Hinduism, doctrine and way of life

HINDUISM

DOCTRINE AND WAY
OF LIFE

by
C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
NEW DELHI

FIRST IMPRESSION

Three Rupees

Printed and Published by Devi Prasad Sharma
at the Hindustan Times Press, New Delhi.

CONTENTS

Chapter

Page

Preface

1

I Introductory

5

II Disharmonies

10

III Ancient Yet Modern . .

18

IV The First Step

33

V The Vedantic Postulate

45

VI Maya

49

VII Karma

62

VIII The Vedanta Ethic

76

Conclusion

85

TEXTS

91

iw884136

HINDUISM

DOCTRINE AND WAY
OF LIFE

by
C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
NEW DELHI

FIRST IMPRESSION

CXrpentier

Three Rupees

Printed and Published by Devi Prasad Sharma
at the Hindustan Times Press, New Delhi.

CONTENTS

Chapt

er

Page

Preface

1

I

Introductory

5

II

Disharmonies

10

III

Ancient Yet Modern . .

18

IV

The First Step

33

V

The Vedantic Postulate

45

VI

Maya

49

VII

Karma

62

VIII

The Vedanta Ethic

76

Conclusion

85

TEXTS

91

PREFACE

Whether the claim made in the introductory
chapter that Vedanta can create a conscience
for social obligations is accepted or not, this
book will have served its purpose if it gives
to those who read it a clear idea of the
philosophy of the Hindus and the way of
life flowing from it. Hinduism has been the
subject of study by quite a number of earnest
men from foreign lands. Some, repelled by
features of the social structure still in existence
among Hindus, have condemned Hindu philo-
sophy itself as worthless. Others have found
great and rare things in it, but in trying to give
expression to what they admire, they confuse
and mystify their readers and leave them
sceptical. This is only what may be expected,
for while difficulties of language and idiom can
be overcome by patient scholarship, the complex
product of the gradual synthesis of philosophy
and social evolution, that is to say, of the eternal
with the ephemeral, which has taken place
through millennia and which reflects vicissi-
tudes of a chequered history, is not easy for a
foreigner to understand or explain. It is hoped
that this book will be found to present in a
brief and fairly understandable form the ele-
m^ents of Hindu faith and ethics, a knowledge

I HINDUISM

of which will enable one to grasp the ethos of
India.

Half the population of the world lives in Asia
and professes allegiance to religious and moral
ideas that undoubtedly originated in India. Sir
Henry Maine has stated that, barring the blind
forces of nature, there was nothing that lived
and moved in the world which was not Hellenic
in origin. This may be true, but it must be re-
membered that Hellenic thought owes a good deal
to India. Philosophic speculation had well advan-
ced in India before the time of Socrates. The
conceptions of Indian seers travelled to Greece
and could not have failed to make their impres-
sion on Hellenic thought. Even from the point of
view of the mere scholar, it would be helpful to
have a clear knowledge of the basic elements of
Hindu religion and philosophy.

India has her importance in the world, and
knowledge of the basic elements of India's
culture would enable people to understand
her better. The Government of India is
secular in the sense that the State does not
support one religion or another but is firmly
pledged to impartiality towards people of all
faiths. But this does not mean that the people
of India have given up the spiritual and moral
doctrines in which they have been brought up,
which form the basis of all their culture and
which qualify and shape all future additions to
that culture. This book deals with the spiritual

PREFACE 6

and ethical doctrines that have given to India f
its way of hfe.

Names of gods do not make rehgion any more
than the names of men and women make up
their personahty- Names are originally given
and used without any idea of comparison or
contrast with other names. They are handed
down by tradition. Custom gathers fragrances
and associations around them that are not per-
ceived by any but those who have for genera-
tions been brought up in the use of those names.
Each name by which the Most High is known
is hallowed by the ecstatic religious experience
of seekers, and gathers round itself the light and
fragrance and the healing strength born of the
rapturous adoration of generations that have
sought and found Him. Whether it be God,
Jehovah, Bhagwan, Ishwar, Allah, Hari, Siva or
Rama, it is the same Being that in vague manner
is recalled by every devotee when he utters
the name which he has been brought up to
associate with the m\^stery of the universe and
the idea of worship. To an outsider or unbe-
liever the most exhaustive collection of such
names can bring no help to understanding.

The writer must make it clear at the very out-
set that he does not profess to prove anything
but seeks to present the body of faith called
Vedanta to those who are not familiar with it. It
is his belief that while agnosticism or scepticism
may do no harm and on the contrary may do

4 HINDUISM

much good to the minds of an enlightened few
that find satisfaction in it, in the mass, scepticism
inevitably and steadily leads to positive denial.
A divorce between action and moral responsi-
bility follows. This is not good either for the
present or for the future generations. It is the
writer's conviction that Vedanta is a faith as
suitable for modern times as it was for ancient
India, and more especially so, as the world is
now fully and irreplaceably permeated by the
discipline and knowledge that have come to
stay through science and are bound to grow as
time advances.

Chapter I
INTRODUCTORY

HiNDUiSAi is a modern word. Vedanta is the
best among the numerous names given to
the rehgious faith of the Hindus. He who
professes and practises Vedanta is a Vedantin.
This name has not so far been solely appropri-
ated by any single Hindu denomination.

The regulated co-operative economy that must
replace individual competition calls for some
spiritual and cultural basis, and the ethic and
culture rooted in Vedanta can undoubtedly ful-
fil this purpose. Everyone now realizes that the
scheme of life which held the field till recently
and which gave what was called prosperity in
the nineteenth century is now out of date. The
prosperity resulting from the economy of private
competition necessarily carried with it inequal-
ity of distribution. Indeed, the prosperity was
based on this very inequality. Somie people
either in the same country or elsewhere had to
live in varying degrees of squalor in order to
build up and support that prosperity. But a
change has now come about and unhappiness in
any sector of society or in any part of the world
is considered as an intolerable disgrace and it
is the conscious aim of all classes and all people

6

HINDUISM

to reach much higher standards of physical and
moral comfort than now prevail. Inequality is
no longer considered either necessary or even
tolerable. The old scheme of life based on
private competition and laissez-faire is defi-
nitely condemned as anarchic. It has come to
be looked upon as a revised edition of the law
of the jungle. It is now widely recognized that
what was hitherto thought to be the private
enclosures of individual life must in the interest
of society as a whole be trespassed upon and
regulated by the community. The common
weal has the dominant claim in every national
State. It is also realized that, as far as possible,
regulation should be deemed an international
obligation, since the nations of the world and
their needs have become so interrelated that it
is now an established rule that national boun-
daries should no longer mark the limits of
economic control.

What is felt, however, by large sections is that
while regulation is necessary, the economy re-
sulting from it should be so designed as not
completely to stifle individual liberty and indi-
vidual initiative and kill the sense of joy which
issues out of the exercise of that liberty and in-
itiative. Some have no hope of this reconcili-
ation and den}^ its possibility. But others stoutly
maintain that it is quite possible and that there
is an economy that can combine the necessary
over-all regulation with the basic freedom of

INTRODUCTORY /

the individual. There is, however, so much joy
in individual initiative that it is worth while to
make an attempt to find a solution which will
preserve it, if not wholly, at least in great parts
while imposing regulation in the interest of the
community. It is never good to give up the
battle for freedom as lost. Whichever view may
ultimately turn out to be true, one thing is cer-
tain, that the pain of a regulated economy is due
to the fact that regulation comes from outside,
imposed by an external authority. Not only
does this compulsion by external authority
create pain, but it prejudicially affects the
working efficiency of regulation itself. Judged,
therefore, from every point of view, an ordered
economy as distinguished from laissez-faire calls
for the general acceptance of a code of values
and a culture that can operate as a law from
within and supplement whatever external regu-
lation it may be necessary or feasible to impose.
Such a code of spiritual values and such a cul-
ture will help in the preservation of a sense of
individual liberty and initiative in the midst of
complicated State regulations, to keep which
sense alive is the aim of those who seek to re-
concile the new order with old liberty. Even
those who look upon this liberty as an outmod-
ed illusion and plump unconditionally for regu-
lation must agree that a law operating from
within is more efficient than one externally
imposed, and also less liable to evasion. The

8 HINDUISM

baser elements of society try to exploit regula-
tion and make of it an opportunity for illegal
gain either of power or wealth. One of the
most difficult practical problems in regulated
economy is how to meet this evil. A well
accepted ethic and culture is the only solution.
The question, then, is whether there is any
ground for hoping that we can devise and make
people accept a culture or an ethic that can ef-
fectively operate in this manner. Can we devise
and promote a religious faith that will assist
large-scale regulation of the life of the individual
for the benefit of the community? It may be
admitted at once that it is not an easy task, even
if it be assumed as possible of achievement,
now to found a new religion to serve a
particular secular purpose. But Vedanta, for
which the writer claims the virtue of ap-
propriateness to the new economy, is not
a new religion. It figures in the most ancient
calendar of faiths, and it is the living faith which
guides the lives of three hundred millions of
men and women. The common folk living in
the greater part of Asia profess religions and
moral ideas very closely related in origin to the
religion and the moral ideas of India. Al-
though the West has for long accepted Chris-
tianity, the faiths that inspired the litera-
ture and philosophies of Greece and Rome
were faiths that in a large measure absorb-
ed and assimilated Vedantic currents from

INTRODUCTORY

9

India. An exposition of the basic principles of
Vedanta may, in addition to giving adequate
information to those who are interested in the
rehgions of the world, secure some attention
from important persons concerned in reorder-
ing the world in secular matters.

Political ideas that are crumbling under the
weight of events are clung to by their adherents
with the fanatical desperation of last-ditchers.
Disaster threatens. Thinking men have to cast
about for some sounder foundations for civil-
ization and for the principles of international
conduct if catastrophic misfortune is not to be-
fall the human race. If indeed one of the most
ancient of the world's heritages can serve as such
a foundation, its principles deserve to be set out
in as clear a language as possible for examina-
tion and acceptance by earnest men.

Chapter II
DISHARMONIES

Truth is one and indivisible and the seat of
harmony or unity of thought is the human mind
on which all external impulses impinge. It
is impossible for the mind to accept a truth for
some purposes and reject it for others. We can-
not be doing wisely in entertaining contrary
disciplines of mind. The discipline of physical
science has come to stay. Indeed, it is by far
the most dominant discipline of modern times.
Material objects and forces offer themselves for
the closest examination and the greatest variety
of experiment. It is not therefore surprising
that the advance of knowledge in that field is
more rapid and substantial than in morals or
philosophy. The forms of thought and reason-
ing imposed in the discipline of physical science
must be accepted and taken as models in shaping
other disciplines. It is no good running counter
to them. Acceptance of the scientific method is
not a defeat for religion, but is acceptance of
the sovereignty of truth which is only an aspect
of religion. It is a correct view of religion that
it can never be out of harmony with science.
But it is too well known how often the propo-
sitions of religions are contrary to the accepted
axioms of the scientific world.

DISHARMONIES

11

Even greater is the divergence between reli-
gious and moral doctrines on the one hand and
the principles of expediency governing political
activities on the other. The contradictions are
ignored or treated as inevitable and no attempt
is made to reconcile them with one another.
It has become another accepted axiom that con-
tradictions between religion and practical af-
fairs must be deemed unavoidable! This is
not a form of reconciliation, but chronic dis-
harmony, and it must result in injury to the
minds of men and consequently to social well-
being. Hypocrisy cannot become harmless by
being widespread and taken for granted. It
acts like a consuming internal fever which is
worse than an obvious and acute distemper.

Human energy is wastefully consumed in
disharmonies involved in the prevailing con-
tradictions in science, religion, national politics
and the conduct of international affairs. We
have no doubt got on for a good length of
time on this wasteful plan of life. But, is it
good or wise to continue thus? The problems
we have to face are increasing in difficulty and
the disadvantages of error increase in accelerat-
ed ratio with the size and number of the
difficulties we have to overcome. What did not
materially affect the position when the problems
were simple assumes tremendous proportions
when they have grown bigger and become more
complex.

12 HINDUISM

The laws of nature that we have come to
know, the philosophy we believe in, the state-
craft that we practise should all be made to
accord and harmonize with one another if we
hope successfully to face the problems that
confront us in the present most complicated
w^orld. Have we real belief in truth? This is
the vital question. If we have that belief then
we must summon the needed courage and act.
Previous generations had simpler problems, but
it must be admitted that they grappled with
them more courageously and with a greater
spirit of adventure than we seem inclined to
show in tackling our more difficult problems.
This weakness is unfortunate, whatever the
causes. We should not, however, despair but,
drawing inspiration from our forebears, sum-
mon all the spirit we can command to restore
basic harmony of thought and to make all
necessary modifications in our fundamental
beliefs and axioms for that purpose.

. When our minds dwell on scientific research
and studies, we implicitly accept certain truths.
It is a mistake to believe that by a mental fiat
these accepted axioms could be dismissed and
forgotten when we deal with God and the
things of religion. Neither truth nor the human
mind is so docile as to submit to such unnatural
repression. But does it not look as if we have
accomplished this successfully during all these
years of steady scientific progress? The expla-

DISHARMONIES 13

nation is that faith divorced from truth has
become hypocrisy, and the achievement of the
impossible was only a delusion of the mind.
Two contrary faiths could not possibly remain
as faiths and secure allegiance of the mind. The
one or the other must have deteriorated and
changed its real substance while masquerading
as faith.

Equally unwisely have we been practising the
art of holding contrary faiths when professing
and expounding religion and morality as against
the principles followed when dealing with affairs
of State. Here, too, we accept certain firm
axioms at one time and expect them to lie dor-
miant in a corner the next mom^ent when w^e
deal with statecraft. Indeed, it is generally con-
sidered folly for anyone to base the practice of
politics on the principles of religion. Even so
good and pious a man as Sir Walter Scott wrote
in his personal journal, "The adaptation of reli-
gious motives to earthly policy is apt among
the infinite delusions of the human heart — to
be a snare". He meant definitely that religion
and politics had better remain in different
pigeon-holes and that it would be folly to at-
tempt to reconcile the basic axioms of religion
and those of politics. This is accepted almost
as a truism in daily life but is not the less harm.-
ful for such general acceptance. It has been,
throughout the ages, considered reasonable and
wise to resort to various forms of self-deception

14 HINDUISM

to carry m one mmd the load of these two iso-
lated disciplines of worldly wisdom and religion.
Worse still, it is also considered wise to practise
fraud on the minds of our children for the pur-
pose of handing this scheme of isolation down
to the next generation. Each one of us has the :
responsibility of bringing up a certain number '
of children and shaping their tender minds.
Parents and schoolmasters both practise delibe-j
rate fraud where they owe their most sacred!
duty and abuse the trusting plasticity of the
young mind to fulfil this 'sacred' object of
perpetuating disharmony of thought and hand-
ing it intact to the next generation! The
unpleasant task is often sought to be trans-
ferred by father to mother or vice versa, and
by both to the schoolmaster. The work is done
in the untidy way in which all unpleasant tasks
are bound to be done, but it is done so far as the
mischief is concerned. The child is taught
absolutely to accept certain principles as right
and taught also at the same time to discar
those principles in action wherever worth whil
worldly results are to be obtained.

A simultaneous acceptance of contradictor
ideas is not possible except in the form of a
illusion. Even if it be accomplished in a how
fide manner, it cannot be a healthy proces
We cannot employ untruth as a servant withou'
paying the heavy wage it demands, viz., spiritu
death. It is just another aspect of the grea

DISHARMONIES 15

truth that was embodied in the significant
words that the wages of sin is death. If we
continually practise error, we cannot prevent
the wells of the spirit from going dry.

The injury done by disharmony is to the mind,
which is the thinking and feeling machine, — the
very engine-room in the power-house of human
energy. When the engine is damaged, what
else can we expect but serious injury to the cause
of human progress? Even if we looked upon
civilization as a business concern, its most pre-
cious capital asset is the sum-total of the minds
of its men and women. The depreciation to
which this asset is subjected by reason of the
chronic contradiction of principles is ruinous.
The hope of mankind must be restored by stop-
ping this rot.

In the olden days the contradiction between
science and religion was not so great as it is at
present. The very backwardness of science was
a factor that reduced the difference. As a result,
in those days fervent adherence to religion and
philosophy not only did not cause serious dishar-
mony but on the contrar^^ spiritualized research
and led men to great achievement. This was
possible because they did not try to believe in
contrary things. There are numerous instances
in the pages of ancient history as well as in the
early history of modern times of great pioneers
^ in science being devout men of God who regard-
ed research as the service divinely ordained for

16

HINDUISM

them. But science has now grown and has an
immensely wider circle of followers than ever
before. As a result, the maladjustment is at
present much more serious and the mischief
trem.endous. I

As for the contradictions between religion and
that class of worldly activities of intelligent men
called politics, the divergence is even greater
than that between science and religion. It is in-
deed a miracle that earnest Christians preserve
both their faith and their psychological health
under the conditions of current national and in-
ternational activities. The State permits, aids
and abets the wholesale infringement of Vv^hat is
daily read and formally taught as the word of
Christ. Yet, almost all the citizens of the State
profess religion and believe themselves to be
Christians. They duly celebrate Christian rites
and festivals. The reign of relentless private
competition, the right to make maximum private
profit at the expense of others and the explora-
tion of every advantage got by accident or
acquired by enterprise, so that the differences
between man and man may grow in geometric
progression, are all plain denials of Christ. For
the execution of deep-laid plans based on the
so-called fundamental right to pri\'ate competi-
tion, gigantic corporations equal in respectability
to the Church and far richer, grander and more
awe-inspiring than the Church's most impressive
manifestations are established under the autho-

DISHARMONIES 17

rity and protection of democratic States. Yet,
almost every citizen of those States is a Christian
or belongs to some other faith equally opposed
to inequality and exploitation. The anti-spiri-
tual significance of the hypocrisy generated by
such contradictions is tremendous. Civilization
must crumble corroded by this contradiction if
nothing were done to avert the catastrophe.

It may be argued that this is an exaggeration,
that there are many individuals who are faith-
ful to professions and who continually protest
against the misuse of wealth and power. A
great deal of dissent is no doubt honestly and
bravely expressed in every country against the
neglect of religious principles. Even war in just
causes is opposed and the volume of pacifist
literature may be considered as standing proof
of the validity of this plea. But this dissent of
individuals is allowed to be expressed only be-
cause it does not material^ interfere with the
existing order. It even serves in its own way
as an ally of the dominant hypocrisy, for by
providing a vent and an escape for guilty cons-
cience, it relieves the pressure and allows the
crime to continue.

Chapter III
ANCIENT YET MODERN

The question may be asked, all this being
accepted, what then? Is not the contradiction
inevitable? It is true that religion or philo-
sophy contrary to modern science is bound to
become sham and hypocrisy, but is there any
possibility of removing the maladjustment or
averting the mischief? Can we offer to the
world a religion which is not contrary to science?
While it may be true and may be accepted
that to secure a firm basis for progress all
disharmony between science and religion and
between religion and statecraft must be re-
moved, and an integrated and well-adjusted
body of thought and feeling must be estab-
lished.^ is there any hope, it may be asked,
of finding a solution in that direction? Are we
not leading to the position that religion must
be given up altogether? Is it not obvious that
the contradiction pointed out can only be remov-
ed by the total abandonment of religion? Is it
possible, at this stage of human history, to build
a religious fabric around scientific truth as it has
evolved and is still evolving?

Vedanta is the answer. It is not necessary
to build a new religion. In India, we have a

ANCIENT YET MODERN 19

religion, and a philosophy attached to it, as old
as civilization itself which is remarkably con-
sistent with science as well as politics.

The claim may to outsiders seem strange, espe-
cially to those whose knowledge of Hinduism has
been derived from the information supplied by
the Christian missionaries of an older generation.
As we are not, however, living in the times of
the proselytizing Christian missions whose one
function was to show that Hinduism was good
for nothing, it may be hoped that the claim made
in this book will receive a fair examination at
the hands of sincere thinkers. In any event,
readers in India would stand to benefit by a re-
assessment of their own heritage in the light of
modern conditions and requirements.

Put in precise words the claim is that a code
of ethics and a system of values were evolved
by Hindu philosophers out of the religious philo-
sophy known as Vedanta, which is not onl}^
consistent with science, but is admirably suited
to be a spiritual basis for the more just and
stable social organization that good people all
over the world desire and are working for. The
attempt everywhere has been to bring about
economic and social reorganization on the
strength only of State authority. It imposes a
terrible strain on that authority, and is subject
to inevitable flaws in execution. It has also this
defect of all repressive State action — that it is
irksome to the citizen and creates a mental state

20 HINDUISM

unfavourable to co-operation, whereas the fur-
nishing of a code of spiritual values through
religious faith and practice would reduce the
strain, minimize the flaws in execution and pro-
duce a happier integration of thought and action
which by itself would be a priceless gain and
a source of strength.

It goes without saying that spiritual values
proposed as the basis of a sounder social orga-
nization must not be an improvisation or an
invention of expediency designed to further
material interest by cloaking it with sanctity.
A spurious scheme of so-called spiritual values
to serve a sordid purpose would be a de-
lusion if self-imposed, an imposture if ofl:ered
for acceptance. Honesty is the best policy; but
it is not as policy that honest conduct was niade
part or continues to be part of every religion.
Similarly, Vedanta is bound to help regulated
economy but it is not for that reason that it was
conceived or should be accepted as a faith. It
claims to be accepted on its intrinsic appeal and
worth. If accepted, it will serve also the other
purpose. Truth, it may be repeated, is one and
indivisible. Politics, religion and science cannot
rest on mutually contrary axioms nor can the
mere expediency of any one of them enable
them to pass for truth, unless it is true in the
sense at least of its presenting no vulnerable
point for attack by reason of inconsistency with
established truths.

ANCIENT YET MODERN 21

The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are
the source-books of Vedanta. It is a remark-
able achievement of intellectual imagination — •
it would not be incorrect to call it inspiration —
that the rule of law in science was anticipated i
in the ancient Hindu scriptures. The God of
Vedanta is not an anthropomorphic creation
with human capriciousness — a conception against
which the veriest tyro in modern science can
launch a successful attack. Divine sovereignty
is explained in the Bhagavad Gita in a language
which anticipates and meets the difficulties that
modern science raises against religious cosm.o-
logy. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the
sovereignty of God is exercised in and through
the unchangeable law of cause and effect, that
is, through what we call the laws of nature.

All this world is pervaded by Me in form unmanifest;
all things abide in Me, but I stand apart from them.
And yet beings are not rooted in Me. Behold the scheme
of My sovereignty! Myself the origin and the support
of beings, yet standing apart from them. Using nature
which is Mine own, I create again and again all this
multitude of beings, keeping them dependent on nature.
In the scheme of My sovereignty, nature brings forth
the moving and the unmoving, and in consequence of
this the world evolves.*

A study of the Upanishads will show that
Vedanta postulates that the universe is the re-
sult of a gradual unfolding of the creative power

* Gita IX 4 to 10.

22 HINDUISM i

inherent in the primordial substance. In fact
it may be said that the philosophy of Hinduism,
anticipated the basic theories of biology and
physics. The very approach to things in the
Upanishads, the insistence on adherence to truth
and on tireless investigation is remarkably in
the nature of an anticipation of the methods of
science.*'

Just as Vedanta appears to have anticipated
science and prepared the ground for meeting
the contradictions that were to appear between
science and religion, so also the code of conduct
and the spiritual values that were developed by
Hindu seers on the basis of Vedantic philosophy
seem to have fully anticipated the socio-econo-
mic problems that civilization has had subse-
quently to face. The profit-motive and the civic
right of private competition were definitely
discarded in what was laid down as the Vedan-
tin's way of life. This, as clearly set out in the
Bhagavad Gita, is that men must fulfil social
duty and work according to capacity and not for 1
profit. We are now told by social and economic '
reformers that the State should see to it that
men and women work without aiming at personal
gain and with an eye onty to the welfare of the
community. And this is just what the Bhagavad
Gita laid down. The way of life taught in this
living spring of Hindu ethics is based ex

II Mundakopanishad— III (5) (6).

ANCIENT YET MODERN 23

pressly on the equal dignity and sacredness
of every form of labour that falls to one's lot.
All work, it reiterates with solemn emphasis,
should be done honestly and disinterestedly for
lokasangraha — welfare of the community — and
not for the satisfaction of personal desires. In-
deed, the Gita lays down in a unique manner the
whole socialist doctrine by characterizing work
as a religious offering in the truest sense. The
performance of one's allotted task is specifically
described in the Gita as an authorized and ac-
cepted form of worship:

If a man is devoted to his particular duties and per-
forms them, he wins beatitude; when a man performs
his proper duty, he worships Him from whom the world
has issued and by whom all that we see is pervaded and
thereby he attains beatitude. It is better for one to do
even imperfectly the duties that fall to one's lot, than
to do those of others perfectly. If a man does the work
that comes to him by birth, no blemish will attach to it,
whatever kind of work it may be. One should not
abandon one's natural duty, even if evils attach thereto;
every human activity involves some evil as fire carries
smoke. He whose mind is in every way detached,
whose self is conquered, who has freed himself from
selfish longings attains by dint of that detachment the
attributes attached to worklessness.

The very specific terms in which the doctrine
is enunciated that the proper performance of
one's allotted task is an act of worship in the

24 HINDUISM

most religious sense of the term is worthy of
note.*!

Everywhere now in the civihzed world, men
want a wise allotment of work to individuals as
well as groups in accordance with the demands
of common interest in place of personal choice
or caprice. They feel they have had enough of
laissez-faire and of the 'divine' right of making
unlimited private profit. If it is essential that
individual efforts should be regulated and con-
trolled in the interest of society, this vital duty
cannot be left entirely to the spy and the police-
man employed to keep watch over citizens. We
must build up a social conscience and a cultural
incentive to co-operate from within and create a
spiritual yearning which makes a joy of restraint
and strenuous discharge of dut^^ The terrors
and risks and the very guilt and savagery of a
violent revolution might by a natural reaction
bring into being a fanaticism that serves to back
a new economic order that was brought into
existence at such supreme cost and sacrifice.
This fanaticism may function as a kind of spiri-
tual incentive. But the same cannot happen
when the revolution is attained by a mere Act

^ Yet, these very texts have lent themselves in the
hands of prejudiced critics to the interpretation that
these verses are an apology for the preservation of
the privileges of the higher castes! Perversity and
prejudice can convert elixir into poison.

ANCIENT YET MODERN 25

of Parliament. The spiritual value of things
depends on the price paid for them in suffer-
ing and sacrifice. An easily achieved revolu-
tion has not the same psychological virtue as one
paid for in blood and tears. Where there is no
backing of revolutionary fanaticism or its after-
effects there must be found something else
to operate as motive power. The only thing
that can do this effectively is a faith that operates
as a law from within and co-operates with State-
imposed restraints. In Vedanta, we have a
teaching rooted in immemorial tradition and
associated with the sacred names and memories
of a long line of seers, which can serve as the
spiritual and cultural basis for a new and more
just economy of life, if not all over the world,
at least in India itself.

All culture in India has been rooted in
Vedanta. Whatever courage, heroism, self-sacri-
fice or greatness is to be found in our history
or seen in the lives of our people has sprung
from Vedanta which is in our blood and tradi-
tion. For Vedanta is undoubtedly a living
philosophy of life in India which is part of
the mental structure of our people. The people
of India get it not from a study of books but
from tradition. It is in the air, so to say,
of India and Asia. The foreigner has to get it
from books and he necessarily sees so much
subtlety in it that he may well swear that it is
impossible that such a doctrine could ever be

26 HINDUISM

the actual cultural basis or living spiritual prin-
ciple of the daily life of any people of modern
times. Yet this is the fact in India. The great-
ness of Gandhiji and the strength of his move-
ment were entirely derived from and rooted
in Vedanta. However much foreign civilization
and new aspirations might have affected the
people of India, this spiritual nutriment has
not dried up or decayed or changed. The lives
of the rich as well as of the poor, of the
leisured classes as of the peasants and la-
bourers, of the illiterate and not only of the
learned, are in varying measure sweetened
by the pervasive fragrance of this Indian phi-
losophy. Paradoxical as it may seem, even
communities born to avocations deemed dis-
honest and disreputable have evolved a code of
honour of their own, and are Vedantins to the
extent of sincerely respecting it. This curious
moral enclave in sinful lives touches the heart,
and makes a great pity of what is doubtless just
a matter for sheer reprobation.

The Upanishads are quite large in number,
but about twelve may be called the principal
Upanishads and they are now available in col-
lected book-form with fairly accurate transla-
tions. It would be a mistake to expect ancient
works to be like the books of our own time. The
principal Upanishads were written thousands of
years ago — scholars are not certain about the
exact time. In India as in the rest of the world.

ANCIENT YET MODERN 27

the environment and the lives and habits of men
were all very different then from what they are
today. We may not forget or overlook this dif-
ference in attempting to understand and inter-
pret the Upanishads or for that matter any book
of ancient times. To interpret and judge things
written more than three thousand years ago in
the light of today and bring to bear on them
modern doubts, discoveries and controversies
would be utterly stupid. We should remember
that what is now doubted or disputed was not
then the subject of question or controversy.
Any literature, sacred or secular, must be juxta-
posed to the real life of the place and period
before it can be rightly understood. We should
throw our minds back thousands of years,, and
try to recreate by an effort of imagination the
world of the Upanishadic period — the way in
which men lived and thought, and the way they
disciplined themselves so that we may under-
stand and appreciate what was said by the
rishis or seers.

The principal teaching of all the Upanishads
is this: Man cannot achieve happiness througii
mere physical enjoyment obtained through
wealth or the goods of the world or even through
the pleasures attainable by elevation to the
happy realms above through the performance
of sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. The
potency of these sacrifices was a matter of
implicit belief in those times. Yet, the attain-

28 HINDUISM

ment of these worlds of pleasures through Vedi
sacrifices is not the object of the Upanisha
teaching. In fact pleasures in super-terrestri
worlds were regarded as hardly higher in re
value than sensual enjoyment on earth. Tb
Mundakopanishad, after a glowing descriptio:
of the welcome accorded in swarga to the pe:
former of sacrifices — how he is borne there o
the rays of the sun and told in loving terms th
he has earned the pleasures he is going t
enjoy — goes on to say:

Perishable and transient are the results achieved
sacrifices. The per[:on of small wisdom who havi:
won them congratulates himself on having eternal bli
is caught up again in decay and death. He only enjo
the fruits of his deeds in a distinguished place in swarg
and when they are exhausted he returns either to his
world or enters a lower one.

The only happiness worth a wise man's seek-
ing is permanent happiness as distinguished from
fleeting pleasures that are exhausted by enjoy- J
ment like a credit account in a bank either here
or in the world beyond. Absolute happiness
can result only from liberation and it follows
therefore that spiritual enlightenment alone,
which frees the soul from all illusion, can libe-
rate the soul by breaking the bond of karma,
the unending chain of work and results, and
unite it again to the Supreme Being, which is
moksha(Ii {Deration ) .

^■

ANCIENT YET MODERN 29

It is necessary to point out that enlighten-
ment does not mean learning, much or little.
Indeed, enlightenment is not an intellectual
state, but a state of spiritual awakening which
comes through moral rebuilding. Purity of life
and a mind free from selfish desires are essen-
tial for enhghtenment. Without full moral self-
control, no enlightenment is possible.

The path of enlightenment therefore runs
through stages in which the self gets more and
more purified, more and more truly freed from
the longings that often seem to disappear but
hide themselves only to reappear in other forms.
The mantras or verses of the Upanishads may
appear in some places to conflict with one an-
other, but these contradictions disappear when
it is remembered that the whole is a process of
teaching by stages. All education was through
oral teaching in those days. The disciple lived
in intimate companionship with the teacher and
the scripture v/as little more than a mnemo-
nic guide to the teacher and not a text-book
to be kept in the students' library. To the
teacher as well as to the pupil, it was a help
to memory, not a comprehensive treatise. The
system of education when the Upanishads were
composed was a highly evolved process but the
medium was not, as now, the reading of books
bought at bookshops or taken out of libraries.
This made a great difference as to the content of
books and what was left for oral guidance.

30 HINDUISM

Separate cults based on the worship of Siva
or of Vishnu are of no consequence in Vedanta.
Whatever may be the significance of the
later controversies as to who is the Supreme
Being, Siva or Vishnu, these controversies
do not find a place in the Upanishads.
Vedanta has indeed no place for such dis-
putes. Vedanta is not mere philosophy. It
is both philosophy and religion. Yet there is
no controversy in it about forms of worship.
Vedanta is the common heritage of the people of
India in whatever denomination they may hap-
pen to have been brought up. In his treatises,
Sankara, the great Vedantin, uses the word
Narayana to indicate the Supreme Being. Others
in their books give to the Supreme Being the
name of Siva. Names and images, whether
mental or sculptured, even the sacred and mystic
syllable "OM" itself, are but crutches to help the
faltering feet of infirm faith on the way to reali-
zation— mere aids to concentration, and pro-
tection against doubts and distractions. The
Saiva-Siddhanta philosophy wherein Siva is the
Supreme Being is not dififerent from the Vendanta
taught by Ramanuja who treats Hari as the
Supreme Being. The worshipper of Siva or
Hari may emphatically say that either the one
or the other is the Supreme Spirit and every
other God is but His manifestation for the time
being and for the particular function, but
names do not matter. Indeed, Jehovah, Allah

ANCIENT YET MODERN 31

and the God of the New Testament may well be
made the central name-piece of the teaching of
the Upanishads and the sense of it would remain
unaltered. Pious men of all religions should
indeed study the Upanishads and the Gita in that
very manner, to whatever faith they may belong,
only substituting their accustomed name wher-
ever the Supreme Being is referred to. This
really means that the Upanishads contain the
quintessence of all faiths in which the divine
thirst of the soul for the nectar of immortality
has found expression. They contain the answer
to the yearning appeal —

From appearance lead me to Reality.

From darkness lead me to Light.

From death lead me to Immortality.^ /

The tradition in Hinduism is that it is not open
to any Hindu, whatever be the name and mental
image of the Supreme Being he uses for his
devotional exercises, to deny the existence of the
God that others worship. He can raise the
name of his choice to that of the highest but he
cannot deny the divinity or the truth of the God
of other denominations. The fervour of his
own piety just gives predominance to the name
and form he keeps for his own worship and
contemplation, and he treats the others as Gods
deriving divinity therefrom. This reduces all
controversy to a devotional technique of con-

H Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

32 HINDUISM

centration on a particular name and mental
form or concrete symbol as representing the
Supreme Being. It makes no difference in the
content of Vedanta to which all devotees equally
subscribe.

Devotees of other Gods who worship them

With true sincerity really worship Me,

Though not in the regular way.

Bhagavad Gita.

Just as all water raining from the
Skies goes to the ocean, worship of all
Gods goes to Kesava.

I Mahabharata.

I

Chapter IV
THE FIRST STEP

It is commonly thought that the main teaching
of Vedanta is retirement from the activities of
the world. The literary tradition according to
which the 'mild Hindu' lets "the legions thunder
past, then plunges in thought again" is mainly
due to this illusion, and partly also to wishful
thinking. Far from this being true it is a
position refuted in almost every chapter of the
Bhagavad Gita with great force. Sanyasa or
renunciation has over and over again been ex-
plained as the giving up of the selfish desire for
the fruits of action, and not the giving up of
action itself. "He who renounces the reward
resulting from action is called the renouncer".
Flight from painful duty is unmanly and ignoble.
The teaching of Sri Krishna in the Gita, which
is the epitome of Upanishadic scripture, is:

"It is thine to do thy duty, the result does not belong
to thee."

"It becometh not thee to tremble when faced with the
duties of thy life."

"Look upon pleasure and pain and loss and gain as
the same and fight — ^thereby thou incurrest no sin."

The total effect of the teaching is not inaptly
summarised by San jay a in the Gita itself:

34 HINDUISM

Where there is Krishna, the Lord of Yogis, and where
there is also Partha, bow in hand, there is prosperity,
victory and all good.

In other words, it is not the cult of the fugi-
tive from battle, but of the strong man armed,
who puts his trust in God, and does his duty.
Although this distinction was clearly made so
long ago and in such an authoritative scripture
as the Bhagavad Gita, the confusion still persists
and it becomes necessary to reiterate it even in
this book written in the middle of the twentieth
century of the Christian era that it is a mistake
to identify Vedanta with retirement from life
and its activities. Most certainly the lesson of
Vedanta is not retirement from social co-opera-
tion. It is not the teaching of Vedanta that
men should renounce the world. Vedanta
does demand renunciation, but that is re-
nunciation of attachment, not of work or
duties. It wants men to get rid of the desire
for pleasurable fruits, for this leads to error,
pain, anger and confusion of mind. It demands
detachment of spirit while performing one's task
diligently and well. It lays the greatest empha-
sis on duties in co-operative life and activities
in the general interest. Vedanta provides the
soul-force to enable us to reduce selfishness,
egotism, attachment to pleasure and fear of pain,
and helps us to dedicate our lives to the efficient
performance of our duties. Out of Vedanta we
can develop resolution and fearlessness in service

THE FIRST STEP 35

and devotion to truth. The resolution and
fearlessness that characterized Gandhiji's long
and active life were inspired by Vedanta.
That illustration is perhaps more convincing
than a whole book of explanations.

A song from the Tamil poet Bharati expounds
the fearlessness that emerges from Vedanta: .

Let the whole world rise against me '

And calumny and ridicule pour without relent.

Let me lose my most precious possessions

And be driven to beg for my daily food.

Why, let my friends turn against me

And seek to poison my very food.

Let men attack me arrayed in regiments

And armed with deadly weapons.

Let the heavens break loose and fall on my head.

There is no fear in my heart, for why should I fear?
The root of this fearlessness is in the soul, and
is expressed thus in the Isavasya:

Who sees all beings in his own soul and his soul in
all beings — he hates no one. When the knower realizes
that all things are one with himself — what sorrow or
what illusion can there be?*

He who knows the bliss of Brahman — from which speech
and the mind return without reaching — fears nothing.**

Life itself and all that it inherits are transient
and unreal and only the good and bad in
thought and action stick to the soul in its jour-
* Isa— 6-7.

** Taittiriya— IV.

36 HINDUISM

ney through births and deaths. This faith is
part of the culture of the Vedanta. In the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it is said that Janaka
reahzes this and at once becomes free from fear.
Vedanta is the lesson and the inspiration prac-
tically of all the literature of India in a dozen
of its languages. It is not a creed of North or
South, but of all India and of all castes and all
sects. Names made the sects although there
was little or no distinction in faith or philosophy.
The source book for all of them is the Upa-
nishads. Vedanta has entered into the current
of all Indian literature, prose, poetry or drama,
lyric or narrative and imparts to it in varying
degrees a loftiness of outlook and a faith in
eternal verities. Vedantic thought moves round
two fundamental conceptions, Brahma and the
individual soul. With the advance of know-
ledge these two focal points converge. The
external universe is a transient form and not
reality. What the true nature of that reality
is we cannot know. The external universe is
the form in which it presents itself to our cons-
ciousness. How it may appear to intelligences
differently constituted from ours we do not
know. The Vedanta sets to itself the task of
reaching a clear comprehension of absolute
reality. This attempt, says a modern philosopher,
has been made on three occasions in the noble
story of human thought — in India in the Upa-

THE FIRST STEP 37

nishads, in Greece by Parmenides and Plato
and recently in Europe by Kant and Schopen-
hauer. Of these attempts undoubtedly the
earliest is that of the rishis of the Upanishads;
the other two were probably derived from or
inspired by it. According to Vedanta, the
external world gives rise to an almost infinite
and bewildering variety of conceptions, some
of which seem mutually contradictory. They
gather and revolve round two conceptions —
Brahma and the soul — and finally with the
gradual advance and ultimate perfection of
knov/ledge the clouds of mere seeming are dis-
persed, and there emerges the one absolute
Reality, Brahma. The multitudinous illusions
are maya. "This maya of Mine", says Sri
Krishna in the Gita, "is divine and consists of
qualities. It is impossible to extricate oneself
from it; but the man who reaches Me will get
over it". (VII— 14).

This is the solution of the great riddle of the
universe that the rishis of the Upanishads have
given to us. The first step in the teaching
of Vedanta is to develop the firm conviction /
that "I" am entirely distinct from the body /
through which I function. If real and deep
conviction is attained on this point, the other
steps are relatively easy thereafter. If, on the
contrary, this remains in doubt, further steps
are of no use.

38 HINDUISM

Is there any distinct thing that may be called
''soul" within this obvious and all-dominating
body? Is there something apart from the physi-
cal shell or casing, or is it merely a functioning of
the body which we wrongly regard as a separate
entity? When the body dies, does the soul also
die with it? Or does it continue to have an
existence? This is the basic doubt which per-
sists in spite of seeming acceptance. The
essential in "enlightenment" or jnana is a firm
and effective conviction on this matter. The
ultimate cause of all the sins and consequently
of the ills in the world is the lack of this con-
viction. Even if the doubt is somehow dispelled
at one point of time to one's satisfaction, it
returns again and overwhelms one. A man
can be said to be "enlightened" only when he
reaches a conviction on this point that is not
stirred into doubt again. It is only then that
his life becomes one of unswerving devotion to
truth, and marked by detachment and utter
fearlessness. There is that in Me which cannot
perish; indeed I am that and not this body or
the senses working in this body; I cannot be
hurt by anything that can happen except by
the evil that I think or do; the evil things that
come from within Me defile my soul, not any-
thing that comes to Me from outside; the evil
that others do may touch My body but it can-
not touch the soul. This is the faith that is
common ground for all religions, but all the

THE FIRST STEP 39

same it is the basic doubt of all men, the re-
moval of which is the essential first step of
enlightenment.

If men attain this first step, the battle is
practically won. Vedanta emphasises the im-
portance of this first step. That is why the
Upanishads speak not only of the Paramaat-
man, the Supreme Being, but again and again
deal in many and various ways with the indi-
vidual soul. The Gita begins with this by
dealing with death and killing in the first
discourse. It is not to foster the spirit of cruelty
and war that Krishna's famous discourse begins
in the manner that it does. It is to emphasize
the first truth before attempting to teach any-
thing else. The first lesson to be learnt before
speaking of detachment or anything else is
that there is that in us v/hich is immortal, other
than the body which we mistake for it. The
subsequent lessons would be of little avail or
worth if the disciple were still to confuse the body
with the person. It is only when it is realized
beyond all doubt that the body is different from
'the person that dwells in that body' that
Vedantic teaching can proceed. When once
that conviction is realized, Vedanta almost auto-
matically unfolds itself in orderly sequence,
and but little exposition is necessar\^ to evolve
the Vedantin's way of life.

The phrase used in Vedantic literature to
express the realization of one's soul as a thing

40

HINDUISM

apart from the body and its senses is that one^
should see the soul. The verb 'see' expresses
that perfect quality of immediate conviction
which is independent of other media (Apa-
roksha) and wherein intellect and feeling alike
directly and clearly get the vision which is the
aim of Vedanta. Intelligence, enquiry and
instruction apart, goodness and purity of life
are necessary to enable one to 'see' one's soul
which is hidden within one's inmost being. This
particular fact can be perceived, not merely
through ratiocination, but only if one is also
good.

A wall or a hill or a tree is visible to saint
and sinner alike. The truth in a proposition
of geometry can be seen by everyone alike
whether he be a good man or wicked. Self-
control and equanimity are not required to
grasp the truth in such a case and to attain the
conviction of its infallibility. It may be argued
that a teacher's guidance and reflexion may be
needed to obtain knowledge, but why should a
man be good in order to see what exists? Faults
of character cannot affect perception of a fact.
If the soul exists, it should be possible to ratio-
cinate and arrive at a clear conviction. Why
should character be a condition prerequisite for
knowledge of any kind?

The answer to this constitutes by far the most
important part of Vedanta. It is the overlooking
of this or failure to give adequate significance

THE FIRST STEP 41

to it that has caused even some Hindu philoso-
phers to fall into sectarian disputations and
differences over the path of knowledge, of
devotion, and of works as if they were sepa-
rate and distinct paths. Neither the earlier
Upanishads nor the later Bhagavad Gita furnish
authority for the view that jnana or knowledge
is possible of attainment without purity of mind.
Enlightenment can come only if purity of mind
and detachment of spirit are attained.

The soul is not a material limb or organ of
the body. It is not located in any particular
part of the body. It permeates body and mind.
Unless the mind is clear, that which permeates
it will not assume a distinct form or become
known. It is one thing to see external objects,
but it is altogether a different process to per-
ceive an entity which permeates and is hidden
in our own inner being and whose impercepti-
bility is due to our passions. Introspection may
enable us to analyse our minds and we may
ratiocinate about the subject. But to 'see' the
soul, we should not only direct our eyes inwards
but calm the mind and clear it of passion.
Purity of thought and a state of detachment al-
most amounting to joy arising out of the libera-
tion from external stimuli will remove the
turbidit\^ of the medium through which we
have to see.

It should be easy to see that what is in
the back and beyond of the mind, so to say,

42 HINDUISM

cannot be seen unless the medium is clear
and free from passion. It is not intellectual
ignorance that blinds our vision, but desires and
attachments. These prevent us from 'seeing'.
If this truth is realized, it will be understood
why a virtuous and pure heart is necessary
to see the soul within us. It will then also be
evident that all the three paths sometimes
referred to in the classic commentaries on
Vedanta as distinct paths — the way of enligh-
tenment or J7iarm, the way of faith and wor-
ship or hhakti, and the way of good works or
karma — are one and the same.

Realization does not come by much study or by learned
discussions. It comes to one whose self yearns for reali-
zation. It cannot come by mere knowledge to one
whose mind has not turned away from evil and has not
learnt to control itself and be at peace with the world.*

The openings of the mind, viz, the sense organs, are
directed outwards. That was how the bodily senses
were evolved by the spirit within. The senses being
directed outwards, men's thoughts ever tend outwards.
But some who are blessed with true understanding turn
their minds inwards and realize the self within. Those
without understanding pursue external pleasures and fall
into the widespread net of birth and death. Those of
steady mind do not spend their thought on transient
pleasures but seek the joy of liberation.**

i

* Kathopanishad 11—23, 24.
♦* Kathopanishad— IV-1.

THE FIRST STEP 43

Vedanta leaves the matter in no doubt. The
mind and the senses must be properly brought
under control in order to realize the spiritual
substance within us which is distinct from the
body. Our reason must be cleared of the delu-
sions born of passions and desires. With unre-
mitting attention, the understanding must be
made to control the mind and the senses. There
is in the Kathopanishad a beautiful simile illus-
trating the relations which exist between the
soul, the body and the senses:

Know the soul to be the rider in the chariot which is
the body. The intellect is the charioteer, and the mind
the reins. The senses are the horses and the desirable
things of the world are the thoroughfare on which they
career. If the charioteer is unwise, and does not
vigilantly restrain the mind, then the senses bolt un-
controllably like wicked horses. If, on the contrarj^ he
is wise and keeps a firm hand on his mind, then the
senses are in perfect control as good horses with a com-
petent charioteer.

The effort and vigilance that secure this
go by the name of Yoga, an oft-repeated but
much misunderstood word. Yoga is not a
mystic physical exercise in postures, giving
unusual powers over the body. It is self-
control rendered into a habit.

If the state of self-control such as is aimed at
in Vedanta is attained, one can 'see' the spirit
that is lodged within us. The state of mind

44 HINDUISM

reached through self-control and internal peace^
has to be maintained with vigilance. Thd
aspirant often finds that the state of mind he',
has reached after difficulty has just melted!
away. Vedanta warns the aspirants against!
depression on this account. The path of Yogai
is constant effort and unrelaxed vigilance andi
perseverance. Any lapse of vigilance results im
the disappearance of what was 'seen'. The
soul that was seen for a while again disap-
pears in the body and its passions and delusions
and we again mistake the one for the other as
we did before.

The firm control of tha senses is what is called Yoga.
Vigilance is necessary for this. Without it, Yoga is:
often acquired and lost.* *

Gita VI— 26, and Kathopanishad VI— 11.

311

*

Chapter V
THE VEDANTIC POSTULATE

The sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upan-
shad raises the old question: Was there a
First Cause? Shall we, seeing that the search
for causes takes us backwards along an inter-
minable chain, give up the idea of causation
and believe that the v/orld came out of nothing?
This cannot be, says the rishi. Look round and
see all that exists and particularly contemplate
on the mind of man the beauty and content of
which you can fully appreciate. Could all this
come out of nothing? Out of nothing, nothing
can come. Non-being cannot produce being,
much less could consciousness come out of no-
thing. Believe, therefore, says the rishi that
the causeless beginning was Sat, i.e., being
with consciousness. And that Original Cause
willed to expand and multiply and became light,
water, and all the living forms in the world,
serving as food for one another and growing and
multiplying. It is the Sat that is still multiply-
ing and expanding.

The Sat is the First Cause in every sense, the
efficient as well as the material cause. The
Upanishads illustrate this by the analogy of the

46 HINDUISM

spider and its 'self -drawing web'* and of the
blazing fire and the multitude of sparks which
spring from it.

Using nature, which is Mine own, I create again and
again all this multitude of beings, keeping them wholly-
dependent on nature. Under My sovereignty, nature
brings forth the moving and the unmoving and keeps
the world going.**

"How can this vast universe with its multi-
tudinous variety be produced in this simple
way?" asked Svetaketu whom his father
Uddalaka was instructing about the Sat and the
evolution of the world.

"Fetch a fruit of that nyagrodha tree," said
Uddalaka.

''Here is one, Sir," said Svetaketu.
"Break it and tell me what you see therein."
"I see some tiny seeds," said Svetaketu.
"Crush one of the tiny seeds," said the father.
"Yes, I have done it, Sir".
"What do you see therein?"
"Nothing", said Svetaketu.
"Yet in that subtle substance which was in-
side that little seed and which is hardly
visible to the eye existed the power that pro-
duced all this big-branching nyagrodha tree.
Do you wonder at it? Likewise all that exists

♦Mundakopanishad I — (i)-7.
II— (i)-l.
**Gita IX— 8, 10.

THE VEDANTIC POSTULATE 47

in this universe was potentially in the Sat,
dear boy, and thou art That. Believe it"*
In the Mundakopanishad, the rishi says:**

The whole universe is a manifestation and product of
that universal formless, causeless Being. The sun, moon
and all the quarters, all knowledge, and the souls of all
existing beings are parts and manifestations of that
single all-immanent Being. All life and all qualities,
functions and activities are evolutions of that single
Energy. He is the fire which makes the very sun burn
obediently like a faggot in the fire. The rain does not
rain, but it is He that rains through and by means of
the clouds. Living beings multiply, but it is He indeed
that multiplies through them. The mountains and the
seas, the rivers, the trees and shrubs and their essences,
all issue from that Supreme Spirit who is immanent in
everything and dwells in our hearts. Realize this, dear
boy, and cut asunder the entanglements of ignorance
that bind.

The theory of evolution by natural selection
may be considered to hold the field in the
science of biology. The whole structure of this
ingenious and remarkably well-attested theory
rests on two pillars and seems to do away with
design or a conscious cause: first, the sponta-
neous biogenesis of the first form of organic
matter; secondly, the occurrence of mutations
by accident and the survival value of the mut-

* Chhandogya Upanishad VI— 12, 1-3.
**Mundakopanishad H— 4, 5, 9, 10.

48 HINDUISM

ations in the struggle for existence. This ex-
planation of the almost infinite varieties of lifel
on earth amounts only to a pushing of the
mystery away from the field into an inaccessible
corner. The secret remains still unsolved. If
we take into account these two postulates on
which the theory of evolution by natural selec-
tion rests, we see that the solution does not take
us away from the causeless Sat of Chhandogya.
It is the Sat that brought about the first bioge-
nesis, and it is the Sat that brings into action
the yet undiscovered laws which govern the
'accidental' mutations and cause some of them
to survive and become new species. Vedanta
has no quarrel with this investigation and the
induction therefrom. Neither chemistry nor
biology explains anything. Chemical and other
'laws' are only classifications of observed phe-
nomena and nothing more. Neither familiarity
nor classification can itself be an explanation.
The unexplained factor is the Sat of Chhan-
dogya. It is as sublime an act of Omnipotence
to create an atom which can create a world
and a law which makes it to do so as to create
the fullv evolved world bv a fiat.

Chapter VI
MAYA

Those who have ever heard about Vedanta
have also heard about ma^^a — the famous Hindu
doctrine of illusion. It would be well here to
correct the popular misconception that this
doctrine does away with responsibility because
the world is according to it unreal. In truth,
however, the doctrine does not lay down that
the world is not real. All the teachers who
taught the doctrine of maya taught it as part
of Vedanta and this included, it should be re-
membered, the doctrine of karma. This latter
doctrine holds that we cannot escape the effect
of our actions. It is, therefore, impossible for
the Vedantin to hold that life is not real. There
is no doubt or ambiguit}^ about the doctrine of
karma which lays down the moral law of cause
and effect. No interpretation of any other
doctrine of Vedanta inconsistent with the law
of karma could be correct, as the latter is an
integral part of Vedanta.

Vedanta is a philosophy of evolution. The
universe, living and non-living, is a mani-
festation of Brahma. The destiny of all things
is change — "never for an instant does anything
in nature stand still" — and the individual soul

50 HINDUISM

is no exception. The philosophy of life for th(
individual soul is to march from good to better
by conscious effort from birth to birth. This
necessarily postulates free will without which, of
course, there can be no moral responsibihty. A
multitude of texts can be quoted insisting on
man's mastery over his own future.

This (Brahma) is not attainable by the weak
man, nor by one who is negligent, nor by incompetent
tapas.'*

Again, the seeker is exhorted ''to grasp the
mighty bow of the Upanishads, make of his
own soul the arrow sharpened by worship, and
shoot himself into the Brahma so that the arrow
becomes one with the target". In fact, no religion
is possible without three postulates — the exis-
tence of God, the immortality of the soul, and
freedom of the will; and these are insisted on
repeatedly in Vedanta which conveys also the
assurance of success to the sincere seeker.
Questioned by Arjuna about the fate of the
seeker who fails in finding — ''whether losing
both worlds he is not lost like a rag of a cloud
in the infinite sky" — Sri Krishna assures him
tenderly that the seeker after good never comes
to grief, but goes on improving in eflftciency
from birth to birth till finally he reaches his
goal.
* Mundakopanishad III— 2 — 4. y

I

MAYA 51

In fact the Vedanta doctrine though conti-
nuous can for purposes of clear understanding
be regarded in two aspects. The first is that of
the evolution of the soul when it moves in maya
till it reaches the stage of eligibility for jnana
which alone results in emancipation. The
second aspect is the nature of emancipation
itself. About the first aspect, all schools of inter-
pretation— Dwaita, Adwaita and Vishistadwaita
— agree. In this aspect God and the individual
soul are sharply distinct with an infinite gap
between them. Life with its multitude of trials,
its joys and sorrows, its triumphs and defeats, in
fact all that makes of this world a valley of tears
and laughter, is but a link in an almost endless
chain of births and deaths. This is samsara.
Here are duties which can be fulfilled with
courage and faithfulness or shirked and avoided
in cowardly fashion. It is by doing these duties
honestly that a man can qualify himself for a
higher destiny. In fact the ordinary rule of life
of old was for a man faithfully to pass through
the various stages of human life, as a student,
as a householder, as a hermit in the forest
before he could become a sanyasi. The Upani-
shads and the Gita are quite emphatic about the
imperativeness of doing duty. As a soul pro-
gresses either in the same life or in subsequent
lives, it perceives that duty is rooted in maya
and that the only way of escaping the enveloping
power of cause and effect is to do duty for its

52 HINDUISM

own sake and without any hope of results. Says
Sri Krishna in the Gita: "Just as the ignorant
man acts with hope of reward, the wise man
acts for the good of the world without any
personal motive whatever." When this state is
reached, "when free from all desires which had
root in his heart — the mortal even here becomes
immortal and reaches Brahma."*

In the second aspect, that is the nature of
emancipation, and what happens to emanci-
pated souls, there are differences between the

iH schools. One school posits the individual soul's
perfect absorption with Brahma — or to be exact,
realization that it is Brahma; it had been Brahma

l^^;i, all along but did not know it. Another believes
it becomes Brahma without however losing its
own individuality, while a third lays down that
it remains eternally distinct'Trom Brahma and
from every other individual soul, and enjoys
eternal beatitude in the highest heaven to the
full measure of its own capacity.

All the great teachers who taught the doctrine
of maya lived their lives on the basis that this
world is a reality. Leaving aside the weak and
the hypocritical who teach one thing and prac-
tise another, if we reflect on the actual lives
of the great and good Vedantins who lived in
the light of the truth that they saw, it will be
evident that they took this world and this life

* Kathopanishad — II-iii-14.

. MAYA 53

and the law of karma to be hard reahties. If
still they taught the doctrine of maya, that
everything is an illusion created by the Lord,
what can that teaching mean? It can only
mean that the apparent with its false values is
different from the real — nothing else. The
Lord is the indwelling spirit, the continuing
efficient cause that makes all life live. What
we consider different and opposed to one an-
other are different manifestations of the same
Universal Being. As the soul is to the body,
so is the Lord the soul of all souls. When, for
instance, one says 'I went', 'I came' or 'I did',
though outwardly it is the movement of the
body, it is really the act of the person that
dwells within and brings about all the activities
of the body. It would be a mistake to be-
lieve that the body is the agent. In the
same, though in a less obvious way, the
Supreme Being is the soul of our souls.
Every movement of the individual soul is
an activity of the Lord. All souls are so
to say His bodies. The Lord is a reality and so
too are the souls that are His bodies. Just as,
though the body is a reality, it is the spirit with-
in that gives to the body its life, so going
one step further, that which gives life and
reality to the individual souls and makes
them what they are is the Supreme Being. The
Paramaatman, the overall Soul, permeates and
supports all souls; but that does not mean that

54 HINDUISM

the latter are unreal. The universe as a whole
and every individual living and non-living
matter, all together as well as severally, serve
as bodies for the all-pervading Universal Being.!,
To give a concrete analogy which may eluci-
date the thesis, it is the air in the football that
jumps and functions in all manner of ways
when the ball is knocked about in the field.
Yet we forget the air, and we look on the ball
as the thing we play with, not the air. What
is all-pervasive and invisible is lost in the
obvious tangible hard reality, the ball.

Maya, as understood by long tradition, is
not that everything is unreal and that we are
free to act as we please. It is not a negation
of responsibility. No school of Vedanta denies
the validity of the doctrine of karma. The
doctrine of karma firmly holds and with it in-
dividual responsibility stands unshaken. Life
is real and life is subject to eternal and un-
changeable law. This and not unreality is the
core of the Vedantic view of life. The error
against which the doctrine of ma^^a is directed
in Vedanta is the false value that men put on
things. If we realized the truth regarding the
immanence of the Supreme Spirit in all lives
and all things, we would put on men, things
and events truer and juster values.

H This is how Ramanujacharya explains the immanence
of the Universal Spirit.

MAYA 55

The structure of individual life, if we may so
call it, according to Vedanta is this: Each body
has lodged in it a soul which fills it with life
and changes an unintelligent mass of lifeless
material into a living being. Again, each soul
is inspired by the Supreme Soul, which gives
the individual soul its being and its quality
as a soul. Just as the soul gives to the body
the capacity to function as a living being, so
does the Supreme Being give to the soul its
capacity to function as an individual soul.

According to the Hindu faith, the same soul
occupies various tenements in various births.
When it is lodged in a particular body, it has
no memory of its past or knowledge of its own
true nature. The soul identifies itself com-
pletely for the time being with each body which
it successively bears. In like manner, all souls
are, at one and the same time — this is the dif-
ference— the body of the Supreme Soul, but
they do not realize it and carry on as if separate
from one another. To take a very mundane
analogy, we have seen several departments
deriving existence and authority from the same
Government above and functioning through the
single and entire power of that Government,
but opposing, wrangling with and sometimes
even over-reaching one another! In a somewhat
similar manner every soul is inspired by the
Paramaatman — the Overall Soul — and func-
tions as a separate entity. Though the in-

56

HINDUISM

dwelling aatman is one and the same, each soul
lives a life of separate individuality without a
sense of identity with others. Herein is the
illusion referred to as maya, to overcome which
is the aim of the Vedantin.

It is easy enough to accept the doctrine of
oneness and believe that with that acceptance
by the intellect, enlightenment has come. But
the feelings, the desires and the fear and the
pain, these do not obey such easily reached
superficial enlightenment. Enlightenment is
an overcoming of the maya and is a state akin
to waking as against dreaming. The way to it
is yoga. Self-control, faith, discipline, ordered
life, and vigilance go to make up yoga which
brings about relative enlightenment. In the
learned and the illiterate, in the valiant soldier
and the coward, in the strong and the weak, in
the mighty and the lowly, in all the multitudes
of living beings, it is the Supreme Spirit that,
abiding in every one of them, makes them what
they are.

Our desires and distractions cause a wall to
be raised between our understanding and the in-
dwelling Spirit. The aatvian becomes altogether
inaccessible to reason. The in-dwelling spirit is
hidden from our perception by our pleasures and
pains. The spirit itself suffers no taint though
lying unseen in the midst of a heap of impurities.
If the mind is concentrated, the senses are con-

MAYA 57

trolled and the heart is drawn away from exter-
nal objects, the turbidity is cleared and then
we begin to see the soul as something real and
distinct from the body within which it is lodged.
If we maintain the purity of the inner being,
we shall see, besides, the Divine Spirit that
dwells within that soul. When we begin to
realize that within all it is the Supreme Soul that
lives and acts, then the pleasures and pains that
we feel come under control and gradually lose
their intensity and ultimately vanish.

The sunlight that shines and spreads equally
in all directions has no shape. But shadows
have shapes. The rays of light that make every-
thing else visible are themselves completely in-
visible. Until the rays impinge on an obstruc-
tion, they are not themselves seen. It is the
obstruction in the path of light that becomes the
shadow, but the shadow has shape, not the light.
If there is no obstruction, the light spreads and
remains invisible. The individual souls are like
shadows caused by the infinite light of the
Supreme Being. When the obstruction is re-
moved, the shadow disappears in the light.
Karma causes what corresponds to the shadow,
i.e., births and lives. The Supreme Being is the
light that gives shape and reality and a distinct
existence to the individual soul. The shadow
that is caused by the light of the sun is by no
means an unreality. The shadow is as true as
the light although it is the light that makes the

58 HINDUISM

changing and diverse shadows. This is, let it
be remembered, but an attempt to explain by an
analogy and not a demonstration of the postulate
that must rest only on faith.

Vedanta aims at moksha. Moksha is not
arrival in another world or place or garden or
hall of music. It is a state of freedom from the
bondage of maya. The individual soul realizes
its own full nature and then Deliverance has
taken place. When the mind is enlightened by
the realization that the soul and the in-dwelling
Supreme Soul are one, the shadow merges in the
light. This is moksha. The Sanskrit word
'moksha' means liberation and not a happy place
or garden of pleasure. Moksha is release from
all feeling of distinction and the recognition that
everything around us like one's own self is the
consecrated dwelling place of the Supreme
Being,

That moksha is not a place, palace, garden of

pleasure or a separate world of joy, but a state of

being, is brought out in the following song of the

great Tamil Vedantin, Nammalvar, predecessor

of Ramanuja in the line of southern teachers:

When having travelled on the road of Truth,

With the senses well withdrawn and mind purified,

Plapt in meditation of the boundless One,

All pleasure and pain slowly melt away,

And attachments cease to bind.

Then and there is Heaven, my friend,

J

MAYA

59

And the joy that is Heaven.

Enlightened and free from attachments,

If a soul rests serene and unconcerned,

Then and there is Heaven.

In ignorance fools keep on asking,

Like travellers on a road,

Where is Heaven? How shall we get there?

What sort of place is it? And lose themselves

In endless confusion.

In trying to explain the mental relation of
body, soul and Supreme Spirit, different methods
of exposition are employed by the teachers of
Vedanta. The Paramaatman, the third in the
above series, offers itself to a variety of exposi-
tions which sometimes are mistaken for differ-
ences of creed. Just as the soul gives to the body
its quality as a living body, it is the Supreme
Being that endows the individual soul with its
quality as a divine spark. The soul upholds the
life in the body; the Supreme Soul upholds the
divine nature of the soul. Just as in this mortal
life, body and soul in happy combination become
one visible and living person, so also the in-
dividual souls when they attain moksha com-
bine in a happy merger, shedding all imperfec-
tion, ignorance and distraction. Purity of life
and self-control qualify the individual soul for
this merger of bliss.

The individual soul is only the shadow of the
Supreme Universal Soul. Ignorance is the cause

60 HINDUISM

of the shadow and of the impression that the
shadow is different from the hght that produces
it. This feehng of separation is augmented by
desire, attachment, anger and hatred. It is a
vicious circle of increasing illusion. When the
mind awakens from this state of ignorance, the
light swallows up the shadow which is lost in
the process.

The sun shines on the water. When the
surface of the water breaks into ripples, we see
numerous little suns on the water. The in-
dividual souls are like the reflections of the sun
in the water. If there be no water, there would
be no reflected images. In the same way, the
individual souls are the reflections of the Sup-
reme Being on the ocean of maya and they be-
come one with the Supreme on the removal of
that maya. To dispel ignorance and to obtain
knowledge, we need purit\^ self-control, de-
votion and discrimination.

Just as all the five senses merge in the soul
and disappear when we sleep at night, so with
enlightenment, the soul is united and absorbed
in the Supreme Soul.

Now, these and many other forms of elucida-
tion are adopted by various teachers in their
exposition of an inherently mysterious relation.
The forms of exposition adopted and the relative
emphasis laid on various aspects go sometimes
by names which are known as Dicaita, Adwaita

MAYA

61

and Visishtaadivaita, and which as faith deterio-
rated came to be treated by disciples as opposing
schools of philosophy. They are, however,
fundamentally only differences in forms of ex-
position and emphasis. They are all aspects of
Vedanta as old as the Upanishads themselves
wherein they are to be found without distingu-
ishing names and without being treated as
different philosophies. The irremovable residue
of unknowability takes varying shapes in accor-
dance with the temperaments of teacher and
disciple.

Although the forms of elucidation, methods
of exposition and emphasis laid on points may
differ, it is noteworthy that the Vedantic life,
the way of liberation recommended by every
one of the sages and teachers is just the same.
All schools of Vedanta — and this clinches the
matter — lead to the same ethic. This binds all
Vedantins in one outlook. The law of cause and
effect and its extension beyond death to future
births are common ground for all Vedantins and
hence follows a common ethic for happiness now
and hereafter. The ethic of Vedanta, the way
of life that Hindu philosophy lays down, is dealt
with in the succeeding chapters.

Chapter VII
KARMA

If all souls are in fact united jointly and
severally with the Supreme Being, why should
an ethic be necessary to realize this? The
reason is that, as already explained, attaining
freedom from error in this case is not a process
of study or a gathering of information, but
something like waking from sleep, a change of
state. A man has a dream. He is distressed by
what he goes through in the dream. How can
he escape from that distress? Relief can come
only through waking from sleep and realizing
that he was dreaming. Similarly, we should
wake up from the separation that deludes the
soul and "liberate ourselves from our sorrows".
Therefore do the Upanishads proclaim: "Ut-
tishthata, Jaagrata!" (Arise, Awake!) Jnana, the
realization that the Supreme Soul is within us,
is a waking from sleep. It is not like learning
from another who has seen it that someone is
in the next room or village. It is not a mere
piece of knowledge obtained by enquiry; it is
a change of mind, feelings and of everything
inside one, a change not less but more than the
change from sleep to waking, very like to a
change from night to day or death to life.

II

KARMA

63

Again, it is easy to wake up from sleep. But
it is not by any means easy to wake up from
the great sleep of worldly life. Our mental dis-
position must change entirely. First of all, the
desire to wake up must surge in the heart as
indicated in the Kathopanishad mantras al-
ready quoted. The power of the spirit is
moved to fulfil itself by the yearning. It is
the Supreme Spirit within that furnishes the
energ\^ The text is couched in language that
brings all this out if interpreted by a competent
teacher. Without this yearning for realization,
nothing can be achieved. The ambition to be a
Vedantic scholar will not amount to this and
cannot help. The desire to be liberated from
the state of separation from God must, like
hunger driving the beast to its prey, drive the
soul to find its only satisfaction. Secondly,
unremitting vigilance must be exercised even
after the first vision like the unceasing control
of an athlete balancing himself who cannot,
once having secured his balance, relax but must
all the time maintain his complete command
over his muscles and his breathing. The
external and internal organs of sense must be
under firm and continuous command. Right
conduct must be maintained until it becomes
relatively a matter of course, and the inner
being must be purified and kept in an untarn-
ished condition. Perpetual vigilance over one's
mind is necessary to escape slipping back into

64 HINDUISM

the world of false values, attachments and
desires.

Impelled by ignorance we seek temporary
pleasurable sensations, all arising out of sense-
contacts, and proceed to do many things to
obtain those pleasures. If we do not reach the
pleasures we seek, or if we get them for a time
and lose them, we generate in ourselves anger,
hatred and grief. This not only causes pain but
intensifies the ignorance with which we started.
The egoistic feeling of "I", the possessive feel-
ings of "mine", the acquisitive urge of "for me"
and the passions that arise out of these grow
with accelerated intensity. We are thus thrown
farther and farther away from the reality.
Desisting from this course and positively and
definitely striving to get nearer and nearer to
the truth is the path indicated for liberation.
For this, purity and humility are essential. We
should cultivate and continually confirm the
conviction of mind that the Supreme Soul is
within us and all around us and earnestly bend
our minds to contemplation of the oneness of
all life.

Though the perfect light may not be attained,
the effort should not be relaxed, for even if the
truth be but partially realized and the effort
maintained, it will do us great good. The very
exertion to obtain light tends to purge us of our
faults and help us towards right conduct and
enables us to escape from many sinful deeds.

KARMA

65

The mental effort to realize the universal
identity raises us to a higher plane of life.
With some great souls, in the steadily increasing
pitch of realization, it reaches the form of
ecstasy, not a mere temporary abnormality, but
a sustained joy arising out of unshakable de-
tachment and wide sweeping identification with
all life and all creation. It is this ecstasy that
made Brother Lawrence happy wherever he
was and whatever he was doing. It is of this
ecstasy that the Tamil poet sang:
The crow and the sparrow are mj^ kift,

^The wide seas and hills are my clan,
Whatever I see, wherever my eyes turn,
I see my own flesh and blood,

:I see myself in every being around,
Oh this boundless joy!
It is about this ecstasy that Sankara sang:

Whether one is practising Yoga, or enjoying some com-
forts, whether one is with dear comrades or alone by
oneself, if one has learnt to find joy in the contemplation
of God, one is happy and one's happiness knows no
interruption.

It will not, however, be easy for everyone to
reach and sustain this state of mind as a source
of happiness as was attained by Brother Law-
rence among others less known. Whether one's
effort bears full fruition or not, the effort should
be maintained and assisted by occasional deep
meditation so as to train the imperfect mind ta
set true values on things and happenings.

•66 HINDUISM

While this earnest effort is being made to
identify oneself with the Universal and to
liberate oneself from the ego-sense, what should
be the aspirant's way of life? The way of life
recommended for the aspirant is best elucidated
in the Bhagavad Gita. From what has been
already explained as the postulates of Vedanta,
it will be seen that this way of life flows as a
natural corollary therefrom. It would be con-
venient, before we deal with it, to devote a few
pages to the law of karma.

The law of karma, the inescapable law of
•cause and effect in things spiritual, lays down
that death does not end the chain. Whatever
-activities we engage ourselves in, the body is
not the agent but that which dwells in the body,
which does not die with death but takes a
lodging in another tenement. The spirit within
continually shapes itself and builds its future
accordingly. The new tenement is one that
suits the shape the soul has worked itself into.

The body is not the person, but the person's
tool. It is a fine tool, a magic tool with which
the craftsman, the soul, strangely becomes com-
pletely one and inseparable for the time being.
The soul, too, must be looked upon as an instru-
ment of God who resides within every soul and
uses it as a craftsman uses his tool. For what
purpose? This we cannot unravel. The Hindu
way of looking at it is that it is God's leela or
play. Those who posit a purpose may please

KARMA 67

themselves with their conceits, but must not
impose them on others.

The relationship between soul and body, as
well as that between the soul and the universal
ever-existent Causeless Spirit, is a mystic re-
lationship in which tool and craftsman are
merged in inextricable fashion. The body and
the subtle senses within it should be loyal to
their master, the soul, and serve as good and
just tools. Even so, the individual should be a
good and loyal instrument for the Lord who
dwells within and should dedicate every act,
thought and word to Him.

Acts are done through body, speech and
mind. The law of cause and effect, it cannot
be too often emphasized, is unalterable in every
respect. Every act has its appointed effect
whether the act be thought, word or deed. The
effect lies inherent in the cause, as the tree lies
potentially encased in the seed. If water is
exposed to the sun, it cannot avoid being dried
up. The effect automatically follows. It is the
same with everything. The cause holds the
effect so to say in its womb. If we reflect deep-
ly and objectively, not letting our reason to
be guided by our desires — not wishfully think-
ing but with detachment — the entire world in
all aspects will be found to obey unalterable
laws. This is the doctrine of Vedanta described
briefly as the law of karma.

68 HINDUISM

It is wrong to think of karma in terms of
what is understood by the word fatahsm.
Destiny as taught in Vedanta does not involve
an unscientific attitude towards natural laws or
a breakdown of faith in human effort which is
fatalism. Karma is the unalterable law of
effect following previous causes. This is what
distinguishes Vedanta from its half-brother,
fatalism, as it emerged in the West from the
pagan philosophies. When a Hindu speaks of
the decree of fate, the word he uses for fate is
Vidhi, which means law. He means thereby
that one should expect only the fruit of • one's
action and nothing else. Far from under-
estimating human effort, Vedanta puts the
highest value on it. It points out that it is fool-
ish to do one thing and expect to undo it before
it produces its effects because they will not be
to your liking. No act can ever fail to produce
its result. Nor can any act produce anything
but its true result. It is not possible to do a
thing and escape its result. One cannot expect
something to happen for which something else
appropriate to produce that result should have
been done. Given the necessary acts, the
natural consequences must follow.

The law of karma thus does not do away
with free will but constitutes the charter of
true freedom. The thoughts entertained, words
spoken and deeds done all produce appropriate
fruits. The consequence may be dealt with

KARMA

69

afresh but cannot be escaped. Just as we deem
it a charter of freedom that one cannot in law
be robbed of the fruits of one's labour, the law
of karma is the Magna Carta of free will.

When a Vedantin says that everything hap-
pens according to karma, it does not mean that
knowledge and human effort are vain or that
human activity counts but little. Industry and
character will have their reward and the law
of karma guarantees this. The word karma
means work and in no wise refers to any mys-
terious pre-determination by an outer power.
Karma means work and vidhi means law, and '
any doctrine denoted by either of these names I
cannot be equated with mystery or external pre-
determination. So it should be clearly under-
stood that karma is not fatalism.

When we do not know the causes which have
produced an event, we call the result destiny
or decree of fate or chance. But this loose no-
menclature means nothing but the lamenting
of results and the confession of failure to use
our intelligence to find out the causes which
certainly existed and produced the result. The
Sanskrit word commonly used for luck is
adrishta, which means literally what was not
seen. It does not mean that it is not subject to
law; it is simply what was not previously seen.

Everyone knows from experience and with-
out the help of any doctrine that every thought

70 HINDUISM

or act, good or bad, has at once an effect on
oneself, apart from its effect on others or on the
outside world. Every motion of the mind deals
a stroke as with a hammer, on character and
whether one wants it or not, alters its shape for
better or worse. We are ceaselessly shaping
ourselves as the goldsmith busy with his ham-
mer shapes gold or silver all day long. Every
act of ours and every thought creates a tendency
and according to its nature adds or takes away
from our free will to a certain extent. If 'I
think evil thoughts today, I will think them
more readily and more persistently tomorrow.
Likewise it is with good thoughts. If I control
or calm myself today, control becomes more
easy and even spontaneous next time, and this
goes on progressively.

At death, the Hindu doctrine says, whatever
character has been hammered out by the
thoughts, deeds and repentances of the life that
is closed continues to attach itself as the initial
start for the soul in its next journey. As a
result of our actions and thoughts and the
attachments developed thereby, we come into
being in a fresh birth with certain fixed ten-
dencies. The doctrine of past and future lives
and continuity of evolution through many lives
is an extension of the law of cause and effect
as we see it working every day. It is this
extended application of the natural law that

KARMA 71

distinguishes Hinduism from most other reli-
gions.

No explanation or theory in regard to the
ultimate cause of things can be free from diffi-
culties or made proof against objections from
a mere rationalist point of view. On the
assumption, however, of an immortal soul as
the basis of personality, it can be claimed that
no theory can be formulated more in conformity
with known laws of nature than the Hindu
doctrine of karma.

Man, according to the law of karma, evolves
himself exactly according to his actions, the
process being unbroken by death and passing:
on to the next life. This, the most important
doctrine in Hindu religion, is the application in
the moral sphere of the law of conservation of
energy. Indeed, both may be looked upon as
parts of one law, karma being the counterpart
in the spiritual world of the truth that cause
and effect are always equivalent. As death is
only disintegration of the body and not of the
soul, the law of cause and effect, so far as the
soul is concerned, continues to operate beyond
death. The death of the body does not operate
as a bankruptcy-discharge. The obligations so
to say continue and are carried over to the new
page in the account.

The smallest pebble or even a grain of sand
thrown into water produces a ripple. The

72 HINDUISM

disturbance is carried onwards in ever-widening
circles on the water. Similarly all our acts and
thoughts produce a disturbance of the universal
•calm. The most transient or secret thought
entertained in the mind ruffles the great calm
and the disturbance has to be worked off.

Whether a man frees himself from the fruits
of his past deeds or adds more links to the chains
that bind him depends upon the way he lives.
Past deeds or rather their effects hold one in
their grip from birth, but the soul has freedom
to act and in the exercise of that freedom it has
the power to overcome natural tendencies and
to strive for liberation. The process and effort
can be extended over many births. We make
for ourselves our opportunities, and the process
goes on ceaselessly for better or worse and is
carried on from birth to birth. The battle is as
long as eternity and the tedium is relieved by
the lapse of memory with each death. Eternity,
so to say, bears its own burden. The burden of
infinity is not on us but is borne by itself. We
cannot get eternity to shrink in order to suit our
impotent finiteness. The infinite number of
births that a soul goes through may seem to be
an unbearable burden in the illusion of our
limited facul^s. It is no more unthinkable
and no less ntrtural than the age of our moun-
tains or the life-time of a star. We are indeed
blessed in the total lapse of memory with each

KARMA

73

death. The law work/ without putting a strain
on our feeble minds.'

Victory is certain, O mind!

Away with false fear,

Devotion bears its fruit.

Shoulders we have,

Broad and strong,

And intelligence.

We can gather what we work for.

Unalterable law protects

Our efforts unflagging.

Away then with fear and despondency!

Thus has a modern poet sung in Tamil the
creed of freedom that is postulated in Vedanta.
Freedom is not taken away but secured by
unchangeable law. Law, and not a capricious
sovereign, is the best guarantee that honest
effort can ask for.

The pious Christian may here feel a doubt. If
karma is inescapable and the sinful must go
through what they have unfortunately earned,
then is there no room for grace? Yes, there is!
Grace comes through penitence; it is not a mere
caprice of the Lord. There is large and definite
room in Vedanta for penitence and prayer and
therefore for grace. True penitence being the
active triumph of the better over the worse,
liberation has automatically taken place. Peni-
tence is as much action as sin and represents
the soul's victory over its own immediate past.

74 HINDUISM

It is indeed victory felt by the inner spirit con-
temporaneously during the battle itself. If the
doctrine of relief through penitence is not a
charter for mere ritual or hypocrisy, it is as
much an inherent part of Vedanta as of Christi-
anity or any other faith. Sin is worked out in
karma through the true sorrow and pain suffer-
ed by the penitent sinner. Vedanta offers to a
sinful world the same way out as the Christian
doctrine of repentance does. There could be
and there is no difference here. Indeed the
Vedantic literature on grace is voluminous and
positive.

The Vaishnavite cults specially emphasize the
doctrine of repentance and grace. But it is not
a speciality of the Vaishnavite cults. It flows
from the basic Vedanta although no doubt
greatly emphasized by the Vaishnavites. "Re-
pent and surrender yourself completely to God,"
say the teachers of the Ramanuja cult. Indeed
a further ramification has served to add to this
emphasis on man's dependence on grace. Like
a mother cat carrying its young one, God takes
up the sinner that surrenders himself complete-
ly to Him, say the Southern Ramanujites.
"Beware!" say the Northern Ramanujites.*

*"Southern" and "Northern" here refer to the two de-
nominations of the followers of Ramanuja m the South.
"North" here does not refer to North India, but to the
Northern School in the South.

KARMA

75

"your own exertion is also necessary in part
for the fulfilment of grace. Like the monkey's
young one you must clutch and hang on to the
mother in order to be saved. You cannot get
grace unless you co-operate and repent." The
distinction is, however, a distinction without a
difference. It comes only to this. One says:
"You are such terrible sinners that you have no-
hope but through grace!". The other says:
"Not ritual or hypocrisy but a sincere heart that
has gone through the pain of penitence and
purged itself can receive grace".

Chapter VIII
THE VEDANTA ETHIC

The Gita which expands and explains the ethic
of Vedanta emphasizes that the activities of the
world must go on. We should so act that
thereby the world improves in the coming
generations. The Vedanta ethic is not for the
advancement of the individual but of the world
as a whole, advancement in the best sense
cf the word. The world is peopled by our-
selves re-born and so there is an intimate
connection between our spiritual improvement
and the future of the world. We leave condi-
tions behind for posterity, not only in the
environment, but according to the doctrine of
re-birth we decide the character of the future
population by our thoughts and acts. Like
good people who plant trees for their children, ^■
we should work to improve humanity by
improving ourselves for future births, even
though there may be no continuity of memory
and identity of personality. Otherwise, the '
world cannot become progressively better as }
we all desire it should. j

The good man should do the tasks to which j
he is called and which appertain to his actual J
place in society. Whatever be the position to:

I

I

THE VEDANTA ETHIC 77

which he may aspire, his actual place in society
for the time being determines his obligations in
the general interest. In all his activities he
does things like others outwardly, but inwardly
he maintains a spirit of detachment. He does
everything like others but without any selfish
motive. He maintains equilibrium of mind in
success and failure, in pleasure and pain, in joy
and sorrow. Purified thus, the good man is
qualified for further progress by meditation and
, prayer.

The way of life that is prescribed in Vedanta
is called Yoga in the Gita. It cansists in main-
taining a detached mind while participating in
all the affairs that appertain to one's place in
society. The great secret is that work should
be done in a spirit of duty performed and
dedicated to God. Results should not be per-

j mitted to agitate the mind. The results do not
belong to the doer. They may form the subject-
matter of fresh duties, but should not be allowed

j to become cause for mental excitement.

This unselfish and detached attitude can and
should be cultivated even while we are diligent-
ly engaged in life's activities. The Gita estab-

I lishes this truth. The essence of the Vedantic

i life consists in the unbroken practice of this
attitude.

The Isavasya Upanishad begins with two
mantras which interpreted, are:

78 HINDUISM

Everything in the universe abides in the Supreme
Being. Remember this, whatever you may do or think.
Cast off the desires that arise in the heart, the thought of
possessing what is possessed by another or is a source
of pleasure to another. True joy comes by such renunci-
ation. Do your duties and go through your span of life.
In detachment and dedication lies the way for man to
live a full life yet keeping the spirit within uncontami-
nated by worldly affairs. You cannot achieve it other-
wise.

These two verses of the Isavasya Upanishad
put in brief compass the way of life that is more
fully expanded and explained with reiterated
■emphasis in the Bhagavad Gita. The teaching
•of the Gita may be summarised here although
it involves some repetition of what has been
already said.

The Vedantin always bears in mind that
^within him and in every object in the world,
living and non-living, dwells the Supreme Soul.
He will not give room in his mind to feelings of
lust or anger or longing for sensual pleasures.
He performs fully, carefully and conscientious-
ly, though without developing attachment, all
the duties that devolve upon him as a result of
the position he occupies by birth or as a result
of events and circumstances. Duties arise be-
cause of the place one occupies in society.
There is in truth no superiority or inferiority in
the various tasks devolving on individuals or
;groups in any social order, all being equally

THE VEDANTA ETHIC 79

necessary of performance for the maintenance
and welfare of society. They should all be
performed in a spirit of co-operation and un-
selfishness. This spirit ennobles and equalizes
all the tasks which devolve on one.

Controlling his senses, the Vedantin leads a
pure life, regulating his work, food, rest, re-
creation and sleep. He does not lose heart in
the face of difficulties and whether sorrow or
happiness falls to his lot, he maintains his
courage and equanimity.

The secret of the good life that the Bhagavad
Gita recommends consists in the overcoming of
desire in its grosser sense, kaama. This kaama
is the great enemy of man. It takes various
shapes, deceiving him — now it is lust, another
time it is love of power and possessions, yet
again it becomes anger. Whatever be the form
it takes, it tends to envelop man's judgment and
delude him into error and sin. Aim therefore
at overcoming this great enemy at the earliest
stage of the battle, warns the Gita. Kaama takes
possession of the senses and of the will. From
these vantage points, it perverts judgment and
ruins man. Guard therefore the senses at the
very beginning of the battle, says the Gita,
assuring the aspirant that will can control the
senses, provided man exerts it before it is too
late. Judgment can control and guide the will
if only one makes up one's mind early enough
and does not let desire enter the fort.

80 HINDUISM

Man's enemy is desire born of the element of energy
in the scheme of nature. Insatiably ravenous and most
wicked, it is the cause of all sin. This enemy of man
attacks judgment and puts it out of action. As fire is
surrounded by smoke, as a mirror is covered over by
dust, as the embryo is enclosed in the womb, so is judg-
ment, with which man is endowed, enveloped by desire.
It seizes the senses and the will and finally judgment.
It deceives taking many forms and disables the soul
from attaining jnana. Check the senses, therefore,
at the very outset, O prince, and vanquish this evil
thing that is the enemy of all knowledge and enlighten-
ment. The rebellious senses are governed ultimately by
will and though will can be guided by discrimination,
this great enemy overcomes discrimination by its evil
strength, and puts it out of action. Realizing this danger,
do thou exercise the inherent strength of thy soul and
defeat this elusive and terrible enemy and save your-
self.*

Let no one say to himself that this schedule
of conduct is not for him who is an ordinary
man, but for saints and sages. Even a little effort
in this direction, assures the Gita, will yield
great fruit.

There is no waste in this. It is not like the rule of
medicine by which if one fails to follow the prescribed
diet in any respect, the medicine not only does no good
but does harm. There is no such danger arising out

* Gita III, 37-43.

THE VEDANTA ETHIC 81

of defects and imperfections in following the discipline
herein taught. Even a very little effort in following
this rule will protect one from great danger.*

The Gita lays down and repeatedly empha-
sizes an important warning: Do not be tempted
by philosophy to inaction. It is inevitable for
everyone to act according to his nature and
therefore inaction is futile and leads to conse-
quences worse than v/hat is sought to be avoid-
ed. Freedom lies in the effort to avoid passion
and hatred and giving the right shape to what
issues from the urge of one's own nature. Do
therefore the work that falls to your share with
detachment, and find joy in sacrificing your own
pleasure for the advantage of others. Do not
try to find peace in inaction and confuse it with
sanyas. Renunciation or sanyas consists in the
detachment with which one acts and not in in-
action. When one's nature maintains internally
the urge for action, as it must, it is detachment,
not abstinence, that is called for. Inaction with
the urge alive inside leads only to hypocrisy
and shame.

All this that was written in the Gita is re-
markably anticipatory of the copious modern
literature about repression and suppressed
complexes.

The question may be asked, how can it produce
any enthusiasm to be told that something will

* Gita 11-40.

S2 HINDUISM

be fruitful in a future birth? We shall be born
in the next birth without any memories of the
past. We do not now remember anything of
our past lives nor will the memories of this life
follow us in the next birth. Therefore, what
does it matter whether we do good or evil? Let
us seek the pleasures of the present moment. If
I am born again as you say, I shall then be a
different person remembering nothing of the
present. When there is no continuity of memory
there is no bond betv/een him and me. How
can one feel an identity without continuity of
memory? Why should I labour, renounce or
retrench my joy for one who will come to exist
who is not nie? For, with death the memories
of this life end.

Thus may the seeker of pleasure or student
of human incentives object to the teaching of
Vedanta about right conduct and seK-control
for the sake of a future birth whereunto the
ego-memory is not conveyed.

The answer is that the joy of right conduct is
inherent in human nature. There is a hunger
in the soul which mere self-seeking and mo-
mentary pleasures cannot satisfy. This stands
confirmed by the inner feeling of everyone of
us, by experience as well as by all history
recorded and unrecorded. Members of a family
work for the good of the family and of the
village. We see ordinary men suffering pri-
vations for the sake of others whom they have

k

THE VEDANTA ETHIC 83

never even seen. People are not indifferent to
the good of their village or town. We see that
numerous men sacrifice their self-interest and
suffer for the good of the State and for the safety
of their country. What is important to remember
is that in all this they derive a joy apart from
and independent of any belief in promises or ex-
pectations of rewards for such conduct. We do
not know who will enjoy the shade of the trees
that we plant on the roadside but we plant
them so 'that men of future generations may
enjoy their shade. We take real pleasure in all
such work. We should widen this broad-mind-
edness to a further degree and think of the good
of the whole world and its future happiness.
The future of the world is in our hands. We
can people it with good men if we choose to act
according to this teaching. If we accept the law
of cause and effect with its extension to future
births, then if we live the Vedantic life, the
growth of evil will be stopped. The souls that
will inhabit the future world will progressively
rise to a higher stage.

We have seen with our own eyes the pro-
gressive improvement of livestock and the
health of men as a result of care and atten-
tion bestowed even in one generation. What
we have seen in the physical world applies
to the minds and souls of men also. If
the postulates of Vedanta are accepted, the
Vedantic ethic is spiritual eugenics. The object

84 HINDUISM

of right living to a Vedantin is twofold: One's
own true happiness and one's contribution to a
better world irrespective of disconnection in
memory when we are re-born. The appeal of
Vedanta is based on a feeling of oneness with
the world and responsibility for its future.
Social and civic co-operation permanently bene-
fits the town or village wherein one is a citizen;
patriotism benefits the future generations of the
country to which one belongs; Vedanta seeks
the welfare of the future world of which we
are the present builders. If we live detached
and dedicated lives as Vedanta lays down, the
world will be peopled by better men as time
goes on. It is after all a comparatively selfish
pleasure that would come of a memory of per-
sonality in re-birth. A soldier in the army does
not wish to know the names and particulars of
the people who will benefit by his bravery and
death. The Vedantin is a citizen of the world
and a soldier in the world's army in a totally
non-martial but no less heroic war against evil,
the more heroic since he seeks no personal re-
ward.

CONCLUSION

These pages are intended for the ordinary
reader, for the reader who either does not
belong to India or who, though of India,
has no scholarship or time to go to the
source-books. In places it may seem as if we
strayed into irrelevant hypotheses and mys-
ticism. Even if we are interested in nothing
but social welfare, we should remember that
conscience must be rooted deeply in life itself
so that it may shape our innermost thoughts
and automatically produce right conduct. Right
conduct cannot float in the air, but requires a con-
viction and faith to support it. It may in some
cases seem so to be able to float — but it is really
supported by tradition and family upbringing. It
is really the momentum of the past that creates
the illusion of spontaneous motion. We might
delude ourselves into thinking that it might
thus go on for ever unsupported by any creed
or faith, but after the momentum is exhausted
we shall find that without a fresh motive from
living faith, the obligation of right conduct
peters out. A spiritual foundation is necessary
for right conduct. Many States which experi-
mented with utter rationalism found themselves
compelled to return to old-fashioned church-
going and national festivals.

86 HINDUISM

The call of ultimate reality heard in the
recesses of noble hearts is by itself something
which has led earnest seekers into the trans-
cendental. Those who have drunk deep of the
awe and beauty of the universe and to whom
the lofty achievements of science have revealed
extended horizons and as yet undiscovered
realms of enchantment cannot find satisfaction
in shallow faiths and crude anthropomorphism.
The mysticism involved in Vedanta relates the
good life to truth and science. The conflict
between religion and science is replaced and
healed by harmony and integrated thought.

Reverting to what we commenced with,
religions that contradict the conclusions of
science cannot but degenerate into formalism
and hypocrisy. And if human happiness de-
pends on doing away with indifference and
Jaissez-faire, and economic reorganization is to
be based on the stable foundation of widespread
moral faith and culture and if the compulsion
of the State is to be supported, if not wholly
replaced, by the willing co-operation of men
and women, Vedanta has a contribution to
make to enduring civilization. No polity based
entirely on exploitation or force, even though
administered by able and well-intentioned men,
can last or be elevating even during the period
it lasts. Vedanta offers a religious faith that
can have no quarrel with the scientists who
work in the laboratory or with the geologists

CONCLUSION 87

who do research in the history of the physical
world, and yet it offers a firm spiritual founda-
tion for the just polity of a new world.

I

TEXTS

GITA

^?W^^ ^A^ ^2T# ^^ ^^ II

( Ri^° )

In this, effort will never go fruitless. Any
error in the procedure will not lead to the con-
trary of good as often happens in other human
enterprises. Even a little of this dharma follow-
ed will save one from what is man's greatest
danger.

11-40

( V^ )

Not by abstaining from work does a man attain
the state of actionlessness nor by mere abstention
can he attain the goal.

III-4

( V\ )

92 HINDUISM

For no one ever even for a moment remains
really inactive. Every man is continually acting
compelled by the qualities born of nature.

III-5

^^fe^rfq- ^^T^ ^ 3TT^ f^m ^t^ \

( ".'=H )

He who foolishly sits holding his organs of
action in restraint but with his mind dwelling on
things sensual must be dubbed a hypocrite.

III-6

^ftT^^q- ^ # ^ ^ftr;^^^:^: ii

( V6 )

At least for sustenance of life you have to
work. Therefore do the work you are called
upon in duty to do. Work done as it should be is
better than abstention.

in-8

i V\ )

TEXTS 93

The bonds of karma do not result from work
that is done for sacrifice. It is work done for selfish
motives that binds. Therefore do all work that has
to be done but with detachment.

III-9

^|q^r: ^^: ^^^^T jd^T^ ^^tRt: I

( ^1?" )

When man was created, together with him
was sacrifice conceived for him as a means to
happiness and growth. Verily sacrifice is Kama-
dhenu, the cow that gives all that you want.

IIMO

of^T^^: ^r^ ^ ^ ^"Hl-I< I

( Vl% )

Therefore always do your work with detach-
ment. By such performance of duties without
attachment man attains bliss.

IIM9

^^#^#^q" ^q"^^T^^% II

( VRo )

94 HINDUISM

It was by performance of duty that Janaka and
others reached perfection. Even if you but care
for the welfare of society, you should not abstain
from work but perform your tasks.

111-20

( VRl )

Common people copy whatever high-placed
men do. Good men set standards of conduct for
others.

Ch. III-21

( ^l^K )

Just as energetically as the unenlightened work
desirous of personally benefiting by it, enlightened
men should work for the good of the world, with-
out thought of selfish advantage.

m-25

( ^1^^ )

The enlightened man should not by his con-
duct confuse the minds of those who, in unenlight-

TEXTS 95

ened manner, carry on the duties of their position,
though thinking of their own good. He should
participate in and encourage diligent performance
of duties, though himself remaining detached and
unselfish.

III-26

( VR^ )

It is the urge of nature and the qualities it
has endowed men with that produce action. Man
egotistically imagines that he does it out of free
will though he does it perforce.

III-27

^^f^ qrf^ -^^jT^ f^^: f^ ^ft^Rr II

( ^1?? )

As is his nature, so a man acts. The wise are
no exception. All creatures obey nature. Noth-
ing is gained by repression.

III-33

^WR ^?TTff ftrpir: qfT^R-fc^^^femcT I

"^ v3 sD "V

( ^1^^ )

96 HINDUISM

It is good for a man to do his own duty.
Though he may do it unsatisfactorily, it is better
than even the satisfactory performance of another
man's duty. Even death is glorious if it comes in
the performance of one's own task. Taking up
the tasks of others is fraught with danger and
leads to error.

111-35

srf^^vrfq- ^cufif ^^fe- Prmf^cf: ii

( ^1=.^. )

Then impelled by what does man commit sin,
though he does not wish to do it, as if driven by
some irresistible force?

III-36

( ^1^^ )

It is desire, it is anger, issuing from the ele-
ment of energy in nature. It is voracious and
insatiable in its hunger, the cause of all sin and
error, man's chiefest enemy.

III-37

( V^<^ )

TEXTS 97

As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror is
covered over by dust, as the embryo is held
enclosed by the womb, so does man's judgment
get clouded and put out of action by this enemy.

III-38

( 213^ )

Jnana is put out of action by this perpetual
enemy of the seeker of enlightenment, desire that
takes a variety of forms leading man to error,
desire that can never be quenched by satisfaction.

III-39

■o o

( ^J^o )

It takes possession of man's senses, his will
and his intellect and attacking him from these
bases seizes his judgment and enveloping it leads
man to fatal error.

III-40

^'^^ ^Rf^ ^^^ ^Tnf^^HnT^FTfT II

( ^1^? )

58 HINDUISM

Keep your control therefore over the senses
from the very onset of the battle and keep this
evil thing out. Otherwise all discrimination will
be at its mercy soon and you will be lost.

III-41

( V^R )
Pow^erful are the rebellious senses, but will
can conquer them, and man has judgment with
which to govern his will. This evil thing, how-
ever, will seize and destroy man's judgment if
allowed to enter the fort.

III-42

^5 w% T|T^> ^mm |TT?r^ II

( ^1^3 )

Therefore exercise the strength of your soul
and guard yourself against this multiform and
powerful enemy that threatens your very judg-
ment. O brave prince, overcome this foe by
vigilance from the very outset.

III-43

( ^in )

TEXTS 99

In whatever form men worship me, I look after
them in that form. Men worship me in many-
ways, but they all reach me.

IV-11

( ^1^. )

He alone is sanyasi as well as yogi who does
the work that should be done not depending on
results, not he who just abandons daily rites or
cooking and abstains from work.

VI-1

ift ^\ ^t Iff rT^ ^^: ^^^TTf%5f^T^rrr I

( ^\Rl, RR )

If a votary offers worship with faith and
devotion unto me in any form, I strengthen that
faith, and he obtains his desires by that devotion.
But it is I that grant them whatever be the form
of the deity he worships.

VII-21, 22

100 HINDUISM

( ^1^ )

All this world is pervaded by Me unmanifest;
all beings abide in Me, but I stand apart from
them.

IX-4

( ^I'A )

And yet beings are not rooted in Me. Behold
the scheme of My sovereignty, Myself the origin
and the support of beings, yet standing apart from
them!

IX-5

^^^mft"^ fT^HH^^I STf^^^TRf II

( ^1^ )

Using nature, which is Mine own, I create
again and again all this multitude of beings,
keeping them dependent on nature.

IX-8

( V^o )

TEXTS 101

In the scheme of My sovereignty nature brings
forth everything, moving and unmoving, and keeps
the world going.

IX-10

#sFq- m^^ ^T'^q" ir5Rqft"f?Tg;#^^ ii

( ^R^ )

Even those who worship other gods with de-
votion moved by sincere faith indirectly worship
Me.

Ch. IX-23

3Tc^f^ ^^^T% ^T^^tft" ^^f^ m I

^^14^^% ^^tq- ^^^^ Tq'f^ II

( ^R^ )

Whatever work you are engaged in, whatever
you take as food for the body, or offer as sacri-
fice or give as gifts, whatever austerities you go
through, do it all as an offering to Me.

IX-27

^5 ^'^^^^TPft ^ ^^^^^^ II

( l^Wl )

Bearing a body on this earth, no one can com-
pletely abandon work; so he who is unconcerned

102 HINDUISM

with the fruits of his work but does it in a spirit of
detachment is taken as having renounced work.

XVIIMl

( ?<^|'^^ )

By devotion to what is his particular work does
every man attain bliss. Listen how a man devot-
ed to his work attains the goal.

XVIII-45

( ?<^l^^ )

Any man who does his proper work indeed
worships Him from Whom all things have issued
and by Whom all this is pervaded, and he there-
by attains beatitude.

XVIII-46

5iT2TPT ^'^f fkwn: TT^cHnrticfld I

( ^^IYV3 )

It is better to do the work that falls to one's
share though it may not be done perfectly than
to seek to do what is another's, even if one may

TEXTS 105

do it well. Man does not incur sin by the defects
in the work which by his own nature falls to his
share.

XVIII-47

One's normal duty should never be abandoned
whatever be the evils appearing therein. Every
act in this world carries some evil with it as fire
is accompanied by smoke.

XVIII-48

( 16\Y% )

He who is detached in mind, has overcome
selfish desires and has attained self-control will
by that renunciation of desires attain all that is tc>
be attained by joining the order of hermits.

XVIII-49'

KATHOPANISHAD

c

( ?l^,l? )

The good is one thing, the pleasant another.
These two lead to very different ends. The wise
axe not deceived by the attraction of the pleasant.
They choose the good. Fools are snared into the
mere pleasant and perish.

I-ii-1.

( VV\R )

Self-realization is the way to liberation. Turn-
ing the mind within and concentrating on the
spirit, man should realize the divine character of
his own soul and its intrinsic freedom. The
Supreme Spirit is lodged within one's self, though
unperceived because of the perplexities of joy and
grief and attachment to worldly objects.

I-iii-12

TEXTS 105

^?]T-^^^^> ^tPt IT^R#^^I'^^T^ II

( ?RR^, ^■^ )

Enlightenment does not come from extensive
study or by learned discussions or through the
intellect. It comes of itself when one's self in-
tensely yearns for realization, but not unless the
mind has turned away from evil and has learnt
to control itself and to be at peace with the world.

I-ii-23,24

^TF^TTc^^ I
f^^s^^ II

o c

c o o ^

( VVl,R )

106 HINDUISM

The openings of the mind, viz., the sense-
organs, are directed outwards. Therefore do
men's thoughts ever tend outwards. But the few
who have true understanding turn their mind
inwards and realize the self within. Others pur-
sue external pleasures and fall into the widespread
net of birth and death. Those of steady mind do
not spend their thoughts on sensual pleasures that
are transient. They seek the joy of liberation.

II-ii-1, 2

5T^#5 cf^^ ^^^^ rf^^^ I

( W^^, n )

What is here is there and what is there is
here. Things and beings seem various but are,
indeed, one Being. We are liberated when we
perceive this oneness. We go from death to death
if we perceive differences. It is by enlightenment
that the mind can overcome the feeling of differ-
ence and have a vision of the transcendent one-
ness.

II-i-10, 11

TEXTS

107

r^ 'T^f^STT^rT STTc^TT ^T^fcT 'ftcfiT II

( RWl-^, n )

The rain that falls on the rocks is scattered in
different directions and flows down the hill-sides
in many torrents. So does the ignorant man see
manifoldness and is confused like the water fall-
ing on the rocks. Water poured into water be-
comes one with it. Thus it is with the self of the
man of understanding who sees unity in mani-
foldness.

II-i-14,15

( W\ )

The soul is contained in the body as heat is
contained unmanifest in wood. Fire takes shape
in accordance with the thing burning. (It is now
the flame of a lam.p, now a furnace, and now a
forest fire). Fire, which is one in essence, mani-
fests itself on earth in diverse earthly forms. Even
so the universal soul takes diverse shapes in appear-
ance but remains unchanged.

II-ii-9

108 HINDUISM

( Wi^. )

The firm control of the senses is called Yoga.
Vigilance is essential for it, because control is very
often lost though once acquired.

II-iii-11

ISAVASYOPANISHAD

( ^-. )

Everything in the universe abides in the
Supreme Being. Realize this well, and remem-
bering it cast off the thought of possessing what
is enjoyed by another. Doing the work that
should be done here, one may wish to live a
hundred years. Thus it is in thee, not otherwise,
that action cleaves not to a man.

1,2

KENOPANISHAD

( ^l?,3 )

He who thinks he knows what cannot be
known really thereby proves himself ignorant. He
who realizes that he does not know Him has best
understood. Those who seek to understand Him,
as they understand things of ordinary knowledge,
can never achieve their object. Those who realize
the limitation of the human mind in respect of the
knowledge of the Supreme Spirit and therefore
frankly confess ignorance, are really nearer to a
true understanding of it.

n-1, 3

SWETHASWATHAROPANISHAD

( ?i^ )

Let man realize the divinity of his soul. There-
Toy does he obtain release. The Lord upholds the
universe which is built on a union of the manifest
and the unmanifest, the imperishable and the
perishable. Functioning as en j oyer through the
senses, the soul in man loses the consciousness of
lordship and is enchained. When he realizes lord-
ship, he is freed from every tie.

. 1-8

Trrqift-^f^: II

( ?l?° )

Iswara rules over the soul as well as over
material nature which forms the field for the
soul's functioning. By contemplation and repeat-
ed meditation, realization is attained of the unity

112 HINDUISM

of these three, God, matter and soul. Man then
reaches liberation from the illusion of the world.

. I-IO

( in^r-W )

Fire is not seen when it is concealed in its
womb, which is wood. But it appears to view when
it is brought forth. So does meditation bring out
the Supreme Spirit from within us wherein the
spirit abides unperceived. Like oil in the sesame
seed, like butter suspended in milk, like fire lying
unmanifest in the fire-lighter, like water under-
ground in the river-bed, the Supreme Spirit is
within us unmanifest. When two pieces of wood
are rubbed, fire is brought out. Butter is separated
from milk when we churn it. Water is seen if we
sink a pit in the sand of the river-bed. The Divine
Self that is hidden within oneself will similarly

TEXTS 113

manifest itself through truth and meditation and
control of mind and senses, which is the penance
that churns. Let him make his body the lower
piece and knowledge the upper piece of the Arani,
and by the practice of meditation, churn the fire
out, so to say.

1-13, 14, 15

^=^^^ I

( ^l^° )

The Lord, dwelling in the heart of man, can
be perceived not by the eye but by the heart;
and he who thus perceives Him attains immortality.

IV-20

^T^R^ ^^>^^?Tr ^n^^^n^ q"f^^^ m i; i

{ V? )

( ^1?^ )

114 HINDUISM

( VRo )

Not time or innate quality of matter is the true
cause of phenomena, as some learned men postu-
late, but the glory of God who dwells in and
revolves round all things, animate and inanimate.
The Universal Spirit is indivisible, untainted, tran-
quil. Unless man discovers It within himself it
is impossible for him to find an end to the misery
of life. It would be easier to roll up the sky and
carry it on one's head like a tanner carrying a
hide than to achieve happiness without under-
standing and realizing the immanence of God.

VI-1, 12, 20

( \RR )

The study of Vedanta without the direct teach-
ing of a father or a guru is not of much avail.
But more than all, the imparting of spiritual
knowledge can avail nothing without the previous
purging of character necessary for the knowledge
and realization of the highest truth.

VI-22

MUNDAKOPANISHAD

c,

( ?l?l^ )

As the spider draws its thread out of itself
and is lord over the web it produces, as shrubs
and plants grow from the earth, as hair grows
on the bodies of living beings, so has all this
universe come out of the imperishable.

I-i-7

^J^: ^jw\ f^ f^^^^fJT q^virt q-ftrft

qfg^-clTTJT I
JfTR TcT: fe*^ q7ft"m^t ^^r: sr^TT: J^qr-

( W^, \ )

116

HINDUISM

The entire universe is a manifestation and
product of the all-immanent, formless, causeless
Being. The sun, moon and all the quarters, all
knowledge, and the souls of all existing beings
are parts and manifestations of that single all-
immanent Being. All life and all qualities,
functions and activities are forms of that single
Energy. He is the fire which makes the very
sun burn in the sky like a faggot in the fire. The
rain does rain, but it is He that rains through and
by means of the clouds. Beings multiply but it is
He that continues to multiply Himself through
them.

II-i-4, 5

^-rKlcHI II
j^q- Tjifi f^ ^IT ^^ ^^ ^THT^iT I

ft-ftTTcft^ ^^ II

( Vl\%, ?° )

The mountains and the seas, the rivers, the
trees and plants and their life-giving essences,
all have issued from Him. Knowing that the
Supreme Spirit dwells within your own heart,

TEXTS 117

dear son, cut off the knots of ignorance that bind
you here.

II-i-9, 10

% II
( VV\ )

He is the entire Universe. Heaven, earth and
sky, your mind and your life-breath are all
woven into Him. Know that He is the one and
only existence. This knowledge is the firm cause-
way to immortality. All other learning is mere
words to be discarded.

II-ii-5

^f^^R I
( R\R\^ )

God is within your own heart. He has lodged
Himself in this food-sustained body of yours and
rules it and its life, even He that sustains the
whole universe and all its glory.

n-ii-7

118 HINDUISM

( ^l^l<^ )

When His presence within oneself is realized,
all doubts, all attachments of the hearts, all karmas
vanish. His presence should be realized in every
form of existence, high or low.

II-ii-8

^^MT^ I

( ^i^i?<^, ^? )

There no sun shines, no moon nor stars nor
lightning; where could there be fire? From Him
who shines all things derive their light — it is His
light that illumines this entire universe.

On realizing Him, what is individual life?
What even are the sun and the moon, the stars
and the lightning of the clouds? All these are

TEXTS

119

but reflections of that One Light. He fills all the
quarters. He alone exists.

H-ii-lO, 11

^%^ I
3TR^#^ 3TTc^TfrT: f^^T^^r ^^rf^

^T^: II

( VV^^ )

When one realizes that the Lord is the life that
lives and the light that shines in every living
being, he loses his dependence on externals and
finds all bliss in himself. He knows but does not
indulge in discussions.

Ch. ni-i-4

^^ ^'i^'^'iM'HI "^ 3TR^ ;FF^5Tm

( VIW )

Truth, penance, true understanding and purity
of life are essential requisites for the revelation
of the spirit within. When thus revealed, He
shines spotless and resplendent within oneself.

120 HINDUISM

The seekers who have freed themselves from sin
are vouchsafed the vision.

III-i-5

^R^^^ ^5fjr# th^ ^^?t 'F'^t fercft t^^TR: i

( ?i?i^ )

Victory is ever with truth. Untruth cannot
win. The path to the Divine is through truth.
The sages with desires quenched walk on that road
to reach the ultimate Being.

III-i-6

lES

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