THE TRUE PERCEPTION

SWAMIJI'S TIME - J.K. SIVAN

THE TRUE PERCEPTION

I remember a story told by Prof. Max Müller. It is an old Greek story.

A Brahmin visited Socrates in Athens. They were talking.

"What is the highest knowledge?" asked the Brahmin

"To know man is the end and aim of all knowledge." -Socrates.

"But how can you know man without knowing God?" asked the Brahmin.

The Greek side is represented by modern Europe,and insisted upon the knowledge of man; the Indian side, mostly represented by the old religions of the world, insisted upon the knowledge of God.

One sees God in nature, and the other sees nature in God.

To us, at the present time, perhaps, has been given the privilege of standing aside from both these aspects, and taking an impartial view of the whole. This is a fact that variation exists, and so it must, if life is to be. This is also a fact that in and through these variations unity must be perceived. This is a fact that God is perceived in nature. But it is also a fact that nature is perceived in God. The knowledge of man is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing man, can we know God. This is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and knowing God alone we can know man. Apparently contradictory though these statements may appear, they are the necessity of human nature. The whole universe is a play of unity in variety, and of variety in unity. The whole universe is a play of differentiation and oneness; the whole universe is a play of the finite in the Infinite. We cannot take one without granting the other. But we cannot take them both as facts of the same perception, as facts of the same experience; yet in this way it will always go on.