Hinduism Doctrine

HINDUISMDOCTRINE AND WAY

OF LIFE

by

C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

THE HINDUSTAN TIMESNEW DELHI

FIRST IMPRESSION

Three Rupees

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

CONTENTS

HINDUISMDOCTRINE AND WAY

OF LIFE

by

C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

THE HINDUSTAN TIMESNEW DELHI

FIRST IMPRESSION

CXrpentier

Three Rupees

Printed and Published by Devi Prasad Sharma

at the Hindustan Times Press, New Delhi.

PREFACE

Whether the claim made in the introductorychapter that Vedanta can create a consciencefor social obligations is accepted or not, thisbook will have served its purpose if it givesto those who read it a clear idea of thephilosophy of the Hindus and the way oflife flowing from it. Hinduism has been thesubject of study by quite a number of earnestmen from foreign lands. Some, repelled byfeatures of the social structure still in existenceamong Hindus, have condemned Hindu philo-sophy itself as worthless. Others have foundgreat and rare things in it, but in trying to giveexpression to what they admire, they confuseand mystify their readers and leave themsceptical. This is only what may be expected,for while difficulties of language and idiom canbe overcome by patient scholarship, the complexproduct of the gradual synthesis of philosophyand social evolution, that is to say, of the eternalwith the ephemeral, which has taken placethrough millennia and which reflects vicissi-tudes of a chequered history, is not easy for aforeigner to understand or explain. It is hopedthat this book will be found to present in abrief 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 ofIndia.

Half the population of the world lives in Asiaand professes allegiance to religious and moralideas that undoubtedly originated in India. SirHenry Maine has stated that, barring the blindforces of nature, there was nothing that livedand moved in the world which was not Hellenicin origin. This may be true, but it must be re-membered that Hellenic thought owes a good dealto India. Philosophic speculation had well advan-ced in India before the time of Socrates. Theconceptions of Indian seers travelled to Greeceand could not have failed to make their impres-sion on Hellenic thought. Even from the point ofview of the mere scholar, it would be helpful tohave a clear knowledge of the basic elements ofHindu religion and philosophy.

India has her importance in the world, andknowledge of the basic elements of India'sculture would enable people to understandher better. The Government of India issecular in the sense that the State does notsupport one religion or another but is firmlypledged to impartiality towards people of allfaiths. But this does not mean that the peopleof India have given up the spiritual and moraldoctrines in which they have been brought up,which form the basis of all their culture andwhich qualify and shape all future additions tothat culture. This book deals with the spiritual

PREFACE 6

and ethical doctrines that have given to India fits way of hfe.Names of gods do not make rehgion any more

than the names of men and women make uptheir personahty- Names are originally givenand used without any idea of comparison orcontrast with other names. They are handeddown by tradition. Custom gathers fragrancesand 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 knownis hallowed by the ecstatic religious experienceof seekers, and gathers round itself the light andfragrance and the healing strength born of therapturous adoration of generations that havesought and found Him. Whether it be God,Jehovah, Bhagwan, Ishwar, Allah, Hari, Siva orRama, it is the same Being that in vague manneris recalled by every devotee when he uttersthe name which he has been brought up toassociate with the m\^stery of the universe andthe idea of worship. To an outsider or unbe-liever the most exhaustive collection of suchnames can bring no help to understanding.The writer must make it clear at the very out-

set that he does not profess to prove anythingbut seeks to present the body of faith calledVedanta to those who are not familiar with it. Itis his belief that while agnosticism or scepticismmay do no harm and on the contrary may do

4 HINDUISM

much good to the minds of an enlightened fewthat find satisfaction in it, in the mass, scepticisminevitably and steadily leads to positive denial.A divorce between action and moral responsi-bility follows. This is not good either for thepresent or for the future generations. It is thewriter's conviction that Vedanta is a faith assuitable for modern times as it was for ancientIndia, and more especially so, as the world isnow fully and irreplaceably permeated by thediscipline and knowledge that have come tostay through science and are bound to grow astime advances.

Chapter I

INTRODUCTORY

HiNDUiSAi is a modern word. Vedanta is thebest among the numerous names given tothe rehgious faith of the Hindus. He whoprofesses 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 somespiritual and cultural basis, and the ethic andculture rooted in Vedanta can undoubtedly ful-fil this purpose. Everyone now realizes that thescheme of life which held the field till recentlyand which gave what was called prosperity inthe nineteenth century is now out of date. Theprosperity resulting from the economy of privatecompetition necessarily carried with it inequal-ity of distribution. Indeed, the prosperity wasbased on this very inequality. Somie peopleeither in the same country or elsewhere had tolive in varying degrees of squalor in order tobuild up and support that prosperity. But achange has now come about and unhappiness inany sector of society or in any part of the worldis considered as an intolerable disgrace and itis the conscious aim of all classes and all people

6 HINDUISM

to reach much higher standards of physical andmoral comfort than now prevail. Inequality isno longer considered either necessary or eventolerable. The old scheme of life based onprivate competition and laissez-faire is defi-nitely condemned as anarchic. It has come tobe looked upon as a revised edition of the lawof the jungle. It is now widely recognized thatwhat was hitherto thought to be the privateenclosures of individual life must in the interestof society as a whole be trespassed upon andregulated by the community. The commonweal has the dominant claim in every nationalState. It is also realized that, as far as possible,regulation should be deemed an internationalobligation, since the nations of the world andtheir needs have become so interrelated that itis now an established rule that national boun-daries should no longer mark the limits ofeconomic 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 notcompletely to stifle individual liberty and indi-vidual initiative and kill the sense of joy whichissues out of the exercise of that liberty and in-itiative. Some have no hope of this reconcili-ation and den}^ its possibility. But others stoutlymaintain that it is quite possible and that thereis an economy that can combine the necessaryover-all regulation with the basic freedom of

INTRODUCTORY /

the individual. There is, however, so much joyin individual initiative that it is worth while tomake an attempt to find a solution which willpreserve it, if not wholly, at least in great partswhile imposing regulation in the interest of thecommunity. It is never good to give up thebattle for freedom as lost. Whichever view mayultimately turn out to be true, one thing is cer-tain, that the pain of a regulated economy is dueto the fact that regulation comes from outside,imposed by an external authority. Not onlydoes this compulsion by external authoritycreate pain, but it prejudicially affects theworking efficiency of regulation itself. Judged,therefore, from every point of view, an orderedeconomy as distinguished from laissez-faire callsfor the general acceptance of a code of valuesand a culture that can operate as a law fromwithin 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 ofindividual liberty and initiative in the midst ofcomplicated State regulations, to keep whichsense alive is the aim of those who seek to re-concile the new order with old liberty. Eventhose who look upon this liberty as an outmod-ed illusion and plump unconditionally for regu-lation must agree that a law operating fromwithin is more efficient than one externallyimposed, 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 illegalgain either of power or wealth. One of themost difficult practical problems in regulatedeconomy is how to meet this evil. A wellaccepted ethic and culture is the only solution.The question, then, is whether there is any

ground for hoping that we can devise and makepeople accept a culture or an ethic that can ef-fectively operate in this manner. Can we deviseand promote a religious faith that will assistlarge-scale regulation of the life of the individualfor the benefit of the community? It may beadmitted at once that it is not an easy task, evenif it be assumed as possible of achievement,now to found a new religion to serve aparticular secular purpose. But Vedanta, forwhich the writer claims the virtue of ap-propriateness to the new economy, is nota new religion. It figures in the most ancientcalendar of faiths, and it is the living faith whichguides the lives of three hundred millions ofmen and women. The common folk living inthe greater part of Asia profess religions andmoral ideas very closely related in origin to thereligion 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 Romewere faiths that in a large measure absorb-ed and assimilated Vedantic currents from

INTRODUCTORY 9

India. An exposition of the basic principles ofVedanta may, in addition to giving adequateinformation to those who are interested in therehgions of the world, secure some attentionfrom important persons concerned in reorder-ing the world in secular matters.

Political ideas that are crumbling under theweight of events are clung to by their adherentswith the fanatical desperation of last-ditchers.Disaster threatens. Thinking men have to castabout for some sounder foundations for civil-ization and for the principles of internationalconduct if catastrophic misfortune is not to be-fall the human race. If indeed one of the mostancient of the world's heritages can serve as sucha foundation, its principles deserve to be set outin 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 ofharmony or unity of thought is the human mindon which all external impulses impinge. Itis impossible for the mind to accept a truth forsome purposes and reject it for others. We can-not be doing wisely in entertaining contrarydisciplines of mind. The discipline of physicalscience has come to stay. Indeed, it is by farthe most dominant discipline of modern times.Material objects and forces offer themselves forthe closest examination and the greatest varietyof experiment. It is not therefore surprisingthat the advance of knowledge in that field ismore rapid and substantial than in morals orphilosophy. The forms of thought and reason-ing imposed in the discipline of physical sciencemust be accepted and taken as models in shapingother disciplines. It is no good running counterto them. Acceptance of the scientific method isnot a defeat for religion, but is acceptance ofthe sovereignty of truth which is only an aspectof religion. It is a correct view of religion thatit 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 acceptedaxioms of the scientific world.

DISHARMONIES 11

Even greater is the divergence between reli-gious and moral doctrines on the one hand andthe principles of expediency governing politicalactivities on the other. The contradictions areignored or treated as inevitable and no attemptis 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 isnot a form of reconciliation, but chronic dis-harmony, and it must result in injury to theminds of men and consequently to social well-being. Hypocrisy cannot become harmless bybeing widespread and taken for granted. Itacts like a consuming internal fever which isworse than an obvious and acute distemper.Human energy is wastefully consumed in

disharmonies involved in the prevailing con-tradictions in science, religion, national politicsand the conduct of international affairs. Wehave no doubt got on for a good length oftime on this wasteful plan of life. But, is itgood or wise to continue thus? The problemswe have to face are increasing in difficulty andthe disadvantages of error increase in accelerat-ed ratio with the size and number of thedifficulties we have to overcome. What did notmaterially affect the position when the problemswere simple assumes tremendous proportionswhen they have grown bigger and become morecomplex.

12 HINDUISM

The laws of nature that we have come toknow, the philosophy we believe in, the state-craft that we practise should all be made toaccord and harmonize with one another if wehope successfully to face the problems thatconfront us in the present most complicatedw^orld. Have we real belief in truth? This isthe vital question. If we have that belief thenwe must summon the needed courage and act.Previous generations had simpler problems, butit must be admitted that they grappled withthem more courageously and with a greaterspirit of adventure than we seem inclined toshow in tackling our more difficult problems.This weakness is unfortunate, whatever thecauses. We should not, however, despair but,drawing inspiration from our forebears, sum-mon all the spirit we can command to restorebasic harmony of thought and to make allnecessary modifications in our fundamentalbeliefs and axioms for that purpose.

. When our minds dwell on scientific researchand studies, we implicitly accept certain truths.It is a mistake to believe that by a mental fiatthese accepted axioms could be dismissed andforgotten when we deal with God and thethings of religion. Neither truth nor the humanmind is so docile as to submit to such unnaturalrepression. But does it not look as if we haveaccomplished this successfully during all theseyears of steady scientific progress? The expla-

DISHARMONIES 13

nation is that faith divorced from truth hasbecome hypocrisy, and the achievement of theimpossible was only a delusion of the mind.Two contrary faiths could not possibly remainas faiths and secure allegiance of the mind. Theone or the other must have deteriorated andchanged its real substance while masqueradingas faith.

Equally unwisely have we been practising theart of holding contrary faiths when professingand expounding religion and morality as againstthe principles followed when dealing with affairsof State. Here, too, we accept certain firmaxioms at one time and expect them to lie dor-miant in a corner the next mom^ent when w^edeal with statecraft. Indeed, it is generally con-sidered folly for anyone to base the practice ofpolitics on the principles of religion. Even sogood and pious a man as Sir Walter Scott wrotein his personal journal, "The adaptation of reli-gious motives to earthly policy is apt amongthe infinite delusions of the human hearttobe a snare". He meant definitely that religionand politics had better remain in differentpigeon-holes and that it would be folly to at-tempt to reconcile the basic axioms of religionand those of politics. This is accepted almostas a truism in daily life but is not the less harm.-ful for such general acceptance. It has been,throughout the ages, considered reasonable andwise 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 practisefraud on the minds of our children for the pur-pose of handing this scheme of isolation downto 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-jrate fraud where they owe their most sacred!duty and abuse the trusting plasticity of theyoung mind to fulfil this 'sacred' object ofperpetuating disharmony of thought and hand-ing it intact to the next generation! Theunpleasant task is often sought to be trans-ferred by father to mother or vice versa, andby both to the schoolmaster. The work is donein the untidy way in which all unpleasant tasksare bound to be done, but it is done so far as themischief is concerned. The child is taughtabsolutely to accept certain principles as rightand taught also at the same time to discarthose principles in action wherever worth whilworldly results are to be obtained.A simultaneous acceptance of contradictor

ideas is not possible except in the form of aillusion. Even if it be accomplished in a howfide manner, it cannot be a healthy procesWe cannot employ untruth as a servant withou'paying the heavy wage it demands, viz., spiritudeath. It is just another aspect of the grea

DISHARMONIES 15

truth that was embodied in the significantwords that the wages of sin is death. If wecontinually practise error, we cannot preventthe wells of the spirit from going dry.The injury done by disharmony is to the mind,

which is the thinking and feeling machine,thevery engine-room in the power-house of humanenergy. When the engine is damaged, whatelse can we expect but serious injury to the causeof human progress? Even if we looked uponcivilization as a business concern, its most pre-cious capital asset is the sum-total of the mindsof its men and women. The depreciation towhich this asset is subjected by reason of thechronic contradiction of principles is ruinous.The hope of mankind must be restored by stop-ping this rot.

In the olden days the contradiction betweenscience and religion was not so great as it is atpresent. The very backwardness of science wasa factor that reduced the difference. As a result,in those days fervent adherence to religion andphilosophy not only did not cause serious dishar-mony but on the contrar^^ spiritualized researchand led men to great achievement. This waspossible because they did not try to believe incontrary things. There are numerous instancesin the pages of ancient history as well as in theearly 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 animmensely wider circle of followers than everbefore. As a result, the maladjustment is atpresent much more serious and the mischieftrem.endous. I

As for the contradictions between religion andthat class of worldly activities of intelligent mencalled politics, the divergence is even greaterthan that between science and religion. It is in-deed a miracle that earnest Christians preserveboth their faith and their psychological healthunder the conditions of current national and in-ternational activities. The State permits, aidsand abets the wholesale infringement of Vv^hat isdaily read and formally taught as the word ofChrist. Yet, almost all the citizens of the Stateprofess religion and believe themselves to beChristians. They duly celebrate Christian ritesand festivals. The reign of relentless privatecompetition, the right to make maximum privateprofit at the expense of others and the explora-tion of every advantage got by accident oracquired by enterprise, so that the differencesbetween man and man may grow in geometricprogression, are all plain denials of Christ. Forthe execution of deep-laid plans based on theso-called fundamental right to pri\'ate competi-tion, gigantic corporations equal in respectabilityto the Church and far richer, grander and moreawe-inspiring than the Church's most impressivemanifestations are established under the autho-

DISHARMONIES 17

rity and protection of democratic States. Yet,almost every citizen of those States is a Christianor belongs to some other faith equally opposedto inequality and exploitation. The anti-spiri-tual significance of the hypocrisy generated bysuch contradictions is tremendous. Civilizationmust crumble corroded by this contradiction ifnothing 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 protestagainst the misuse of wealth and power. Agreat deal of dissent is no doubt honestly andbravely expressed in every country against theneglect of religious principles. Even war in justcauses is opposed and the volume of pacifistliterature may be considered as standing proofof the validity of this plea. But this dissent ofindividuals is allowed to be expressed only be-cause it does not material^ interfere with theexisting order. It even serves in its own wayas an ally of the dominant hypocrisy, for byproviding a vent and an escape for guilty cons-cience, it relieves the pressure and allows thecrime to continue.

Chapter III

ANCIENT YET MODERN

The question may be asked, all this beingaccepted, what then? Is not the contradictioninevitable? It is true that religion or philo-sophy contrary to modern science is bound tobecome sham and hypocrisy, but is there anypossibility of removing the maladjustment oraverting the mischief? Can we offer to theworld a religion which is not contrary to science?While it may be true and may be acceptedthat to secure a firm basis for progress alldisharmony between science and religion andbetween religion and statecraft must be re-moved, and an integrated and well-adjustedbody of thought and feeling must be estab-lished.^ is there any hope, it may be asked,of finding a solution in that direction? Are wenot leading to the position that religion mustbe given up altogether? Is it not obvious thatthe contradiction pointed out can only be remov-ed by the total abandonment of religion? Is itpossible, at this stage of human history, to builda religious fabric around scientific truth as it hasevolved 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 oldas 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 hasbeen derived from the information supplied bythe Christian missionaries of an older generation.As we are not, however, living in the times ofthe proselytizing Christian missions whose onefunction was to show that Hinduism was goodfor nothing, it may be hoped that the claim madein this book will receive a fair examination atthe 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 ofmodern conditions and requirements.Put in precise words the claim is that a code

of ethics and a system of values were evolvedby Hindu philosophers out of the religious philo-sophy known as Vedanta, which is not onl}^consistent with science, but is admirably suitedto be a spiritual basis for the more just andstable social organization that good people allover the world desire and are working for. Theattempt everywhere has been to bring abouteconomic and social reorganization on thestrength only of State authority. It imposes aterrible strain on that authority, and is subjectto inevitable flaws in execution. It has also thisdefect of all repressive State actionthat it isirksome to the citizen and creates a mental state

20 HINDUISM

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

It goes without saying that spiritual valuesproposed as the basis of a sounder social orga-nization must not be an improvisation or aninvention of expediency designed to furthermaterial interest by cloaking it with sanctity.A spurious scheme of so-called spiritual valuesto serve a sordid purpose would be a de-lusion if self-imposed, an imposture if ofl:eredfor acceptance. Honesty is the best policy; butit is not as policy that honest conduct was niadepart or continues to be part of every religion.Similarly, Vedanta is bound to help regulatedeconomy but it is not for that reason that it wasconceived or should be accepted as a faith. Itclaims to be accepted on its intrinsic appeal andworth. If accepted, it will serve also the otherpurpose. Truth, it may be repeated, is one andindivisible. Politics, religion and science cannotrest on mutually contrary axioms nor can themere expediency of any one of them enablethem to pass for truth, unless it is true in thesense at least of its presenting no vulnerablepoint for attack by reason of inconsistency withestablished truths.


The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita arethe 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 iin the ancient Hindu scriptures. The God ofVedanta is not an anthropomorphic creationwith human capriciousnessa conception againstwhich the veriest tyro in modern science canlaunch a successful attack. Divine sovereigntyis explained in the Bhagavad Gita in a languagewhich anticipates and meets the difficulties thatmodern science raises against religious cosm.o-logy. According to the Bhagavad Gita, thesovereignty of God is exercised in and throughthe unchangeable law of cause and effect, thatis, 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 schemeof My sovereignty! Myself the origin and the supportof beings, yet standing apart from them. Using naturewhich is Mine own, I create again and again all thismultitude of beings, keeping them dependent on nature.In the scheme of My sovereignty, nature brings forththe moving and the unmoving, and in consequence ofthis the world evolves.*

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

* Gita IX 4 to 10.

22 HINDUISMi

inherent in the primordial substance. In factit may be said that the philosophy of Hinduism,anticipated the basic theories of biology andphysics. The very approach to things in theUpanishads, the insistence on adherence to truthand on tireless investigation is remarkably inthe nature of an anticipation of the methods ofscience.*'

Just as Vedanta appears to have anticipatedscience and prepared the ground for meetingthe contradictions that were to appear betweenscience and religion, so also the code of conductand the spiritual values that were developed byHindu seers on the basis of Vedantic philosophyseem to have fully anticipated the socio-econo-mic problems that civilization has had subse-quently to face. The profit-motive and the civicright of private competition were definitelydiscarded in what was laid down as the Vedan-tin's way of life. This, as clearly set out in theBhagavad Gita, is that men must fulfil socialduty and work according to capacity and not for 1profit. We are now told by social and economic 'reformers that the State should see to it thatmen and women work without aiming at personalgain and with an eye onty to the welfare of thecommunity. And this is just what the BhagavadGita laid down. The way of life taught in thisliving spring of Hindu ethics is based ex

II MundakopanishadIII (5) (6).


pressly on the equal dignity and sacrednessof every form of labour that falls to one's lot.All work, it reiterates with solemn emphasis,should be done honestly and disinterestedly forlokasangrahawelfare of the communityandnot for the satisfaction of personal desires. In-deed, the Gita lays down in a unique manner thewhole socialist doctrine by characterizing workas a religious offering in the truest sense. Theperformance of one's allotted task is specificallydescribed 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 performshis proper duty, he worships Him from whom the worldhas issued and by whom all that we see is pervaded andthereby he attains beatitude. It is better for one to doeven imperfectly the duties that fall to one's lot, thanto do those of others perfectly. If a man does the workthat comes to him by birth, no blemish will attach to it,whatever kind of work it may be. One should notabandon one's natural duty, even if evils attach thereto;every human activity involves some evil as fire carriessmoke. He whose mind is in every way detached,whose self is conquered, who has freed himself fromselfish longings attains by dint of that detachment theattributes attached to worklessness.

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

24 HINDUISM

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

Everywhere now in the civihzed world, menwant a wise allotment of work to individuals aswell as groups in accordance with the demandsof common interest in place of personal choiceor caprice. They feel they have had enough oflaissez-faire and of the 'divine' right of makingunlimited private profit. If it is essential thatindividual efforts should be regulated and con-trolled in the interest of society, this vital dutycannot be left entirely to the spy and the police-man employed to keep watch over citizens. Wemust build up a social conscience and a culturalincentive to co-operate from within and create aspiritual yearning which makes a joy of restraintand strenuous discharge of dut^^ The terrorsand risks and the very guilt and savagery of aviolent revolution might by a natural reactionbring into being a fanaticism that serves to backa new economic order that was brought intoexistence at such supreme cost and sacrifice.This fanaticism may function as a kind of spiri-tual incentive. But the same cannot happenwhen the revolution is attained by a mere Act

^ Yet, these very texts have lent themselves in thehands of prejudiced critics to the interpretation thatthese verses are an apology for the preservation of

the privileges of the higher castes! Perversity andprejudice can convert elixir into poison.


of Parliament. The spiritual value of thingsdepends on the price paid for them in suffer-ing and sacrifice. An easily achieved revolu-tion has not the same psychological virtue as onepaid for in blood and tears. Where there is nobacking of revolutionary fanaticism or its after-effects there must be found something elseto operate as motive power. The only thingthat can do this effectively is a faith that operatesas a law from within and co-operates with State-imposed restraints. In Vedanta, we have ateaching rooted in immemorial tradition andassociated with the sacred names and memoriesof a long line of seers, which can serve as thespiritual and cultural basis for a new and morejust economy of life, if not all over the world,at least in India itself.

All culture in India has been rooted inVedanta. Whatever courage, heroism, self-sacri-fice or greatness is to be found in our historyor seen in the lives of our people has sprungfrom Vedanta which is in our blood and tradi-tion. For Vedanta is undoubtedly a livingphilosophy of life in India which is part ofthe mental structure of our people. The peopleof India get it not from a study of books butfrom tradition. It is in the air, so to say,of India and Asia. The foreigner has to get itfrom books and he necessarily sees so muchsubtlety in it that he may well swear that it isimpossible 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 moderntimes. Yet this is the fact in India. The great-ness of Gandhiji and the strength of his move-ment were entirely derived from and rootedin Vedanta. However much foreign civilizationand new aspirations might have affected thepeople of India, this spiritual nutriment hasnot dried up or decayed or changed. The livesof the rich as well as of the poor, of theleisured classes as of the peasants and la-bourers, of the illiterate and not only of thelearned, are in varying measure sweetenedby the pervasive fragrance of this Indian phi-losophy. Paradoxical as it may seem, evencommunities born to avocations deemed dis-honest and disreputable have evolved a code ofhonour of their own, and are Vedantins to theextent of sincerely respecting it. This curiousmoral enclave in sinful lives touches the heart,and makes a great pity of what is doubtless justa matter for sheer reprobation.

The Upanishads are quite large in number,but about twelve may be called the principalUpanishads and they are now available in col-lected book-form with fairly accurate transla-tions. It would be a mistake to expect ancientworks to be like the books of our own time. Theprincipal Upanishads were written thousands ofyears agoscholars are not certain about theexact time. In India as in the rest of the world.


the environment and the lives and habits of menwere all very different then from what they aretoday. We may not forget or overlook this dif-ference in attempting to understand and inter-pret the Upanishads or for that matter any bookof ancient times. To interpret and judge thingswritten more than three thousand years ago inthe light of today and bring to bear on themmodern doubts, discoveries and controversieswould be utterly stupid. We should rememberthat what is now doubted or disputed was notthen the subject of question or controversy.Any literature, sacred or secular, must be juxta-posed to the real life of the place and periodbefore it can be rightly understood. We shouldthrow our minds back thousands of years,, andtry to recreate by an effort of imagination theworld of the Upanishadic periodthe way inwhich men lived and thought, and the way theydisciplined themselves so that we may under-stand and appreciate what was said by therishis or seers.

The principal teaching of all the Upanishadsis this: Man cannot achieve happiness througiimere physical enjoyment obtained throughwealth or the goods of the world or even throughthe pleasures attainable by elevation to thehappy realms above through the performanceof sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. Thepotency of these sacrifices was a matter ofimplicit belief in those times. Yet, the attain-

28 HINDUISM

ment of these worlds of pleasures through Vedisacrifices is not the object of the Upanishateaching. In fact pleasures in super-terrestriworlds were regarded as hardly higher in revalue than sensual enjoyment on earth. TbMundakopanishad, after a glowing descriptio:of the welcome accorded in swarga to the pe:former of sacrificeshow he is borne there othe rays of the sun and told in loving terms thhe has earned the pleasures he is going tenjoy

goes on to say:

Perishable and transient are the results achievedsacrifices. The per[:on of small wisdom who havi:won them congratulates himself on having eternal bliis caught up again in decay and death. He only enjothe fruits of his deeds in a distinguished place in swarg

and when they are exhausted he returns either to hisworld or enters a lower one.

The only happiness worth a wise man's seek-ing is permanent happiness as distinguished fromfleeting pleasures that are exhausted by enjoy-

J

ment like a credit account in a bank either hereor in the world beyond. Absolute happinesscan result only from liberation and it followstherefore 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, andunite it again to the Supreme Being, which ismoksha(Ii{Deration )

.

^


It is necessary to point out that enlighten-ment does not mean learning, much or little.Indeed, enlightenment is not an intellectualstate, but a state of spiritual awakening whichcomes through moral rebuilding. Purity of lifeand 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 runsthrough stages in which the self gets more andmore purified, more and more truly freed fromthe longings that often seem to disappear buthide themselves only to reappear in other forms.The mantras or verses of the Upanishads mayappear in some places to conflict with one an-other, but these contradictions disappear whenit is remembered that the whole is a process ofteaching by stages. All education was throughoral teaching in those days. The disciple livedin intimate companionship with the teacher andthe scripture v/as little more than a mnemo-nic guide to the teacher and not a text-bookto be kept in the students' library. To theteacher as well as to the pupil, it was a helpto memory, not a comprehensive treatise. Thesystem of education when the Upanishads werecomposed was a highly evolved process but themedium was not, as now, the reading of booksbought at bookshops or taken out of libraries.This made a great difference as to the content ofbooks and what was left for oral guidance.

30 HINDUISM

Separate cults based on the worship of Sivaor of Vishnu are of no consequence in Vedanta.Whatever may be the significance of thelater controversies as to who is the SupremeBeing, Siva or Vishnu, these controversiesdo not find a place in the Upanishads.Vedanta has indeed no place for such dis-putes. Vedanta is not mere philosophy. Itis both philosophy and religion. Yet there isno controversy in it about forms of worship.Vedanta is the common heritage of the people ofIndia in whatever denomination they may hap-pen to have been brought up. In his treatises,Sankara, the great Vedantin, uses the wordNarayana to indicate the Supreme Being. Othersin their books give to the Supreme Being thename of Siva. Names and images, whethermental or sculptured, even the sacred and mysticsyllable "OM" itself, are but crutches to help thefaltering feet of infirm faith on the way to reali-zationmere aids to concentration, and pro-tection against doubts and distractions. TheSaiva-Siddhanta philosophy wherein Siva is theSupreme Being is not dififerent from the Vendantataught by Ramanuja who treats Hari as theSupreme Being. The worshipper of Siva orHari may emphatically say that either the oneor the other is the Supreme Spirit and everyother God is but His manifestation for the timebeing and for the particular function, butnames do not matter. Indeed, Jehovah, Allah


and the God of the New Testament may well bemade the central name-piece of the teaching ofthe Upanishads and the sense of it would remainunaltered. Pious men of all religions shouldindeed study the Upanishads and the Gita in thatvery manner, to whatever faith they may belong,only substituting their accustomed name wher-ever the Supreme Being is referred to. Thisreally means that the Upanishads contain thequintessence of all faiths in which the divinethirst of the soul for the nectar of immortalityhas found expression. They contain the answerto 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 opento any Hindu, whatever be the name and mentalimage of the Supreme Being he uses for hisdevotional exercises, to deny the existence of theGod that others worship. He can raise thename of his choice to that of the highest but hecannot deny the divinity or the truth of the Godof other denominations. The fervour of hisown piety just gives predominance to the nameand form he keeps for his own worship andcontemplation, and he treats the others as Godsderiving divinity therefrom. This reduces allcontroversy to a devotional technique of con-

H Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

32 HINDUISM

centration on a particular name and mentalform or concrete symbol as representing theSupreme Being. It makes no difference in thecontent of Vedanta to which all devotees equallysubscribe.Devotees of other Gods who worship themWith true sincerity really worship Me,Though not in the regular way.

Bhagavad Gita.

Just as all water raining from theSkies goes to the ocean, worship of allGods goes to Kesava.

I Mahabharata.

I

Chapter IV

THE FIRST STEP

It is commonly thought that the main teachingof Vedanta is retirement from the activities ofthe world. The literary tradition according towhich the 'mild Hindu' lets "the legions thunderpast, then plunges in thought again" is mainlydue to this illusion, and partly also to wishfulthinking. Far from this being true it is aposition refuted in almost every chapter of theBhagavad Gita with great force. Sanyasa orrenunciation has over and over again been ex-plained as the giving up of the selfish desire forthe fruits of action, and not the giving up ofaction itself. "He who renounces the rewardresulting from action is called the renouncer".Flight from painful duty is unmanly and ignoble.The teaching of Sri Krishna in the Gita, whichis 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 theduties of thy life."

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

The total effect of the teaching is not inaptlysummarised by Sanjaya in the Gita itself:

34 HINDUISM

Where there is Krishna, the Lord of Yogis, and wherethere 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 solong ago and in such an authoritative scriptureas the Bhagavad Gita, the confusion still persistsand it becomes necessary to reiterate it even inthis book written in the middle of the twentiethcentury of the Christian era that it is a mistaketo identify Vedanta with retirement from lifeand its activities. Most certainly the lesson ofVedanta is not retirement from social co-opera-tion. It is not the teaching of Vedanta thatmen should renounce the world. Vedantadoes demand renunciation, but that is re-nunciation of attachment, not of work orduties. It wants men to get rid of the desirefor pleasurable fruits, for this leads to error,pain, anger and confusion of mind. It demandsdetachment of spirit while performing one's taskdiligently and well. It lays the greatest empha-sis on duties in co-operative life and activitiesin the general interest. Vedanta provides thesoul-force to enable us to reduce selfishness,egotism, attachment to pleasure and fear of pain,and helps us to dedicate our lives to the efficientperformance of our duties. Out of Vedanta wecan develop resolution and fearlessness in service

THE FIRST STEP 35

and devotion to truth. The resolution andfearlessness that characterized Gandhiji's longand active life were inspired by Vedanta.That illustration is perhaps more convincingthan 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 possessionsAnd be driven to beg for my daily food.Why, let my friends turn against meAnd seek to poison my very food.Let men attack me arrayed in regimentsAnd 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, andis expressed thus in the Isavasya:Who sees all beings in his own soul and his soul in

all beingshe hates no one. When the knower realizesthat all things are one with himselfwhat sorrow orwhat illusion can there be?*He who knows the bliss of Brahmanfrom which speech

and the mind return without reachingfears nothing.**

Life itself and all that it inherits are transientand unreal and only the good and bad inthought and action stick to the soul in its jour-* Isa6-7.

** TaittiriyaIV.

36 HINDUISM

ney through births and deaths. This faith ispart of the culture of the Vedanta. In theBrihadaranyaka Upanishad it is said that Janakareahzes 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 dozenof its languages. It is not a creed of North orSouth, but of all India and of all castes and allsects. Names made the sects although therewas little or no distinction in faith or philosophy.The source book for all of them is the Upa-nishads. Vedanta has entered into the currentof all Indian literature, prose, poetry or drama,lyric or narrative and imparts to it in varyingdegrees a loftiness of outlook and a faith ineternal verities. Vedantic thought moves roundtwo fundamental conceptions, Brahma and theindividual soul. With the advance of know-ledge these two focal points converge. Theexternal universe is a transient form and notreality. What the true nature of that realityis we cannot know. The external universe isthe form in which it presents itself to our cons-ciousness. How it may appear to intelligencesdifferently constituted from ours we do notknow. The Vedanta sets to itself the task ofreaching a clear comprehension of absolutereality. This attempt, says a modern philosopher,has been made on three occasions in the noblestory of human thoughtin India in the Upa-

THE FIRST STEP 37

nishads, in Greece by Parmenides and Platoand recently in Europe by Kant and Schopen-hauer. Of these attempts undoubtedly theearliest is that of the rishis of the Upanishads;the other two were probably derived from orinspired by it. According to Vedanta, theexternal world gives rise to an almost infiniteand bewildering variety of conceptions, someof which seem mutually contradictory. Theygather and revolve round two conceptions

Brahma and the souland finally with thegradual advance and ultimate perfection ofknov/ledge the clouds of mere seeming are dis-persed, and there emerges the one absoluteReality, Brahma. The multitudinous illusionsare maya. "This maya of Mine", says SriKrishna in the Gita, "is divine and consists ofqualities. It is impossible to extricate oneselffrom it; but the man who reaches Me will getover it". (VII14).

This is the solution of the great riddle of theuniverse that the rishis of the Upanishads havegiven to us. The first step in the teachingof Vedanta is to develop the firm conviction /that "I" am entirely distinct from the body /through which I function. If real and deepconviction is attained on this point, the othersteps are relatively easy thereafter. If, on thecontrary, this remains in doubt, further stepsare of no use.

38 HINDUISM

Is there any distinct thing that may be called''soul" within this obvious and all-dominatingbody? Is there something apart from the physi-cal shell or casing, or is it merely a functioning ofthe body which we wrongly regard as a separateentity? When the body dies, does the soul alsodie with it? Or does it continue to have anexistence? This is the basic doubt which per-sists in spite of seeming acceptance. Theessential in "enlightenment" or jnana is a firmand effective conviction on this matter. Theultimate cause of all the sins and consequentlyof the ills in the world is the lack of this con-viction. Even if the doubt is somehow dispelledat one point of time to one's satisfaction, itreturns again and overwhelms one. A mancan be said to be "enlightened" only when hereaches a conviction on this point that is notstirred into doubt again. It is only then thathis life becomes one of unswerving devotion totruth, and marked by detachment and utterfearlessness. There is that in Me which cannotperish; indeed I am that and not this body orthe senses working in this body; I cannot behurt by anything that can happen except bythe evil that I think or do; the evil things thatcome from within Me defile my soul, not any-thing that comes to Me from outside; the evilthat others do may touch My body but it can-not touch the soul. This is the faith that iscommon 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 ofenlightenment.

If men attain this first step, the battle is

practically won. Vedanta emphasises the im-portance of this first step. That is why theUpanishads speak not only of the Paramaat-man, the Supreme Being, but again and againdeal in many and various ways with the indi-vidual soul. The Gita begins with this bydealing with death and killing in the firstdiscourse. It is not to foster the spirit of crueltyand war that Krishna's famous discourse beginsin the manner that it does. It is to emphasizethe first truth before attempting to teach any-thing else. The first lesson to be learnt beforespeaking of detachment or anything else isthat there is that in us v/hich is immortal, otherthan the body which we mistake for it. Thesubsequent lessons would be of little avail orworth if the disciple were still to confuse the bodywith the person. It is only when it is realizedbeyond all doubt that the body is different from'the person that dwells in that body' thatVedantic teaching can proceed. When oncethat conviction is realized, Vedanta almost auto-matically unfolds itself in orderly sequence,and but little exposition is necessar\^ to evolvethe 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' expressesthat perfect quality of immediate convictionwhich is independent of other media (Apa-roksha) and wherein intellect and feeling alikedirectly and clearly get the vision which is theaim of Vedanta. Intelligence, enquiry andinstruction apart, goodness and purity of lifeare necessary to enable one to 'see' one's soulwhich is hidden within one's inmost being. Thisparticular fact can be perceived, not merelythrough ratiocination, but only if one is alsogood.A wall or a hill or a tree is visible to saint

and sinner alike. The truth in a propositionof geometry can be seen by everyone alikewhether he be a good man or wicked. Self-control and equanimity are not required tograsp the truth in such a case and to attain theconviction of its infallibility. It may be arguedthat a teacher's guidance and reflexion may beneeded to obtain knowledge, but why should aman be good in order to see what exists? Faultsof character cannot affect perception of a fact.If the soul exists, it should be possible to ratio-cinate and arrive at a clear conviction. Whyshould character be a condition prerequisite forknowledge of any kind?The answer to this constitutes by far the most

important part of Vedanta. It is the overlookingof 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 anddifferences over the path of knowledge, ofdevotion, and of works as if they were sepa-rate and distinct paths. Neither the earlierUpanishads nor the later Bhagavad Gita furnishauthority for the view that jnana or knowledgeis possible of attainment without purity of mind.Enlightenment can come only if purity of mindand detachment of spirit are attained.The soul is not a material limb or organ of

the body. It is not located in any particularpart of the body. It permeates body and mind.Unless the mind is clear, that which permeatesit will not assume a distinct form or becomeknown. It is one thing to see external objects,but it is altogether a different process to per-ceive an entity which permeates and is hiddenin our own inner being and whose impercepti-bility is due to our passions. Introspection mayenable us to analyse our minds and we mayratiocinate about the subject. But to 'see' thesoul, we should not only direct our eyes inwardsbut 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 theturbidit\^ of the medium through which wehave to see.

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

42 HINDUISM

cannot be seen unless the medium is clearand free from passion. It is not intellectualignorance that blinds our vision, but desires andattachments. These prevent us from 'seeing'.If this truth is realized, it will be understoodwhy a virtuous and pure heart is necessaryto see the soul within us. It will then also beevident that all the three paths sometimesreferred to in the classic commentaries onVedanta as distinct pathsthe way of enligh-tenment or J7iarm, the way of faith and wor-ship or hhakti, and the way of good works orkarmaare 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 onewhose mind has not turned away from evil and has notlearnt to control itself and be at peace with the world.*

The openings of the mind, viz, the sense organs, aredirected outwards. That was how the bodily senseswere evolved by the spirit within. The senses beingdirected outwards, men's thoughts ever tend outwards.But some who are blessed with true understanding turntheir minds inwards and realize the self within. Thosewithout understanding pursue external pleasures and fallinto the widespread net of birth and death. Those ofsteady mind do not spend their thought on transientpleasures but seek the joy of liberation.**

i

* Kathopanishad 1123, 24.* KathopanishadIV-1.

THE FIRST STEP 43

Vedanta leaves the matter in no doubt. Themind and the senses must be properly broughtunder control in order to realize the spiritualsubstance within us which is distinct from thebody. Our reason must be cleared of the delu-sions born of passions and desires. With unre-mitting attention, the understanding must bemade to control the mind and the senses. Thereis in the Kathopanishad a beautiful simile illus-trating the relations which exist between thesoul, 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 mindthe reins. The senses are the horses and the desirablethings of the world are the thoroughfare on which theycareer. If the charioteer is unwise, and does notvigilantly restrain the mind, then the senses bolt un-controllably like wicked horses. If, on the contrarj^ heis wise and keeps a firm hand on his mind, then thesenses are in perfect control as good horses with a com-petent charioteer.

The effort and vigilance that secure thisgo by the name of Yoga, an oft-repeated butmuch misunderstood word. Yoga is not amystic physical exercise in postures, givingunusual powers over the body. It is self-control rendered into a habit.

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

44 HINDUISM

reached through self-control and internal peace^has to be maintained with vigilance. Thdaspirant 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 Yogaiis constant effort and unrelaxed vigilance andiperseverance. Any lapse of vigilance results imthe disappearance of what was 'seen'. Thesoul that was seen for a while again disap-pears in the body and its passions and delusionsand we again mistake the one for the other aswe 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 VI26, and Kathopanishad VI 11.311

*

Chapter VTHE VEDANTIC POSTULATE

The sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upan-shad raises the old question: Was there aFirst Cause? Shall we, seeing that the searchfor causes takes us backwards along an inter-minable chain, give up the idea of causationand believe that the v/orld came out of nothing?This cannot be, says the rishi. Look round andsee all that exists and particularly contemplateon the mind of man the beauty and content ofwhich you can fully appreciate. Could all thiscome out of nothing? Out of nothing, nothingcan come. Non-being cannot produce being,much less could consciousness come out of no-thing. Believe, therefore, says the rishi thatthe causeless beginning was Sat, i.e., beingwith consciousness. And that Original Causewilled to expand and multiply and became light,water, and all the living forms in the world,serving as food for one another and growing andmultiplying. 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. TheUpanishads illustrate this by the analogy of the

46 HINDUISM

spider and its 'self-drawing web'* and of theblazing fire and the multitude of sparks whichspring 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, naturebrings forth the moving and the unmoving and keepsthe world going.**

"How can this vast universe with its multi-tudinous variety be produced in this simpleway?" asked Svetaketu whom his fatherUddalaka was instructing about the Sat and theevolution of the world.

"Fetch a fruit of that nyagrodha tree," saidUddalaka.''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 hardlyvisible 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 IX8, 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, moonand all the quarters, all knowledge, and the souls of allexisting beings are parts and manifestations of thatsingle all-immanent Being. All life and all qualities,functions and activities are evolutions of that singleEnergy. He is the fire which makes the very sun burnobediently like a faggot in the fire. The rain does notrain, but it is He that rains through and by means ofthe clouds. Living beings multiply, but it is He indeedthat multiplies through them. The mountains and theseas, the rivers, the trees and shrubs and their essences,all issue from that Supreme Spirit who is immanent ineverything and dwells in our hearts. Realize this, dearboy, and cut asunder the entanglements of ignorancethat bind.

The theory of evolution by natural selectionmay be considered to hold the field in thescience of biology. The whole structure of thisingenious and remarkably well-attested theoryrests on two pillars and seems to do away withdesign or a conscious cause: first, the sponta-neous biogenesis of the first form of organicmatter; secondly, the occurrence of mutationsby accident and the survival value of the mut-* Chhandogya Upanishad VI12, 1-3.**Mundakopanishad H4, 5, 9, 10.

48 HINDUISM

ations in the struggle for existence. This ex-planation of the almost infinite varieties of lifelon earth amounts only to a pushing of themystery away from the field into an inaccessiblecorner. The secret remains still unsolved. Ifwe take into account these two postulates onwhich the theory of evolution by natural selec-tion rests, we see that the solution does not takeus 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 actionthe yet undiscovered laws which govern the'accidental' mutations and cause some of themto survive and become new species. Vedantahas no quarrel with this investigation and theinduction therefrom. Neither chemistry norbiology explains anything. Chemical and other'laws' are only classifications of observed phe-nomena and nothing more. Neither familiaritynor classification can itself be an explanation.The unexplained factor is the Sat of Chhan-dogya. It is as sublime an act of Omnipotenceto create an atom which can create a worldand a law which makes it to do so as to createthe fullv evolved world bv a fiat.

Chapter VI

MAYA

Those who have ever heard about Vedantahave also heard about ma^^athe famous Hindudoctrine of illusion. It would be well here tocorrect the popular misconception that thisdoctrine does away with responsibility becausethe world is according to it unreal. In truth,however, the doctrine does not lay down thatthe world is not real. All the teachers whotaught the doctrine of maya taught it as partof Vedanta and this included, it should be re-membered, the doctrine of karma. This latterdoctrine holds that we cannot escape the effectof our actions. It is, therefore, impossible forthe Vedantin to hold that life is not real. Thereis no doubt or ambiguit}^ about the doctrine ofkarma which lays down the moral law of causeand effect. No interpretation of any otherdoctrine of Vedanta inconsistent with the lawof karma could be correct, as the latter is anintegral part of Vedanta.

Vedanta is a philosophy of evolution. Theuniverse, living and non-living, is a mani-festation of Brahma. The destiny of all thingsis change"never for an instant does anythingin 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 betterby conscious effort from birth to birth. Thisnecessarily postulates free will without which, ofcourse, there can be no moral responsibihty. Amultitude of texts can be quoted insisting on

man's mastery over his own future.

This (Brahma) is not attainable by the weakman, nor by one who is negligent, nor by incompetent

tapas.'*

Again, the seeker is exhorted ''to grasp themighty bow of the Upanishads, make of hisown soul the arrow sharpened by worship, andshoot himself into the Brahma so that the arrowbecomes one with the target". In fact, no religionis possible without three postulatesthe exis-tence of God, the immortality of the soul, andfreedom of the will; and these are insisted onrepeatedly in Vedanta which conveys also theassurance of success to the sincere seeker.Questioned by Arjuna about the fate of theseeker who fails in finding''whether losingboth worlds he is not lost like a rag of a cloudin the infinite sky"Sri Krishna assures himtenderly that the seeker after good never comesto grief, but goes on improving in eflftciencyfrom birth to birth till finally he reaches hisgoal.

* Mundakopanishad III24. y

I

MAYA 51

In fact the Vedanta doctrine though conti-nuous can for purposes of clear understandingbe regarded in two aspects. The first is that ofthe evolution of the soul when it moves in mayatill it reaches the stage of eligibility for jnanawhich alone results in emancipation. Thesecond aspect is the nature of emancipationitself. About the first aspect, all schools of inter-pretation

Dwaita, Adwaita and Vishistadwaitaagree. In this aspect God and the individualsoul are sharply distinct with an infinite gapbetween them. Life with its multitude of trials,its joys and sorrows, its triumphs and defeats, infact all that makes of this world a valley of tearsand laughter, is but a link in an almost endlesschain of births and deaths. This is samsara.Here are duties which can be fulfilled withcourage and faithfulness or shirked and avoidedin cowardly fashion. It is by doing these dutieshonestly that a man can qualify himself for ahigher destiny. In fact the ordinary rule of lifeof old was for a man faithfully to pass throughthe various stages of human life, as a student,as a householder, as a hermit in the forestbefore he could become a sanyasi. The Upani-shads and the Gita are quite emphatic about theimperativeness of doing duty. As a soul pro-gresses either in the same life or in subsequentlives, it perceives that duty is rooted in mayaand that the only way of escaping the envelopingpower of cause and effect is to do duty for its

52 HINDUISM

own sake and without any hope of results. SaysSri Krishna in the Gita: "Just as the ignorantman acts with hope of reward, the wise manacts for the good of the world without anypersonal motive whatever." When this state isreached, "when free from all desires which hadroot in his heartthe mortal even here becomesimmortal and reaches Brahma."*

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

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

l^^;i, all along but did not know it. Another believesit becomes Brahma without however losing itsown individuality, while a third lays down thatit remains eternally distinct'Trom Brahma andfrom every other individual soul, and enjoyseternal beatitude in the highest heaven to thefull measure of its own capacity.

All the great teachers who taught the doctrineof maya lived their lives on the basis that thisworld is a reality. Leaving aside the weak andthe hypocritical who teach one thing and prac-tise another, if we reflect on the actual livesof the great and good Vedantins who lived inthe light of the truth that they saw, it will beevident that they took this world and this life* KathopanishadII-iii-14.

. MAYA 53

and the law of karma to be hard reahties. Ifstill they taught the doctrine of maya, thateverything is an illusion created by the Lord,what can that teaching mean? It can onlymean that the apparent with its false values isdifferent from the realnothing else. TheLord is the indwelling spirit, the continuingefficient cause that makes all life live. Whatwe consider different and opposed to one an-other are different manifestations of the sameUniversal Being. As the soul is to the body,so is the Lord the soul of all souls. When, forinstance, one says 'I went', 'I came' or 'I did',though outwardly it is the movement of thebody, it is really the act of the person thatdwells within and brings about all the activitiesof the body. It would be a mistake to be-lieve that the body is the agent. In thesame, though in a less obvious way, theSupreme Being is the soul of our souls.Every movement of the individual soul isan activity of the Lord. All souls are soto say His bodies. The Lord is a reality and sotoo 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 goingone step further, that which gives life andreality to the individual souls and makesthem what they are is the Supreme Being. TheParamaatman, the overall Soul, permeates andsupports all souls; but that does not mean that

54 HINDUISM

the latter are unreal. The universe as a wholeand every individual living and non-livingmatter, all together as well as severally, serveas 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 thatjumps and functions in all manner of wayswhen the ball is knocked about in the field.Yet we forget the air, and we look on the ballas the thing we play with, not the air. Whatis all-pervasive and invisible is lost in theobvious tangible hard reality, the ball.

Maya, as understood by long tradition, isnot that everything is unreal and that we arefree to act as we please. It is not a negationof responsibility. No school of Vedanta deniesthe validity of the doctrine of karma. Thedoctrine of karma firmly holds and with it in-dividual responsibility stands unshaken. Lifeis real and life is subject to eternal and un-changeable law. This and not unreality is thecore of the Vedantic view of life. The erroragainst which the doctrine of ma^^a is directedin Vedanta is the false value that men put onthings. If we realized the truth regarding theimmanence of the Supreme Spirit in all livesand all things, we would put on men, thingsand events truer and juster values.

H This is how Ramanujacharya explains the immanenceof the Universal Spirit.

MAYA 55

The structure of individual life, if we may socall it, according to Vedanta is this: Each bodyhas lodged in it a soul which fills it with lifeand changes an unintelligent mass of lifelessmaterial into a living being. Again, each soulis inspired by the Supreme Soul, which givesthe individual soul its being and its qualityas a soul. Just as the soul gives to the bodythe capacity to function as a living being, sodoes the Supreme Being give to the soul itscapacity 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 hasno memory of its past or knowledge of its owntrue nature. The soul identifies itself com-pletely for the time being with each body whichit successively bears. In like manner, all soulsare, at one and the same timethis is the dif-ferencethe body of the Supreme Soul, butthey do not realize it and carry on as if separatefrom one another. To take a very mundaneanalogy, we have seen several departmentsderiving existence and authority from the sameGovernment above and functioning through thesingle and entire power of that Government,but opposing, wrangling with and sometimeseven over-reaching one another! In a somewhatsimilar manner every soul is inspired by theParamaatmanthe Overall Souland func-tions as a separate entity. Though the in-

56 HINDUISM

dwelling aatman is one and the same, each soullives a life of separate individuality without asense of identity with others. Herein is theillusion referred to as maya, to overcome whichis the aim of the Vedantin.

It is easy enough to accept the doctrine ofoneness and believe that with that acceptanceby the intellect, enlightenment has come. Butthe feelings, the desires and the fear and thepain, these do not obey such easily reachedsuperficial enlightenment. Enlightenment isan overcoming of the maya and is a state akinto waking as against dreaming. The way to itis yoga. Self-control, faith, discipline, orderedlife, and vigilance go to make up yoga whichbrings about relative enlightenment. In thelearned and the illiterate, in the valiant soldierand the coward, in the strong and the weak, inthe mighty and the lowly, in all the multitudesof living beings, it is the Supreme Spirit that,abiding in every one of them, makes them whatthey are.

Our desires and distractions cause a wall tobe raised between our understanding and the in-dwelling Spirit. The aatvian becomes altogetherinaccessible to reason. The in-dwelling spirit ishidden from our perception by our pleasures andpains. The spirit itself suffers no taint thoughlying 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 thenwe begin to see the soul as something real anddistinct from the body within which it is lodged.If we maintain the purity of the inner being,we shall see, besides, the Divine Spirit thatdwells within that soul. When we begin torealize that within all it is the Supreme Soul thatlives and acts, then the pleasures and pains thatwe feel come under control and gradually losetheir intensity and ultimately vanish.The sunlight that shines and spreads equally

in all directions has no shape. But shadowshave 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 theobstruction in the path of light that becomes theshadow, but the shadow has shape, not the light.If there is no obstruction, the light spreads andremains invisible. The individual souls are likeshadows caused by the infinite light of theSupreme 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 thelight that gives shape and reality and a distinctexistence to the individual soul. The shadowthat is caused by the light of the sun is by nomeans an unreality. The shadow is as true asthe light although it is the light that makes the

58 HINDUISM

changing and diverse shadows. This is, let itbe remembered, but an attempt to explain by ananalogy and not a demonstration of the postulatethat must rest only on faith.

Vedanta aims at moksha. Moksha is notarrival in another world or place or garden orhall of music. It is a state of freedom from thebondage of maya. The individual soul realizesits own full nature and then Deliverance hastaken place. When the mind is enlightened bythe realization that the soul and the in-dwellingSupreme Soul are one, the shadow merges in thelight. This is moksha. The Sanskrit word'moksha' means liberation and not a happy placeor garden of pleasure. Moksha is release fromall feeling of distinction and the recognition thateverything around us like one's own self is theconsecrated dwelling place of the SupremeBeing,

That moksha is not a place, palace, garden ofpleasure or a separate world of joy, but a state ofbeing, is brought out in the following song of thegreat Tamil Vedantin, Nammalvar, predecessorof 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 themselvesIn endless confusion.

In trying to explain the mental relation ofbody, soul and Supreme Spirit, different methodsof exposition are employed by the teachers ofVedanta. The Paramaatman, the third in theabove 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 bodyits quality as a living body, it is the SupremeBeing that endows the individual soul with itsquality as a divine spark. The soul upholds thelife in the body; the Supreme Soul upholds thedivine nature of the soul. Just as in this mortallife, body and soul in happy combination becomeone 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 lifeand self-control qualify the individual soul forthis merger of bliss.

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

60 HINDUISM

of the shadow and of the impression that theshadow is different from the hght that producesit. This feehng of separation is augmented bydesire, attachment, anger and hatred. It is avicious circle of increasing illusion. When themind awakens from this state of ignorance, thelight swallows up the shadow which is lost inthe process.

The sun shines on the water. When thesurface of the water breaks into ripples, we seenumerous little suns on the water. The in-dividual souls are like the reflections of the sunin the water. If there be no water, there wouldbe no reflected images. In the same way, theindividual 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 ofthat maya. To dispel ignorance and to obtainknowledge, we need purit\^ self-control, de-votion and discrimination.

Just as all the five senses merge in the souland disappear when we sleep at night, so withenlightenment, the soul is united and absorbedin the Supreme Soul.Now, these and many other forms of elucida-

tion are adopted by various teachers in theirexposition of an inherently mysterious relation.The forms of exposition adopted and the relativeemphasis laid on various aspects go sometimesby names which are known as Dicaita, Adwaita

MAYA 61

and Visishtaadivaita, and which as faith deterio-rated came to be treated by disciples as opposingschools of philosophy. They are, however,fundamentally only differences in forms of ex-position and emphasis. They are all aspects ofVedanta as old as the Upanishads themselveswherein they are to be found without distingu-ishing names and without being treated asdifferent philosophies. The irremovable residueof unknowability takes varying shapes in accor-dance with the temperaments of teacher anddisciple.

Although the forms of elucidation, methodsof exposition and emphasis laid on points maydiffer, it is noteworthy that the Vedantic life,the way of liberation recommended by everyone of the sages and teachers is just the same.All schools of Vedantaand this clinches thematterlead to the same ethic. This binds allVedantins in one outlook. The law of cause andeffect and its extension beyond death to futurebirths are common ground for all Vedantins andhence follows a common ethic for happiness nowand hereafter. The ethic of Vedanta, the wayof life that Hindu philosophy lays down, is dealtwith in the succeeding chapters.

Chapter VII

KARMA

If all souls are in fact united jointly andseverally with the Supreme Being, why shouldan ethic be necessary to realize this? Thereason is that, as already explained, attainingfreedom from error in this case is not a processof study or a gathering of information, butsomething like waking from sleep, a change ofstate. A man has a dream. He is distressed bywhat he goes through in the dream. How canhe escape from that distress? Relief can comeonly through waking from sleep and realizingthat he was dreaming. Similarly, we shouldwake up from the separation that deludes thesoul and "liberate ourselves from our sorrows".Therefore do the Upanishads proclaim: "Ut-tishthata, Jaagrata!" (Arise, Awake!) Jnana, therealization that the Supreme Soul is within us,is a waking from sleep. It is not like learningfrom another who has seen it that someone isin the next room or village. It is not a merepiece of knowledge obtained by enquiry; it isa change of mind, feelings and of everythinginside one, a change not less but more than thechange from sleep to waking, very like to achange from night to day or death to life.

II

KARMA 63

Again, it is easy to wake up from sleep. Butit is not by any means easy to wake up fromthe great sleep of worldly life. Our mental dis-position must change entirely. First of all, thedesire to wake up must surge in the heart asindicated in the Kathopanishad mantras al-ready quoted. The power of the spirit ismoved to fulfil itself by the yearning. It isthe Supreme Spirit within that furnishes theenerg\^ The text is couched in language thatbrings all this out if interpreted by a competentteacher. Without this yearning for realization,nothing can be achieved. The ambition to be aVedantic scholar will not amount to this andcannot help. The desire to be liberated fromthe state of separation from God must, likehunger driving the beast to its prey, drive thesoul to find its only satisfaction. Secondly,unremitting vigilance must be exercised evenafter the first vision like the unceasing controlof an athlete balancing himself who cannot,once having secured his balance, relax but mustall the time maintain his complete commandover his muscles and his breathing. Theexternal and internal organs of sense must beunder firm and continuous command. Rightconduct must be maintained until it becomesrelatively a matter of course, and the innerbeing must be purified and kept in an untarn-ished condition. Perpetual vigilance over one'smind is necessary to escape slipping back into

64 HINDUISM

the world of false values, attachments anddesires.

Impelled by ignorance we seek temporarypleasurable sensations, all arising out of sense-contacts, and proceed to do many things toobtain those pleasures. If we do not reach thepleasures we seek, or if we get them for a timeand lose them, we generate in ourselves anger,hatred and grief. This not only causes pain butintensifies 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 growwith accelerated intensity. We are thus thrownfarther and farther away from the reality.Desisting from this course and positively anddefinitely striving to get nearer and nearer tothe truth is the path indicated for liberation.For this, purity and humility are essential. Weshould cultivate and continually confirm theconviction of mind that the Supreme Soul iswithin us and all around us and earnestly bendour minds to contemplation of the oneness ofall life.

Though the perfect light may not be attained,the effort should not be relaxed, for even if thetruth be but partially realized and the effortmaintained, it will do us great good. The veryexertion to obtain light tends to purge us of ourfaults and help us towards right conduct andenables us to escape from many sinful deeds.

KARMA 65

The mental effort to realize the universalidentity raises us to a higher plane of life.With some great souls, in the steadily increasingpitch of realization, it reaches the form ofecstasy, not a mere temporary abnormality, buta sustained joy arising out of unshakable de-tachment and wide sweeping identification withall life and all creation. It is this ecstasy thatmade Brother Lawrence happy wherever hewas and whatever he was doing. It is of thisecstasy 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 byoneself, if one has learnt to find joy in the contemplationof God, one is happy and one's happiness knows nointerruption.

It will not, however, be easy for everyone toreach and sustain this state of mind as a sourceof happiness as was attained by Brother Law-rence among others less known. Whether one'seffort bears full fruition or not, the effort shouldbe maintained and assisted by occasional deepmeditation so as to train the imperfect mind taset true values on things and happenings.

66 HINDUISM

While this earnest effort is being made toidentify oneself with the Universal and toliberate oneself from the ego-sense, what shouldbe the aspirant's way of life? The way of liferecommended for the aspirant is best elucidatedin the Bhagavad Gita. From what has beenalready explained as the postulates of Vedanta,it will be seen that this way of life flows as anatural corollary therefrom. It would be con-venient, before we deal with it, to devote a fewpages to the law of karma.The law of karma, the inescapable law of

cause and effect in things spiritual, lays downthat death does not end the chain. Whatever-activities we engage ourselves in, the body isnot the agent but that which dwells in the body,which does not die with death but takes alodging in another tenement. The spirit withincontinually shapes itself and builds its futureaccordingly. The new tenement is one thatsuits 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 whichthe 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 anduses it as a craftsman uses his tool. For whatpurpose? This we cannot unravel. The Hinduway of looking at it is that it is God's leela orplay. Those who posit a purpose may please

KARMA 67

themselves with their conceits, but must notimpose them on others.The relationship between soul and body, as

well as that between the soul and the universalever-existent Causeless Spirit, is a mystic re-lationship in which tool and craftsman aremerged in inextricable fashion. The body andthe subtle senses within it should be loyal totheir master, the soul, and serve as good andjust tools. Even so, the individual should be agood and loyal instrument for the Lord whodwells within and should dedicate every act,thought and word to Him.

Acts are done through body, speech andmind. The law of cause and effect, it cannotbe too often emphasized, is unalterable in everyrespect. Every act has its appointed effectwhether the act be thought, word or deed. Theeffect lies inherent in the cause, as the tree liespotentially encased in the seed. If water isexposed to the sun, it cannot avoid being driedup. The effect automatically follows. It is thesame with everything. The cause holds theeffect so to say in its womb. If we reflect deep-ly and objectively, not letting our reason tobe guided by our desiresnot wishfully think-ing but with detachmentthe entire world inall aspects will be found to obey unalterablelaws. This is the doctrine of Vedanta describedbriefly as the law of karma.

68 HINDUISM

It is wrong to think of karma in terms ofwhat is understood by the word fatahsm.Destiny as taught in Vedanta does not involvean unscientific attitude towards natural laws ora breakdown of faith in human effort which isfatalism. Karma is the unalterable law ofeffect following previous causes. This is whatdistinguishes Vedanta from its half-brother,fatalism, as it emerged in the West from thepagan philosophies. When a Hindu speaks ofthe decree of fate, the word he uses for fate isVidhi, which means law. He means therebythat one should expect only the fruit of one'saction and nothing else. Far from under-estimating human effort, Vedanta puts thehighest value on it. It points out that it is fool-ish to do one thing and expect

Hinduism Doctrine

Documents

Transcript of Hinduism Doctrine