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CONTEMPORARY VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, CONTINUED
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sciousness, and harmony constitute reality as we know it; it may have other unknown attributes. The material appearances of things (including our own bodies) are carved out of the infinite consciousness by negation, and are defined as not being other things. Material things, consequently, are not unreal, but are abstract essences less real than the consciousness from which they are abstracted, and so may be called illusory.
The path of spiritual progress, according to the usual Vedanta teaching, is the way of introversion: starting from the body we turn inward to identify ourselves progressively with consciousness, mind, ego, and ultimately that inmost reality which is the absolute Self. According to Professor Datta, it is just the opposite. The path of spiritual progress is the way of extraversion. Starting from the body we turn outward to expand our consciousness by a widening of interest as we identify ourselves with progressively greater spheres of our environment. There are four ways in which consciousness may expand. It may expand in extent, as in astronomy. It may expand in quality, seeing all things as existence, consciousness, and harmony. It may expand in power, and so in freedom, as the control we have directly over our own bodies is extended to other things. It may expand in feeling, by an enlargement of sympathy, leading to universal love. It is inadequate, in fact it is bad, to expand the consciousness in one way only. Those who expand their consciousness in extent only become mere scientists. Those who expand it in quality only become mere philosophers. Those who expand it in power only become tyrants, like modern dictators or the asuras of Hindu legend. Those who expand it in love only are the persons of good intentions whose fate is proverbial. True expansion of consciousness is that which combines all four modes—knowledge, insight, power, and love. Expansion is accomplished by seeing all things in their real aspect as existence, consciousness, and harmony, and consequently loving and controlling them as we identify ourselves with them. Such expansion involves no rejection of existence, but a rejection of the predicates formerly attributed to it, a
87 Bliss, the traditional third attribute of Brahman in Vedanta philosophy, is not an obvious attribute of reality.
