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180
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OCTOBER, 1928
Trinity is co-substantial or of one substance. The Christian may say that the world comes out of nothing, whereas the Vedantist says existence comes out of existence. But the nothing of the Christian does not negate the existence of God before the world became. And if the world came out of the Will of God, this is parallel to the Vedântic saying that Sat (existence) came out of Sat. Nor is the idea of nothing wanting in the Vedanta, for we have : asatas saj-jayeta (Chandogya Up:) but asal is explained as the causal absolute to the effected relative.
Philosophically, the idea involved in the Trinity, is that God is a unity. God existed in the beginning, one only. When God began manifesting or creating, He split Himself into two natures, the subjective and the objective, thinker and thought, figuratively expressed a's Father and Son, and the bond between the two is the Holy Ghost. Max Müller writes of Eckhart's mysticism thus: “Thus the Godhead the Divine Essence or ousia, becomes God in Three persons. In thinking himself. the Father thinks everything that is within Him, that is, ideas, the logoi of the unseen world ?" (pp. 512-13, Theosophy or Psychological Religion). In the light of what Max Müller says, viz., “that a study of the Upanishads is often the very best preparation for a proper understanding of Eckhart's Tracts and Sermons. The intellectual atmosphere is just the same, and he who has learnt to breathe in the one, will soon feel at home in the other' (p. 511. id.), we invite our readers to the idea contained in Nara-Narayana, the complex Godhood, which has Nara, the objective, and Nârêyaņa, the subjective potential in its bosom. Nåråyana is basically One. The One educed (begat according to Christian phrasing) from its own self the Nara ; and a relation between the two also came into existence. This is the Logos (Lakshmi or Sri or Vidya, the Word, the divine sankalpa of the Vedanta system). This is religion or relationship between God and Nature (sambandha, which is literally religio). The particular application of this doctrine to man is clear, when mani is singled out from Nature in general. Nara would thus be the objective man, and Narayana the subjective Godhead; and these have indiscerptible relation, expressed by the Logos. Coming to the sacred Vedantic syllable AUM, the mystery of the Trinity becomes apparent, when A stands for the Godhead, M for man or manhood, and U is expressive of the relation between them. In figurative language, A is Father (pita) in one aspect; M is Son (putra) in one aspect, (there are eight more aspects); and U is the Logoic nexus, Lakshmi, Sri, or the Mother. In this Vedantic metaphor, we have Father, Son and Mother, and only in the place of Mother, the term Holy Ghost gives the Trinity the Christian hue. Those who have studied Vedanta are conversant with the Tripuli or God considered as a philosophical Trinity, viz., jndiri, jñeya and jadna i.e., the knower, the known (thing) and knowledge (the connecting link), or the thinker, the thought (thing), and thinking, the link. The meaning of creation is nature-making collectively and Soul-making particularly; and the process of making is the relation. In Eckhart's language: 'God (or Father) is always working, and His working is to beget the Son. The philosophic ethic consequent on these notions is that there is God in Nature, and God in Soul (Man), and both are related, which means, they are identical and in their ultimate essence & Unity. The Trinity is because of the Unity being a Totum or Complex.
1 Man or Soul is the particular individual, the representative of the group soul, the Demiurge, the Son. (the masculino Brahma emanated from the neutral Brahman, the Father).
