an individual. He or she becomes a person. I am using two English words which we often use interchangeably. But there are precise meanings to each of these two words: individual and person, individuality and personality. Individuality is centred in the ego that is tied to the organic system. But as soon as one grows from the individual into the person, one transcends that organic limitation; one transcends that ego that is tethered to the organic system. It is then only that one develops the capacity to communicate healthily and happily with other people, to dig affections in other people, to express oneself in all inter-human relationships in spontaneous acts and modes of service.
Accordingly the philosophy of human excellence emphasizes the truth that the individual must grow into the person, individuality must grow into personality. That growth is not a physical growth; neither is it a mere intellectual growth. It is a spiritual growth. It is a wonderful concept of human development and growth: the individual growing into the person. The late Sir Julian Huxley, famous British biologist and humanist, has given a scientific definition to the word ‘person’ and ‘personality’ (Introduction to The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin):
Persons are individuals who transcend their merely organic individuality in conscious participation.
It is a beautiful and meaningful definition. When you are a mere individual, you are self-centred. Individuality is self-centredness. It seeks freedom for itself and is not inclined to concede it to others. But, it is an essential first stage in human development. Before birth, a baby is part of the mother’s body; after birth, it gets a physical individuality and identity. After about two and a half years, the ego, the sense of ‘I’ sprouts in it. This is a new unique initial datum, and the focus of all its further growth and development. And the first education of every human baby is the strengthening of its individuality by the strengthening of its ego. By appreciating whatever it does, the rest of the family members help its ego to grow in strength. The baby wants the world to be centred in itself. This is beautiful, and is needed for its growth; but that growth should not stop at that individuality, an important step of human growth. It must grow into the person; it must develop into the personality.
At the stage of individuality, the baby seeks only its own freedom and pleasures; but, at the stage of personality, it develops the spiritual capacity to respond to the human situation around it and respect the freedom of others.
This is the sign of its psychic and spiritual growth and maturity. It is this growth, continued during its adolescent years, that makes it develop into the full personality of a democratic citizen, in whom the value of social responsibility is added to the value of individual freedom. Freedom and responsibility constitute the growth of individuality into personality. An individual is merely free; that makes him or her a demanding entity: I want this, I want that. And such an individual often collides with other individuals. That is why the late Bertrand Russell compared mere individuality to a billiard ball. The only relationship of one billiard ball with another billiard ball is collision. They cannot enter into each other. But a human being must have the capacity to communicate with other human beings, to enter into each other, to work as a team with others. But only if one becomes a person does one develop this precious human capacity.
What we call the capacity for team work is essentially a capacity that comes to one when he or she grows from individuality to personality. We can then dig affections in other people, and have others dig affections in us; we can then live and work together with other people, both at home and in society, arm in arm, and achieve full implementation of our national and human objectives, through work efficiency, peace, harmony, mutual respect, and service.1
Learning to Be
We normally limit the concept of growth to the physical, in nature and man. We speak of economic growth, industrial growth, population growth, and so on, besides the physical and intellectual growth of the individual. But side by side with these, and more significant than either, there is also the spiritual growth of man. A few years ago, the Unesco had established a commission of enquiry about education of man in the post-war era; it was presided over by the then French Education Minister, later, Prime Minister, Edward Fauvre. The commission issued a report, and I was very much struck by the unique title of that report, namely, Learning to Be. Indeed, so far as man is concerned, education should essentially be learning to be, and only secondarily, learning to do. But never merely learning to do. When you stress learning to be, you have to go beyond the human muscular dimension, his mental dimension, and even beyond his merely intellectual dimension, says Vedanta. The Unesco report itself does not go so far, though its fine conclusions and suggestions cannot stand without that further penetration.2
Character Centred in Buddhi
This integrated training of intellect, will, and emotion is what makes for richness of personality and strength of character. Such a training helps to evolve within the individual a new personality value, a new focus of strength and resource. This is buddhi, in the language of the Gita; it may be translated as enlightened intelligence.
At the level of the ego and manas or sensate mind, intelligence is narrow, self-centred, and unsteady, being at the mercy of instincts and impulses. In the service of this intelligence, human knowledge and power express themselves as unsocial and sometimes anti-social forces, in manifest or subtle forms, bringing sorrow in its train to the individual and society.
Says Bertrand Russell in his Impact of Science on Society (p. 121):
Unless men increase in wisdom as much as in knowledge, increase of knowledge will be increase of sorrow.
Buddhi connotes this ripening of knowledge into wisdom. Intelligence at the buddhi level creates a pattern of what Sorokin calls altruism in human character. It cannot function except in a creative and constructive way. Detachment and stability, resourcefulness and sympathy, are the hallmarks of such a character, at once efficient and human.3
The Power to Digest ‘Power’
Often, when a person achieves power, he does not know how to digest it, how to use it for the good of man. He becomes inebriated with it, just as a man becomes intoxicated with madhu or sura, i.e., wine. The Sanskrit word for inebriation is mada, and the Mahabharata tells us that it should be converted into its reverse, i.e. dama, which means perfect self-discipline and self-control.
And this dama (perfect digestion of sensory energy which is the opposite of mada or inebriation) and its sister discipline of shama, perfect digestion of psychic energy, constitute the moral and ethical self-discipline of man, according to every system of Indian religion and philosophy.
By means of such self-discipline alone can one digest power, be it political power, intellectual power, or money power, and give it a humanistic orientation. By mere intellectual development alone, you can never digest either power or any tendency to exploit or harm other people.
But a slight growth in spirituality arising from such self-discipline can make all the difference. Such spiritual growth is the birthright of every man, woman, and child, says Vedanta, because it is built into, is inherent in, all human beings.4
Dharma or Science of Human Values
A human society without dharma is inconceivable. You may have plenty of adharma, evil behaviour, but still one section will always be practising dharma. Absolute adharma is not possible in any society. But when too many are prone to adharma, that society goes down and down. It will have mutual conflicts and fights, mutual killings, nobody will be happy, nobody will be fulfilled. Evolution then becomes stagnant at the organic level. It will not continue to higher and higher levels, of which ethical and moral and humanistic values form the first social stage of spirituality, and bhakti continues to lead one to the further stages up to spiritual realization.
So, what is the source of this dharma or science of values? The Atman, the ever-present Divinity hidden in every human being. ‘Hidden’ is the word. You cannot see It, you cannot feel It, yet It is there. How many things are there in nature which are hidden! But science is able to discover and bring them out. A proton in a piece of matter—it was hidden till nuclear science discovered that proton and even utilized it.
Similarly, the Divine in the heart of the human being is a fact, is a truth. It is not a dogma, it is not a belief, it is not a creed. It is a profound truth. Satyam, Truth, is the word used by the Upanishads, or even satyasya satyam, the Truth of truth. Prana vai satyam, tesam esa satyam, ‘Nature and her energies are truth, the Atman is the Truth of that truth’, say the Upanishads. If this body is true, the Atman is the Truth of that truth.
So, this Infinite Atman is not available on the surface of experience. We have to seek It at the depth of the human personality.
[Here is the universal rule of ethics:] ‘Do unto others what you expect others to do unto you.’ This statement is expressed both in negative and positive forms: ‘Do not do unto others, what you do not want others to do unto you’; ‘Do unto others, what you expect others to do unto you.’ That teaching has been developed in Europe by Emmanuel Kant, German philosopher. One criterion of ethics he mentions is that you should conduct yourself in such a way that, if all others were to do the same thing, everybody will be happy.
So many such statements you will get in writings on ethics. These are all for human education, to guide conduct and behaviour, so as to create a healthy society and put the human being on the road to the goal of evolution which is spiritual liberation.
Parents must strive to leave to their children a healthy society. If they leave to them an unhealthy society, they will be doing great harm to their children, and children’s children. That social responsibility we have to take up; but we have not done that after our political Independence.
We have completely ignored that whole idea. So now, when we have started a little self-criticism in India, we have to take advantage of our philosophy, Vedanta, and its science of values, which we have discussed earlier and which is getting strength and support from modern biology. We have come across biology’s support to the Vedantic teaching of overcoming the tyranny of the sensate and the quantitative and achieving spiritual growth, adhyatmika vikasa. For this, our animal tendencies should be checked, our dehatma-buddhi, ‘the idea that the body is our self,’ should go; we have seen how modern biology expresses this truth in its own way; ‘Unless the mammal in us dies, the man in us cannot live’, in the words of Sir Julian Huxley quoted in an earlier lecture.
Therefore, this idea of dharma as the science of values, as social ethics, where we try to do good to others, try to help others, serve the interests of others, even while attending to one’s own interests, which is the fruit of a little spiritual growth, may be, it is unknown to the person, must be cultivated by people by manifesting even a little of their inherent spiritual nature, the Atman, what the Vedic sages realized as the Divine spark that is hidden within all. If I do not do so and ignore my own divine nature, I cannot but do evil, I cannot but become anti-social and thwart the human evolutionary process.
We can choose to do good or to do evil; we have that freedom; by experiencing our spiritual oneness with others, we learn to serve people; many evils are removed from society thereby, including corruption and violence. That feeling of oneness with others cannot come when we are slaves of our genetic system; then we will be a source of evil to ourselves and to others. Once one becomes aware of the Divine spark within, one’s conduct changes. One’s self reaches out to the other selves in society in increasing measure. This is called atma-vikasa, expansion of the self.5
References
1. Dynamic Spirituality for a Globalized World, p.238-240
2. Ibid, p.260
3. Ibid, p.278-279
4. Ibid, p.272
5. Practical Vedanta and Science of Values, p.127-129
A spiritual growth takes place from individuality to personality. He or she ceases to be merely an individual. He or she becomes a person. I am using two English words which we often use interchangeably. But there are precise meanings to each of these two words: individual and person, individuality and personality. Individuality is centred in the ego that is tied to the organic system. But as soon as one grows from the individual into the person, one transcends that organic limitation; one transcends that ego that is tethered to the organic system. It is then only that one develops the capacity to communicate healthily and happily with other people, to dig affections in other people, to express oneself in all inter-human relationships in spontaneous acts and modes of service.
Accordingly the philosophy of human excellence emphasizes the truth that the individual must grow into the person, individuality must grow into personality. That growth is not a physical growth; neither is it a mere intellectual growth. It is a spiritual growth. It is a wonderful concept of human development and growth: the individual growing into the person. The late Sir Julian Huxley, famous British biologist and humanist, has given a scientific definition to the word ‘person’ and ‘personality’ (Introduction to The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin):
Persons are individuals who transcend their merely organic individuality in conscious participation.
It is a beautiful and meaningful definition. When you are a mere individual, you are self-centred. Individuality is self-centredness. It seeks freedom for itself and is not inclined to concede it to others. But, it is an essential first stage in human development. Before birth, a baby is part of the mother’s body; after birth, it gets a physical individuality and identity. After about two and a half years, the ego, the sense of ‘I’ sprouts in it. This is a new unique initial datum, and the focus of all its further growth and development. And the first education of every human baby is the strengthening of its individuality by the strengthening of its ego. By appreciating whatever it does, the rest of the family members help its ego to grow in strength. The baby wants the world to be centred in itself. This is beautiful, and is needed for its growth; but that growth should not stop at that individuality, an important step of human growth. It must grow into the person; it must develop into the personality.
At the stage of individuality, the baby seeks only its own freedom and pleasures; but, at the stage of personality, it develops the spiritual capacity to respond to the human situation around it and respect the freedom of others.
This is the sign of its psychic and spiritual growth and maturity. It is this growth, continued during its adolescent years, that makes it develop into the full personality of a democratic citizen, in whom the value of social responsibility is added to the value of individual freedom. Freedom and responsibility constitute the growth of individuality into personality. An individual is merely free; that makes him or her a demanding entity: I want this, I want that. And such an individual often collides with other individuals. That is why the late Bertrand Russell compared mere individuality to a billiard ball. The only relationship of one billiard ball with another billiard ball is collision. They cannot enter into each other. But a human being must have the capacity to communicate with other human beings, to enter into each other, to work as a team with others. But only if one becomes a person does one develop this precious human capacity.
What we call the capacity for team work is essentially a capacity that comes to one when he or she grows from individuality to personality. We can then dig affections in other people, and have others dig affections in us; we can then live and work together with other people, both at home and in society, arm in arm, and achieve full implementation of our national and human objectives, through work efficiency, peace, harmony, mutual respect, and service.1
Learning to Be
We normally limit the concept of growth to the physical, in nature and man. We speak of economic growth, industrial growth, population growth, and so on, besides the physical and intellectual growth of the individual. But side by side with these, and more significant than either, there is also the spiritual growth of man. A few years ago, the Unesco had established a commission of enquiry about education of man in the post-war era; it was presided over by the then French Education Minister, later, Prime Minister, Edward Fauvre. The commission issued a report, and I was very much struck by the unique title of that report, namely, Learning to Be. Indeed, so far as man is concerned, education should essentially be learning to be, and only secondarily, learning to do. But never merely learning to do. When you stress learning to be, you have to go beyond the human muscular dimension, his mental dimension, and even beyond his merely intellectual dimension, says Vedanta. The Unesco report itself does not go so far, though its fine conclusions and suggestions cannot stand without that further penetration.2
Character Centred in Buddhi
This integrated training of intellect, will, and emotion is what makes for richness of personality and strength of character. Such a training helps to evolve within the individual a new personality value, a new focus of strength and resource. This is buddhi, in the language of the Gita; it may be translated as enlightened intelligence.
At the level of the ego and manas or sensate mind, intelligence is narrow, self-centred, and unsteady, being at the mercy of instincts and impulses. In the service of this intelligence, human knowledge and power express themselves as unsocial and sometimes anti-social forces, in manifest or subtle forms, bringing sorrow in its train to the individual and society.
Says Bertrand Russell in his Impact of Science on Society (p. 121):
Unless men increase in wisdom as much as in knowledge, increase of knowledge will be increase of sorrow.
Buddhi connotes this ripening of knowledge into wisdom. Intelligence at the buddhi level creates a pattern of what Sorokin calls altruism in human character. It cannot function except in a creative and constructive way. Detachment and stability, resourcefulness and sympathy, are the hallmarks of such a character, at once efficient and human.3
The Power to Digest ‘Power’
Often, when a person achieves power, he does not know how to digest it, how to use it for the good of man. He becomes inebriated with it, just as a man becomes intoxicated with madhu or sura, i.e., wine. The Sanskrit word for inebriation is mada, and the Mahabharata tells us that it should be converted into its reverse, i.e. dama, which means perfect self-discipline and self-control.
And this dama (perfect digestion of sensory energy which is the opposite of mada or inebriation) and its sister discipline of shama, perfect digestion of psychic energy, constitute the moral and ethical self-discipline of man, according to every system of Indian religion and philosophy.
By means of such self-discipline alone can one digest power, be it political power, intellectual power, or money power, and give it a humanistic orientation. By mere intellectual development alone, you can never digest either power or any tendency to exploit or harm other people.
But a slight growth in spirituality arising from such self-discipline can make all the difference. Such spiritual growth is the birthright of every man, woman, and child, says Vedanta, because it is built into, is inherent in, all human beings.4
Dharma or Science of Human Values
A human society without dharma is inconceivable. You may have plenty of adharma, evil behaviour, but still one section will always be practising dharma. Absolute adharma is not possible in any society. But when too many are prone to adharma, that society goes down and down. It will have mutual conflicts and fights, mutual killings, nobody will be happy, nobody will be fulfilled. Evolution then becomes stagnant at the organic level. It will not continue to higher and higher levels, of which ethical and moral and humanistic values form the first social stage of spirituality, and bhakti continues to lead one to the further stages up to spiritual realization.
So, what is the source of this dharma or science of values? The Atman, the ever-present Divinity hidden in every human being. ‘Hidden’ is the word. You cannot see It, you cannot feel It, yet It is there. How many things are there in nature which are hidden! But science is able to discover and bring them out. A proton in a piece of matter—it was hidden till nuclear science discovered that proton and even utilized it.
Similarly, the Divine in the heart of the human being is a fact, is a truth. It is not a dogma, it is not a belief, it is not a creed. It is a profound truth. Satyam, Truth, is the word used by the Upanishads, or even satyasya satyam, the Truth of truth. Prana vai satyam, tesam esa satyam, ‘Nature and her energies are truth, the Atman is the Truth of that truth’, say the Upanishads. If this body is true, the Atman is the Truth of that truth.
So, this Infinite Atman is not available on the surface of experience. We have to seek It at the depth of the human personality.
[Here is the universal rule of ethics:] ‘Do unto others what you expect others to do unto you.’ This statement is expressed both in negative and positive forms: ‘Do not do unto others, what you do not want others to do unto you’; ‘Do unto others, what you expect others to do unto you.’ That teaching has been developed in Europe by Emmanuel Kant, German philosopher. One criterion of ethics he mentions is that you should conduct yourself in such a way that, if all others were to do the same thing, everybody will be happy.
So many such statements you will get in writings on ethics. These are all for human education, to guide conduct and behaviour, so as to create a healthy society and put the human being on the road to the goal of evolution which is spiritual liberation.
Parents must strive to leave to their children a healthy society. If they leave to them an unhealthy society, they will be doing great harm to their children, and children’s children. That social responsibility we have to take up; but we have not done that after our political Independence.
We have completely ignored that whole idea. So now, when we have started a little self-criticism in India, we have to take advantage of our philosophy, Vedanta, and its science of values, which we have discussed earlier and which is getting strength and support from modern biology. We have come across biology’s support to the Vedantic teaching of overcoming the tyranny of the sensate and the quantitative and achieving spiritual growth, adhyatmika vikasa. For this, our animal tendencies should be checked, our dehatma-buddhi, ‘the idea that the body is our self,’ should go; we have seen how modern biology expresses this truth in its own way; ‘Unless the mammal in us dies, the man in us cannot live’, in the words of Sir Julian Huxley quoted in an earlier lecture.
Therefore, this idea of dharma as the science of values, as social ethics, where we try to do good to others, try to help others, serve the interests of others, even while attending to one’s own interests, which is the fruit of a little spiritual growth, may be, it is unknown to the person, must be cultivated by people by manifesting even a little of their inherent spiritual nature, the Atman, what the Vedic sages realized as the Divine spark that is hidden within all. If I do not do so and ignore my own divine nature, I cannot but do evil, I cannot but become anti-social and thwart the human evolutionary process.
We can choose to do good or to do evil; we have that freedom; by experiencing our spiritual oneness with others, we learn to serve people; many evils are removed from society thereby, including corruption and violence. That feeling of oneness with others cannot come when we are slaves of our genetic system; then we will be a source of evil to ourselves and to others. Once one becomes aware of the Divine spark within, one’s conduct changes. One’s self reaches out to the other selves in society in increasing measure. This is called atma-vikasa, expansion of the self.5
References
1. Dynamic Spirituality for a Globalized World, p.238-240
2. Ibid, p.260
3. Ibid, p.278-279
4. Ibid, p.272
5. Practical Vedanta and Science of Values, p.127-129