The Gandhian Way
By B.P. Wadia
In this book, we have brought together articles on Gandhian philosophy by the late Sri B.P. Wadia, which originally appeared in 'The Theosophical Movement' and 'The Aryan Path' the two magazines founded and edited by him.
Sri Wadia was a Theosophist par excellence of the 20th century. He was one of those unknown soldiers who ever kept in mind the highest interests of Humanity and worked for its redemption. He made Theosophy a living power in his life. He dedicated his entire life to the promulgation of the genuine teachings of Theosophy as given out by H.P. Blavatsky. In doing so, his attitude was completely self-effacing. Sri Wadia used to sign his articles in The Aryan Path as 'Shravaka' — a listener in the great tradition of spiritual Instructors indicating the path shown by H.P. Blavatsky. Sri Wadia was Instrumental in founding various centres of the one United Lodge of Theosophists not only in India but also in the East coast of U.S.A., U.K., and Europe. He also founded the Indian Institute of Culture in 1945. He passed away on 20th, August 1958 after rendering selfless, tireless service to Humanity as the servant of the Masters. In all his writings, he stressed the value and the need for spiritual living and always emphasised the practical aspect of Theosophy.
Sri Wadia looked upon Gandhiji as a 'Sthita Pragnya', one who lived according to the teachings of the Gita and whose life was an experiment with Truth.
In this rare collection of articles, not only students of Theosophy but also the followers and old and young admirers of Gandhiji will find inspiration to lead a meaningful Spiritual Life.
— Usha Mehta
GANDHIJI has passed on. He belongs to the ages.
The Master Mason of twentieth-century India was assassinated on the 30th of January.
For over three decades he laboured like a Hercules, with the generosity of a Hatim Tai. Awakening his countrymen from the sleep of lethargy, and worse, he awakened the ruling caste which governed the country from the nightmare of arrogance, and worse. In making the British quit India he made the people justly evaluate and appreciate them. That single event in his life-drama reveals the strength of Hercules, the generosity of Hatim Tai. This hidden aspect of his "Quit India" mantram remains mostly unrecognized.
The world has done to death not a few of its great benefactors, from Socrates and Jesus to Bruno and Lincoln. But India has ever valued moral purity and spiritual elevation. Gandhiji's assassination represents the first time in history that the soil of India has been stained with the blood of a saint. The Buddha and Shankara aroused opposition by their teachings, but both lived out their days in peace. But now we are further on in the Kali-Yuga, and India as well as the West is wrapped in its dark folds.
The passing away of no other man of our era would have caused such world-wide sorrow. Gandhiji stood as the living symbol of self-conquest, of moral integrity and of the power of man to bring the force of the Spirit to bear upon the details of daily living, upon national politics and upon human relations in every sphere. And every man not blinded by prejudice, fanaticism or conceit responded in his heart of
hearts to Gandhiji's demonstration of the potency of the Spirit in man to transform life, individual and collective, making it honest, radiant, harmonious and beautiful. In his person and through his labours Gandhiji has shown, moreover, what India's mission is, for the fulfilment of which she should prepare herself.
In his religion Gandhiji was a true mystic who used the findings alike of ancient Sages and modern teachers. Therefore, as a Hindu, he elevated the status of Hinduism by his interpretations born of soul-striving. He has been able to free Hinduism, to a very great extent, from the sin of untouchability as well as from other superstitions. Also because of his soul striving he gave a turn, unique in history, to the country's active politics. Making his politics subservient to his religion — one the body, the other the soul — he demonstrated what India could become, how she could fulfil her mission to humanity.
How did Gandhiji achieve this? By rising to the level of the universal in every sphere of life. His political patriotism made him a citizen of the world. His socio-economic outlook made him a trustee of all earnings of all labour. His religious fervour made him a lover of all his fellow-men. He reverenced the whole of Nature — visible and invisible.
Gandhiji was not an Indian in the narrow sense but a World-man, not only in his universal sympathies but also in the influences which went towards making him what he was. He was able to rise to the stature of the universal by seeking and attempting to apply the noblest and the best in East and West alike. And so he emerged triumphant from the prevailing conditions in which his educated countrymen of the same generation were submerged.
Their attitude falsely regarded modern civilization as immensely superior to the ancient and honourable culture of
the East. The book which inspired Gandhiji, guided him and illumined the dark hours of private striving as of public endeavour was the Bhagavad-Gita, which he used to read daily and which he regarded as "the book par excellence for the knowledge of Truth." But this Hindu son of the Great Mother went to England for higher studies before he had made the acquaintance of the Wisdom of that Song of True Living. He says in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth:
Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two Theosophists, brothers and both unmarried. They talked to me about the Gita. They were reading Sir Edwin Arnold's translation — The Song Celestial — and they invited me to read the original with them. I felt ashamed, as I had read the divine Poem neither in Sanskrit nor in Gujarati. I was constrained to tell them that I had not read the Gita but that I would gladly read it with them, and that though my knowledge of Sanskrit was meagre, still I hoped to be able to understand the original to the extent of telling where the translation failed to bring out the meaning. I began reading the Gita with them...
They also took me on one occasion to the Blavatsky Lodge and introduced me to Madame Blavatsky. The friends advised me to join the Society, but I politely declined saying, "With my meagre knowledge of my own religion I do not want to belong to any religious body."
I recall having read, at the brothers' instance, Madame Blavatsky's Key to Theosophy. This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism, and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition.
Further on in his autobiography he writes:
During my first sojourn in South Africa it had been Christian influence that had kept alive in me the religious sense. Now it was the Theosophical influence that added strength to it. Mr. Ratch was a Theosophist, and he put me in touch with the Society at Johannesburg. I never became a member of it, as I had my differences, but I came in
close contact with almost every Theosophist. The chief thing about Theosophy is to cultivate and promote the idea of brotherhood. We had considerable discussion over this, and I criticised the members where their conduct did not appear to me to square with their ideal. The criticism was not without its wholesome effect on me. It led to self-introspection.
Gandhiji assimilated the ever-young and ever-living instruction of the Gita, that marvellous book of devotion, for the purposes of daily life and labour. But three other books inspired him to sing his own song of saint-life. If the ancient Gita energized the spiritual soul of his being, modern authors impregnated his mind and activated his practical living of the higher life. In South Africa he read Ruskin's Unto This Last, of which he wrote that it "brought about an instantaneous practical transformation" of his life.
I believe that I discovered some of my deepest convictions reflected in this great book of Ruskin, and that is why it so captured me and made me transform my life.
He writes that Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You "overwhelmed me. It left an abiding impression." And Thoreau, with his Civil Disobedience, also made his contribution to the thought of Gandhiji.
Thus he absorbed the purest idealism of East and West. In his hidden heart awoke the Power of Love which moves to Righteousness.
A lesson to be taken from Gandhiji's tragic death is that the serpent of fanaticism is coiled around the stem of every sectarian flower. Sectarianism and communalism are evil forces, as the Master K.H. brought out plainly early in the eighties of last century, when he wrote that the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursued humanity was religion, i.e., the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches, and those illusions that man looked upon as sacred.
It is religion that makes of him the selfish bigot, the fanatic that hates all mankind out of his own sect without rendering him any better or more moral for it.
... Remember the sum of human misery will never be diminished unto that day when the better portion of humanity destroys in the name of Truth, morality, and universal charity, the altars of these false gods.
Proverbially, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." What church will arise from Gandhiji's ashes? No sectarian religion, we hope, for the further harassment of a priest-ridden world. That would be a betrayal of all that he stood for. It must be only that Inner Temple, not built with hands, to which Gandhiji himself had found the way, and to which his example and his teachings can help point the way to others.
He embodied India as she should be; his message when it flowers will be the message of India to the world. The immediate task of his countrymen is dual: First, to destroy the curse of religious sectarianism in themselves. Each one must try to throw off the corrupting influence of creed and caste, of race and religion. From the irreligion in which separative communities are now imprisoned, we must free ourselves and become truly religious. Secondly, we must help the Government, which is our own native one, to sweep out of existence all sectarian associations, all caste organizations, all communal societies, so that an India one and indivisible, united and whole, may arise.
May the regenerating power of Sacrifice in Death bring its blessing to all men everywhere. May it bring to each Indian and to his Nation as a whole, the Peace of Wisdom and the Light of Love which they need to go forward with courage to India's divinely destined goal.
A SINGLE EVENT, truly great, reveals to the groping human mind the pathways to real progress. The Death of Gandhiji has spoken to the heart-mind of India several messages. None more potent, however, than this: Religious bigotry and fanaticism are man's worst foes; these are irreligious forces which spring from ignorance and egotism. The overcoming of this irreligion is by knowledge which alone purifies faith, purging it of blindness, credulity and superstition. This is evident today and the living heart of Gandhiji throbs forth this truth through his death. Whether Indians, especially Hindus, will make good use of the Message remains to be seen.
Those of us who for many years have preached the truth that between the religions of Mandir or Masjid, Synagogue or Church, Gurdwara or Atash-Behram and the Religion of Righteous Living there is a difference, have also understood for many years that blind belief and creedalism if not checked would beget murder. We have preached and promulgated the doctrine of the Universal Brotherhood of Man taught by the Wise Sages of old and repeated in an almost unique exposition — religious, philosophical and scientific — in modern Theosophy.
Theosophy proclaims:
The religion of the ancients is the religion of the future. A few centuries more, and there will linger no sectarian beliefs in either of the great religions of humanity. Brahmanism and Buddhism, Christianity and
Mahometanism will all disappear when the world returns to the grand religion of the past. (Isis Unveiled, I. 613).
The world needs no sectarian church, whether of Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet, Swedenborg, Calvin, or any other. There being but ONE truth, man requires but one church, the Temple of God within us, walled in by matter but penetrable by any one who can find the way; the pure in heart see God. (Isis Unveiled, II. 635).
The hour is ripe to sound a call for a calm consideration of what should be done to atone correctly for the sacrifice of Gandhiji, so that the blood of this Martyr may water the Garden of Peace and Unity in the India he loved (and of which India he had a vision) — India, the Spiritual Mother and Messenger of the World.
Indians have tolerated the spread of the tentacles of communalism into every aspect of their national life, until today the country is cursed with communal organizations and institutions of every kind — clubs, swimming-baths, hospitals, gymkhanas, hostels, refreshment stalls, charities, educational institutions, and what not. Among such institutions are some not directly inimical to India as a whole, but even they, confining their good work to an exclusive communal sphere, threaten the building of a united India.
The failure of the country's two major communities to come to a settlement delayed Indian self-government for years and has resulted in the division of the country into two Dominions on unfriendly terms. But even the major disaster of Partition, even the ghastly tragedies that followed that raising of a dividing wall in our common dwelling, failed to bring us to our senses. It has taken the supreme sacrifice of Gandhiji's precious life to expose religious creedalism in its true colours as the fomenter of murder and bloodshed. Today only those blinded by bigotry can fail to see in communalism and castes the abhorrent, evil forces they are.
It is these fanatics who have been clamouring for a "Hindu Raj." Are they not the worst enemies of Hinduism, which has ever prided itself upon its claim of tolerance? They who turn their backs on the eclecticism of the Great Teachers and avow themselves sectarians are no worshippers of Krishna or of Rama but foes of the unity and human brotherhood which They proclaimed. If Krishna dwells in the heart of every human being, is He not in Muslim as well as in Hindu hearts?
As long ago as 1908, Gandhiji wrote:
If the Hindus believe that India should be peopled only by Hindus, they are living in a dreamland. The Hindus, the Mahomedans, the Parsis and the Christians who have made India their country are fellow-countrymen, and they will have to live in unity if only for their own interest.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru deserves the gratitude of every Indian for the firm stand that he has taken against the notion of the "Hindu Raj."
Religion is the power which unites man to man; creedalism is only a maker of cliques. World history abounds in evidences of strife resulting from the substitution of orthodoxies for Religion, at the sacrifice of charity and truth.
Instead of knowledge of the way of the Inner Life, religion has become equated with rites and ceremonies. In recent months men calling themselves Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, have played the ruffian and the brute, disgracing the religions they profess and bringing shame upon our common Mother.
Years ago Gandhiji wrote:
Religion is dear to me, and my first complaint is that India is becoming irreligious. Here I am not thinking of the Hindu and Mahomedan or the Zoroastrian religion, but of that religion which underlies all religions I am not pleading for a continuance of religious superstitions.
We will certainly fight them tooth and nail, but we can never do so by disregarding religion.
It is not a reaction towards materialism that can cure our ills. It is not Religion that has failed, but orthodoxy under whatever label; Religion must be strengthened and this can only be by weakening the strangle-hold of creeds.
India is the custodian of hoary Wisdom and of the heritage of culture from men of many lands and many faiths. That rich and varied heritage lays upon India a spiritual mission to the world, but how shall she heal others if she cannot heal herself? Sir Mirza Ismail demanded in The Hindu of 26th November 1947:
When we have become so completely intolerant, how can we, with any conscience, pose as the apostles of tolerance? How can we pose as the apostles of unity when we are the most disrupted of peoples?
Universal brotherhood is the key-note of Religion and the real test of brotherly feeling is what we feel for our neighbours, however different their views from ours. India is sect-ridden. Hinduism is caste-ridden. She cannot rise to her full stature until the unity between her sons is realized.
The separate communal organizations check the natural instinct of thinking men and women to group themselves fluidically in terms of all their present common interests — political, social, artistic and humanitarian. These natural groupings normally are diverse, changing and overlapping. It is abnormal to make them exclusive by confusing the secular with the religious and making sectarian conformity the test of personal acceptability. There can be no fundamental and lasting division between men of good-will, seeking Truth and mutual understanding. The seekers of the Light are one. The communal grouping is unnatural and unsound and its destruction is the patriotic duty of every Indian.
The different communities have more interests in common than they have points of difference. The problems of India are universal problems — poverty; unemployment; indebtedness; preventable disease; illiteracy with the resulting inefficiency and superstition; inadequate housing, transportation and marketing facilities; and now the vast problem of refugee relief and rehabilitation. Which of these affects one community and not another? What community would not benefit from their solution? Self-interest demands the pooling of the energies of all for the construction of a better India.
Now when tragedies of recent months, culminating in the shameful murder of Gandhiji by a fanatic, have aroused the country, as nothing else could have done, to the perils that lurk in communal organizations, now is the time to free our country from them and their threat. If this is not done, Gandhiji and all that he stood for, instead of serving as a beacon to our steps will in no long time fade into the limbo of oblivion.
What specific ways are there to break the communal shackles?
Face and admit the evils that communalism has brought on India. Remove from our own minds and hearts the feelings that create minority problems. Condemn antisocial, unjust and cruel acts, by or against whomsoever committed.
Forget misdeeds of members of other communities, remembering the words of an old American Iroquois Chief to his people and to those of another village who had made peace with each other:
Let no one ever mention about the past. We have all lost some one, so let us not bring back the things that hurt us Beginning today, we find we are one people only that we live apart in different villages, but let us keep that relationship alive within us.
Let the Government of India insist that communal organizations disband or become cosmopolitan.
It is not enough for a communal organization, under threat of general obloquy, to "suspend" political activities as the Hindu Mahasabha did in mid-February. Political activities on a communal basis must be once and for all, and in sincerity, abjured. The fancied separate interests of groups are a delusion and a snare. Let all the people be encouraged to work together for a common aim.
Young Men's Communal Associations should be made illegal. We have separate Young Men's Hindu, Muslim, Zoroastrian and Christian Associations, etc. Why? Why not only a Young Men's Indian Association?
Do away with communal sports, gymkhanas and clubs. These should be the first to go. Most well-to-do members of communal clubs are educated persons and exert an influence upon the younger members and the urban masses. They should set an example by standing strictly aloof from any and every communal organization and activity.
Communal cricket matches, etc., can at once be banned by law, and even allegedly private organizations can and must be brought within the reach of the law when they threaten the country's unity.
Sectarian and communal education should be strenuously discouraged. Stop the poisoning of the minds of children and older students with the communal virus. Segregating young people during their formative years and giving their minds a communal bias under the guise of educating them, is a disservice to the Nation as well as to themselves.
Stop at once State grants to communal educational institutions at any level. The universities have a major role to play in educating for tolerance and a united India and we should
no longer tolerate Hindu and Muslim "Universities" (the root of the word means "whole"!) and the missionary-sponsored Christian Colleges, including institutions not communally labelled but of proselytizing aim, which is irreconcilable with Indian unity.
Courses in religion must stress points of agreement, not make invidious comparisons or dwell on differences, usually superficial. Demand for communal educational institutions there may be, but we dare not pander to the weakness of those who fail to see that communalism has brought us to the very verge of ruin.
Histories with a sectarian distortion must be rigorously banned.
Refuse support to exclusively communal charitable institutions, in recognition of the claims laid upon us by our common humanity; our shared nationhood transcends the claims of any partial group.
Abolish by law the communal classification of railway refreshment stalls. Boycott restaurants which cater to a single community until their communal label is removed and their doors are opened to all.
Abjure communal considerations in public appointments and private employment, patronage of stores, etc.
Free the Hindi-Urdu language question from its artificial communal implications.
Eliminate reference to the community of the individual in newspapers, in hotel-registers, etc., and, as soon as possible, even in Census reports. "I am an Indian" — and buss!
How ridiculous it would seem in the West to mention in newspaper accounts that the victim of an accident or an aspirant to office was a Baptist or a Unitarian!
Mr. Manu Subedar contributed to The Aryan Path for
January 1940 a striking article entitled "Wanted — An Anti-Communal League," in which he called on Indians to repudiate communalism and to declare their faith in the fundamental oneness of humanity. He proposed several practical ways in which all Indians could help to throw a bridge across the communal gulf, some of which are among those suggested above. How many of the recent tragic happenings might have been avoided if they had been followed!
In a striking article on "The Communal Problem: Some Socio-Cultural Aspects" in The Aryan Path for June 1941, Mr. F. R. Moraes, now the Editor of The Times of Ceylon, laid the blame for India's chronic communal problem where it undeniably belongs, at the door of dogmatic religions.
The Aryan Path has continued to agitate against communalism, in its editorial and correspondence columns. It went so far as to assert, in its issue of August 1947:
Communalism has been allowed to do great mischief in the past and so has religious creedalism, which must, however, be exposed in its true colours and called a weapon for murder and bloodshed.
It has since, alas, been so exposed for all to see!
Gandhiji said on January 12th, on the eve of his last fast to try to bring about true unity among us:
I yearn for heart friendship between the Hindus, the Sikhs and the Muslims. It subsisted between them the other day. Today it is non-existent. It is a state that no Indian patriot worthy of the name can contemplate with equanimity.
Let us prove worthy of the martyred Gandhiji by repudiating communalism and all its works and by building an India united and regenerated as the best monument we can erect to him who gave his life for all of us. But all that will follow if the will to unity is there and if the emphasis is placed
where it belongs, on duties and responsibilities instead of, as so largely at present, on so-called "rights". But mere repudiation is a negative gesture and for obtaining real and tangible results will not do. Even the Will to Unity will not produce them unless it finds a channel for adequate expression. What is needed is the elevating of the mind by a proper understanding of the philosophy which inspired Gandhiji himself. The discoveries recorded as a result of his experiments with Truth should be properly evaluated. And to achieve the purpose in view more than individual study alone is essential. Why? It has been explained that
if a Brotherhood or even a number of Brotherhoods may not be able to prevent nations from occasionally cutting each other's throats — still unity in thought and action, and philosophical research into the mysteries of being, will always prevent some, while trying to comprehend that which has hitherto remained to them a riddle, from creating additional causes in a world already so full of woe and evil. (H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I. 644).
Even a few Indians who have risen above distinctions of caste and creed, studying together the ideas which ruled Gandhiji's life and work, would be able to use those ideas for the betterment of the country. In the final analysis it is ideas and not legislation which rule the world.
It will be time enough to pronounce a verdict upon my work after my eyes are closed and this tabernacle is consigned to the flames.
— GANDHIJI
I. Gandhiji's Line of Life Meditation
I lay claim to nothing exclusively divine in me. I do not claim prophetship. I am but a humble seeker after Truth and bent upon finding It. I count no sacrifice too great for the sake of seeing God face to face. The whole of my activity whether it may be called social, political, humanitarian or ethical is directed to that end. And as I know that God is found more often in the lowliest of His creatures than in the high and mighty, I am struggling to reach the status of these. I cannot do so without their service. Hence my passion for the service of the suppressed classes. And as I cannot render this service without entering politics, I find myself in them. Thus I am no master, I am but a struggling, erring, humble servant of India and there-through, of humanity.
Was Gandhiji a politician or a social reformer? Was he a mystic? What was his religion? These and similar questions naturally occur to any sincere person who humbly desires to appraise the life-labours of one whose assassination, in itself, is the major event of his incarnation which holds a clue for the devotee of true Occultism. To the student of Theosophy his doctrines and ideas are of great value — they reveal most unmistakably Gandhiji's place in the Theosophical Movement.
To participate intelligently in the work of applying Gandhiji's ideas and teachings to India's problems as to world problems the student of Theosophy must familiarise himself with the principles of Gandhian philosophy. He is, in one way, better equipped to understand and explain that philosophy because of his own Theosophical knowledge. To help the U.L.T. Associates and others we plan to publish a series of short articles in this monthly, each of which will contain the Theosophical ideas of Gandhiji, and to supplement them with explanatory or amplifying teachings of the Esoteric Philosophy recorded in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and W.Q. Judge.
Gandhiji once wrote: "Most religious men I have met are politicians in disguise; I, however, who wear the guise of a politician, am at heart a religious man. "But what did he mean by "a religious man?"
Let me explain what I mean by religion. It is not the Hindu religion which I certainly prize above all other religions, but the religion which transcends Hinduism, which changes one's very nature, which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which ever purifies. It is the permanent element in human nature which counts no cost too great in order to find full expression and which leaves the soul utterly restless until it has found itself, known its Maker and appreciated the true correspondence between the Maker and itself.
To comprehend Gandhiji's activities as a "religious man" of the particular type he himself defined, one must not be misled by the outer expressions in words and works of his ideation and imagination. We must try to get at what Mr. Judge calls the line of Life's meditation. What was Gandhiji's line of Life's meditation? We should perceive his consistency in the midst of many inconsistencies. He said:
Human life is a series of compromises, and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.
There are eternal principles which admit of no compromise, and one must be prepared to lay down one's life in the practice of them.
Can we say that Gandhiji was a Theosophist? Applying these words of H. P. Blavatsky's our answer will have to be in the affirmative:
One need but worship the spirit of living nature, and try to identify oneself with it. To revere that Presence the invisible Cause, which is yet ever manifesting itself in its incessant results; the intangible omnipotent and omnipresent Proteus: indivisible in its Essence, and eluding form, yet appearing under all and every form, who is here and there, and everywhere and nowhere; is ALL and NOTHING; ubiquitous yet one; the Essence filling, binding, bounding, containing everything; contained in all. Be what he may, once that student abandons the old and trodden highway of routine, and enters upon the solitary path of independent thought — Godward — he is a Theosophist; an original thinker, a seeker after the eternal truth, with "an inspiration of his own" to solve the universal problems.
Apply these words written by H.P. Blavatsky in the very first number of her Theosophist published in Bombay in October 1879 to Gandhiji who describes his own objective in life thus:
What I want to achieve, — what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years, — is self-realisation, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.
Therefore we might say that Gandhiji was a practising theosophist though he did not belong to any Theosophical organisation. His teachings approximate the doctrines of Theosophy as recorded in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and
W.Q. Judge. His approach to the world and nature, to knowledge ancient and modern, was Theosophical. His attitude to human problems, individual, national and racial, was also Theosophical.
Truth was Gandhiji's God, Its Quest was his Religion. This is identical with the motto of the Theosophical seeker — "There is no Religion higher than Truth."
The way in which he experimented with Truth was his own and differed in technique from the steps traced by H.P. Blavatsky and W.Q. Judge for the modern Theosophical student to follow. "The Path I show — the Masters who are behind" of which and of whom H.P.B. and Judge taught were not the ingredients in the experiments conducted by Gandhiji in his own laboratory. "I am devoted to none but Truth and I owe no discipline to anybody but Truth."
The way in which he heard of Theosophy and his slight contact with H.P. Blavatsky is thus described by him:
Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two Theosophists, brothers, and both unmarried. They talked to me about the Gita. They were reading Sir Edwin Arnold's translation — The Song Celestial — and they invited me to read the original with them. I felt ashamed, as I had read the divine Poem neither in Sanskrit nor in Gujarati. I was constrained to tell them that I had not read the Gita but that I would gladly read it with them, and that though my knowledge of Sanskrit was meagre, still I hoped to be able to understand the original to the extent of telling where the translation failed to bring out the meaning. I began reading the Gita with them....
They also took me on one occasion to the Blavatsky Lodge and introduced me to Madame Blavatsky...The friends advised me to join the Society, but I politely declined saying, "With my meagre knowledge of my own religion I do not want to belong to any religious body."
I recall having read, at the brothers' instance, Madame Blavatsky's Key to Theosophy. This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on
Hinduism, and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition.
Further on in his autobiography he writes:
During my first sojourn in South Africa it had been Christian influence that had kept alive in me the religious sense. Now it was the Theosophical influence that added strength to it. Mr. Ritch was a Theosophist, and he put me in touch with the Society at Johannesburg. I never became a member of it, as I had my differences, but I came in close contact with almost every Theosophist. The chief thing about Theosophy is to cultivate and promote the idea of brotherhood. We had considerable discussion over this, and I criticised the members where their conduct did not appear to me to square with their ideal. The criticism was not without its wholesome effect on me. It led to self-introspection.
Because the Theosophical Movement is wider than any Theosophical organisation it is not only legitimate but necessary that Gandhiji's place in that Movement as also the influence of his teachings on that Movement is accurately evaluated.
To do this it is essential that we trace the Line of his Life's meditation — the quest of spirit in Nature by a realisation of the spirit within his own heart. He recognised that this Quest demands knowledge for "There can be no inward peace without true knowledge." He did not claim to possess any infallible guidance or inspiration; but he added:
This, however, does not leave us without any guidance whatsoever. The sum-total of the experience of the sages of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come.
Further he stated that he, like a scientist, was making experiments with some of the eternal verities of life, but could not even claim to be a scientist because he could show no tangible proof of scientific accuracy in his methods or such
tangible results of his experiments as modern science demanded.
Theosophical students will see in this their own well-known first item of the Secret Doctrine (Vol. I. p. 273) which answers the important question — "What is Theosophy?"
II. The Religion of Gandhiji
Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, so there is one true and perfect Religion, but it becomes many, as it passes through the human medium. The one Religion is beyond all speech.
After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that (1) all religions are true; (2) all religions have some error in them; (3) all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, inasmuch as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible.
— M.K. GANDHI
It is from this WISDOM-RELIGION that all the various individual "Religions" (erroneously so called) have sprung, forming in their turn offshoots and branches, and also all the minor creeds, based upon and always originated through some personal experience in psychology. Every such religion, or religious offshoot, be it considered orthodox or heretical, wise or foolish, started originally as a clear and unadulterated stream from the Mother-Source. The fact that each became in time polluted with purely human speculations and even inventions, due to interested motives, does not prevent any from having been pure in its early beginnings. There are those creeds — we shall not call them religions — which have now been overlaid with the human element out of all recognition; others just showing signs of early decay; not one that escaped the hand of time. But each and all are of divine, because
natural and true origin; aye — Mazdeism, Brahmanism, Buddhism as much as Christianity.
— H.P. BLAVATSKY
GANDHIJI called himself a Hindu. But what type of a Hindu was he? Orthodox Hindus opposed him tooth and nail. Gandhiji countered numerous orthodox beliefs and practices, and though he reasoned with love and loved the orthodox and even the fanatical on a reasoned basis he had to pay with his very life the price for his enlightened Hinduism. Who can deny that Hindu orthodoxy is responsible for his assassination? It is, therefore, necessary to determine what he himself implied in his assertion that he was a Hindu. He said:
For me Hinduism is all-sufficing. Every variety of belief finds protection under its ample fold.
My Hinduism is not sectarian. It includes all that I know to be best in Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.
But which orthodox Hindu would accept the idea that every variety of belief can be included in Hinduism? What is good in other creeds, but not to be found in the Hindu creed, to be accepted!
Further, Gandhiji rejected orthodox views and even attacked several of them. Here is one instance:
I claim to be as good a Hindu as any orthodox Hindu. I have endeavoured to enforce all precepts of Hinduism in my own life to the best of my ability. I admit that my ability is small. But that does not affect my attitude to and love for Hinduism. Yet, in spite of all that love for Hinduism, with a due sense of my own responsibility, I am here to tell you that so long as the doors of the Benares temple are closed against a single Harijan, Kashi Vishwanath does not reside in that temple with a belief in its sanctity, or in the faith that by worshipping there I should be purified of my sins. I can have no sense of piety in respect of such a temple.
How can the orthodox who worship at Kashi Vishwanath accept this? Still More —
If untouchability was a part of the Hindu creed, I should decline to call myself a Hindu and most decidedly embrace some other faith, if it satisfied my highest aspirations. Fortunately for me, I hold that untouchability is no part of Hinduism. On the contrary, it is a serious blot upon it, which every lover of it must sacrifice himself to remove. Suppose, however, I discovered that untouchability was really an integral part of Hinduism, I should have to wander in the wilderness, because the other creeds, as I know them through their accepted interpreters, would not satisfy my highest aspirations.
He implies that he would remain a Hindu and by his effort give it a new shape and form. That is why he defines Hinduism as "a relentless pursuit after Truth" and even makes room in its fold for an atheist.
If I were asked to define the Hindu creed I should simply say, search after Truth through non-violent means. A man may not believe even in God and still call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after Truth and if today it has become moribund, in-active, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued, and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst forth upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before.
A moribund and fatigued Hinduism! An orthodox Hindu might well ask — why then call yourself a Hindu? Why not take for your brand of Hinduism a different name?
Quotations can easily be multiplied to show that between Gandhiji's Hinduism and the prevailing Hinduism of the Hindu masses as well as classes there is a fundamental difference. Castes, Untouchability, Animal Sacrifices, etc., are all attacked by Gandhiji and he adds:
The hoards rotting in the name of religion in the various parts of India have made many of these religious institutions a sham, where they have not become hot-beds of corruption.
The key to his position as a Hindu (which he claims to be) is in this assertion: "I am a reformer through and through."
He was a Hindu but a Protestant like Luther: He was a Reformer — iconoclastic but constructive, like the Buddha. Like Jesus, himself a Jew, who fought orthodox Jews, Gandhiji, himself a Hindu, tried to chase the money-changers and priests out of the many Mandirs, repeating after the Hebrew Pacifist "I have come not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets."
He did not destroy without constructing. In attacking animal sacrifices he did not attack sacrifice as an eternal verity but pointed to the true doctrine of yagna as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, H.P. Blavatsky and others taught it. In destroying Untouchability he offered the truth of Universal Brotherhood. In demolishing the crude notion of infallible divine and revealed books — Vedas, Bible, Koran — he pointed to the existence of the accumulated Wisdom of the ancient sages of every continent.
The Purification of Hinduism was a very prominent plank in Gandhiji's religious platform. But even that plank was not the main one. His personal Religion was the study, application, and Promulgation of Truth and Non-violence. He called it Satyagraha. Because Hinduism proved to be to him the best and nearest instrument for his Faith called Satyagraha, especially as a born Indian he found in existing Hinduism a promising field for fructifying the seeds of his own personal religion. He assessed religion as "the best armour that a man can have, "but it is" the worst cloak," as H.P. Blavatsky pointed out, quoting the words of John
Bunyan. In describing what true Religion or Theosophy is, H.P. Blavatsky quoted the striking lines of Miller:
....true Religion
Is always mild, propitious and humble;
Plays not the tyrant, plants no faith in blood,
Nor bears destruction on her chariot wheels;
But stoops to polish, succour and redress,
And builds her grandeur on the public good.
This admirably describes Gandhiji's Religion. He was not an ordinary Hindu; he was a Satyagrahi, who adopted Hinduism as a channel for the use and propagation of that personal religion. Everything was subservient to Truth and Non-violence. Therefore whatever conformed to or supported Satyagraha, though it went counter to Shruti or Vedas, Smriti or Tradition-Lore, was accepted by Gandhiji. The strength and the breadth of his personal Religion of Satyagraha is implicit in his statement:
I do not believe in the exclusive divinity of the Vedas. I believe the Bible, the Koran and the Zend Avesta to be as much divinely inspired as the Vedas. My belief in the Hindu scriptures does not require me to accept every word and every verse as divinely inspired. Nor do I claim to have any first hand knowledge of these wonderful books. But I do claim to know and feel the truths of the essential teaching of the scriptures.
In this method or technique he drew his own portrait in the words he uttered about the enlightened Buddha himself. These words contain a real key which unlocks the mind of Gandhiji about himself as a religious reformer of the effete and moribund Hinduism:
The Buddha was saturated with the best that was in Hinduism, and he gave life to some of the teachings that were buried in the Vedas and which were over-grown
with weeds. His great Hindu spirit cut its way through the forest of words, meaningless words, which had overlaid the golden truth that was in the Vedas.
He made some of the words in the Vedas yield a meaning to which the men of his generation were utter strangers, and he found in India the most congenial soil. And wherever the Buddha went, he was followed by and surrounded not by non-Hindus but Hindus, those who were themselves saturated with Vedic law. But the Buddha's teaching like his heart was all-expanding and all-embracing and so it has survived his own body and swept across the face of the earth. And at the risk of being called a follower of Buddha I claim this achievement as a triumph of Hinduism. Buddha never rejected Hinduism, but he broadened its base. He gave it a new life and a new interpretation.
To Sum up Gandhiji's position in a few words:
My religion has no geographical limits. If I have a living faith in it, it will transcend my love for India herself. My life is dedicated to service of India through the religion of non-violence, which I believe to be the root of Hinduism.
While Gandhiji gave a prominent place to Hinduism in his Credo of Satyagraha, he did not reject other religions. He wrote:
Dharma, i.e., religion in the highest sense of the term includes Hinduism, Islam, Christianity etc., but is superior to them all. You may recognize it by the name of Truth, not the honesty of expedience but the living Truth that pervades everything and will survive all destruction and all transformation.
Religion as a Way of Life, of Satyagraha — that was Gandhiji's Religion and the Book on which he took his stand to practise Truth and Non-violence, Satya and Ahimsa, was the Bhagavad-Gita.
III. The Bhagavad-Gita: Bible of The Satyagrahi
The Gita has become for us a spiritual reference book. I am aware that we ever fail to act in perfect accord with the teaching. The failure is not due to want of effort, but it is in spite of it. Even through the failures we seem to see rays of hope.
— GANDHIJI
It answers all my difficulties and has been my Kamadhenu, my guide, my open sesame in hundreds of moments of doubt and difficulty. I cannot recall a single occasion when it has failed me.
— GANDHIJI
Spiritual knowledge includes every action. Inquirers ought to read the Bhagavad-Gita. It will give them food for centuries if they read with spiritual eyes at all. Underneath its shell is the living spirit that will light us all. I read it ten times before I saw things that I did not see at first. In the night the ideas contained in it are digested and returned partly next day to the mind. It is the study of adepts.
— W.Q. JUDGE
I would therefore advise you to study and meditate over the Bhagavad-Gita which is a book that has done me more good than all others in the whole range of books, and is the one that can be studied all the time.
— W.Q. JUDGE
GANDHIJI was the Satyagrahi. He was the author of the philosophy of Satyagraha, which he did not think out first but, following his own instincts, tested as principles in daily living — in the small plain duties of life as in national affairs, including the fight for India's political emancipation. Application during experiment with his instincts and then drawing conclusions — this was his chief dharma, —
this was his technique. Experiment through and in living experience.
Often the very task of promulgating ideas which he felt to be true was done during the process of experimental application. He had more than one source of inspiration, but the greatest and most compelling was the Bhagavad-Gita.
The circumstances which brought him in contact with the Gita are mentioned in the first instalment of this series. Edwin Arnold's Song Celestial was the first rendering. Afterwards he went to the Gujarati translations and then to the original Sanskrit. The story of the study of the Gita leading to his Gujarati translation and then into English is narrated by him in Young India of 6th August 1931.
Like every devotee of the Gita he found the Song of the Master unfold that which was enshrined in him. His samskaras or skandhas revealed to him how Truth and Non-Violence, Satya and Ahimsa, were the Soul of the Gita. The Gita is large-hearted and myriad-minded; it tells each sincere and earnest student what its message for him is. The Gita though sung in Sanskrit and born in India is impersonal: it speaks to each differently — to each it unveils the next step and not only the distant goal. In India different exponents and commentators have seen in it their own favourite Path. Some have called it the book of devotion; others have extolled its metaphysics; and others have seen it exhort the religion of works and the good life. The Devil can quote scriptures for his purpose and so it has been with the Gita; its imagery and its symbolism have been exploited and the strain of martial ardour for the Greatest of all Wars, which leads to Peace and Enlightenment, has been applied to bloodshed by sepoys and soldiers using guns and bombs, which ever retards human progress and ends ultimately in the defeat of the victors. This message of the Mahabharata seen by Gandhiji, and others before him, has been conveniently overlooked by the revolutionary whose aim is to change the outer order of society
without a change in his own Manas and Buddhi. Gandhiji perceived the message of the great epic. He writes:
The poet Vyasa has demonstrated the futility of war by means of that epic of wonderful beauty. What, he asks, if the Kauravas were vanquished? And what if the Pandavas won? How many were left of the victors and what was their lot? What an end Mother Kunti came to? And where are the Yadavas today? Where the description of the fight and justification of violence are not the subject-matter of the epic, it is quite wrong to emphasise those aspects. And if it is difficult to reconcile certain verses with the teaching of Non-Violence, it is far more difficult to set the whole of the Gita in the framework of violence.
Further Gandhiji explains:
The Mahabharata has a better message even than the demonstration of war as a delusion and a folly. It is the spiritual history of man considered as an immortal being. The Mahabharata depicts for all time the eternal struggle that goes on daily between the forces of good and evil in the human breast and in which, though good is ever victorious, evil does put up a brave show and baffles even the keenest conscience. It shows also the only way to right action.
As we saw last month, Gandhiji called himself a Hindu, and said that his religion was Hinduism and yet he was a special kind of a Hindu and described his creed from a broad universal standpoint. Similarly in reference to the Bhagavad-Gita. The grand universality and the unsectarianism of the book recognised by Gandhiji were coloured by the view that it was a Hindu text. Thus in speaking to the students of Mannargudi in 1927 he did not emphasize the truth of the Gita's being an universal book but for obvious reasons stressed the Hindu aspect:
And so whilst I would welcome your learning the Gospels and your learning the Koran, I would certainly insist on all of you, Hindu boys, if I had the power of insistence, learning the Gita. It is because I see the
same God in the Bhagavad-Gita as I see in the Bible and the Koran that I say to the Hindu boys that they will derive greater inspiration from the Bhagavad-Gita because they will be tuned to the Gita more than to any other book.
We must not, however, overlook what he said to the students of the Kashi Vishva-Vidyalaya:
The Gita is the Universal Mother. She turns away nobody. Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks it.
Though Gandhiji has also warned enthusiasts:
The Gita will never be universal by compulsion from without. It will be so if its admirers will not seek to force it down the throats of others and if they will illustrate its teachings in their own lives.
Perhaps in Gandhiji's opinion the time had not yet come to give the Gita its real place as a book of Universal Religion, of Eclecticism, of Theosophy which is the Source-Synthesis of religion, philosophy and science. In his view Gandhiji approximates H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge. Under the influence and guidance of the former, his guru and colleague, W. Q. Judge rendered the Gita into English so far back as 1890 and, further, wrote most valuable comments on Gita chapters in his magazine The Path from 1887 onwards. It was the same influence of H. P. B. which energised "the two brothers" who were her students and who drew Gandhiji's attention to the Bhagavad-Gita. It might be mentioned in passing that Gandhiji did see H. P. Blavatsky in 1889-90. She regarded the Gita as a book of great antiquity, its subject-matter being "the highest spiritual philosophy. The work is pre-eminently occult or esoteric." In 1877 she wrote:
The work is purely metaphysical and ethical, and in a certain sense it is anti-Vedic; so far, at least, that it is in opposition to many of the later Brahmanical interpretations of the Vedas. How comes it, then, that
instead of destroying the work, or, at least, of sentencing it as uncanonical — an expedient to which the Christian Church would never have failed to resort — the Brahmans show it the greatest reverence? Perfectly Unitarian in its aim, it clashes with the popular idol-worship. Still, the only precaution taken by the Brahmans to keep its tenets from becoming too well known, is to preserve it more secretly than any other religious book from every caste except the sacerdotal; and, to impose upon that even, in many cases, certain restrictions. The grandest mysteries of the Brahmanical religion are embraced within this magnificent poem; and even the Buddhists recognise it, explaining certain dogmatic difficulties in their own way. "Be unselfish, subdue your senses and passions, which obscure reason and lead to deceit," says Krishna to his disciple Arjuna, thus enunciating a purely Buddhistic principle. "Low men follow examples, great men give them The Soul ought to free itself from the bonds of action, and act absolutely according to its divine origin. There is but one God, and all other devatas are inferior, and mere forms (powers) of Brahmâ or of myself. Worship by deeds predominates over that of contemplation" (See the Gita translated by Charles Wilkins, in 1785; and the Bhagavad-Purana containing the history of Krishna, translated into French by Eugene Burnouf. 1840). This doctrine coincides perfectly with that of Jesus himself. Faith alone, unaccompanied by "works" is reduced to naught in the Bhagavad-Gita. (Isis Unveiled, II. 562-3)
In H. P. Blavatsky's opinion the Gita was anti-Vedic as the Vedas were valued and interpreted when Krishna incarnated on earth; also ante-Vedic for she goes so far as to hint in the same Isis Unveiled:
The theory of Anquetil du Perron that the Bhagavad-Gita is an independent work, as it is absent from several manuscripts of the Mahabharata may be as much a plea for a still greater antiquity as the reverse.
Further she recommends that mystical Christians should study their own Gnostic and other texts in the light of the Bhagavad-Gita. (See The Secret Doctrine, 11.569.)
The Bhagavad-Gita is not history as known by our
learned men. It is an allegory of certain historical events. Its correct understanding depends upon the comprehension that its archetypal key unlocks the indissoluble links subsisting between Universe and Man, Macrocosm and Microcosm. Each link can be apprehended, dimly to begin with, by different turns of this key. Gandhiji used one of these methods to understand the Gita. Stating that "one is guided not by the intellect but by the heart" and that one "who would interpret the scriptures must have the spiritual discipline" Gandhiji says:
I do not believe that the Gita teaches violence for doing good. It is pre-eminently a description of the duel that goes on in our own hearts. The divine author has used a historical incident for inculcating the lesson of doing one's duty even at the peril of one's life. It inculcates performance of duty irrespective of the consequences, for, we mortals, limited by our physical frames, are incapable of controlling actions save our own. The Gita distinguishes between the powers of light and darkness and demonstrates their incompatibility.
Self-realisation and its means is the theme of the Gita, the fight between two armies being but the occasion to expound the theme.
And who are Dhritarashtra and Yudhishthira and Arjuna? Who is Krishna? Were they all historical characters? And does the Gita describe them as such? Is it true that Arjuna suddenly stops in the midst of the fight and puts the question to Krishna, and Krishna repeats the whole of the Gita before him?
I regard Duryodhana and his party as the baser impulses in man, and Arjuna and his party as the higher impulses. The field of battle is our own body. An eternal battle is going on between the two camps and the poet seer has vividly described it. Krishna is the Dweller within, ever whispering in a pure heart. Like the watch the heart needs the winding of purity, or the Dweller ceases to speak. Not that actual physical battle is out of the question.
These words were written in the thirties of this century. How very similar the Theosophical exposition of W. Q. Judge about the symbol of the Song Celestial and the cipher in which its teachings and message are cast! W. Q. Judge wrote:
Many European translators and commentators, being ignorant of the psychological system of the Hindus — which really underlies every word of this poem — have regarded this plain and the battle as just those two things and no more; some have gone so far as to give the commercial products of the country at the supposed period, so that readers might be able, forsooth, in that way to know the motives that prompted the two princes to enter into a bloody internecine conflict. No doubt such a conflict did take place, for man is continually imitating the higher spiritual planes; and a great sage could easily adopt a human event in order to erect a noble philosophical system upon such an allegorical foundation. In one aspect history gives us merely the small or great occurrences of man's progress; but in another, any one great historical epoch will give us a picture of the evolution in man, in the mass, of any corresponding faculty of the Individual Soul. So we see, here and there, western minds wondering why such a highly tuned metaphysical discussion should be "disfigured by a warfare of savages." Such is the materialising influence of western culture that it is hardly able to admit any higher meaning in a portion of the poem which confessedly it has not yet come to fully understand. (Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita, pp.2-3)
We must bear in mind the existence among the Aryans of a psychological system that gives substance and impulse to utterances declared by many Orientalists to be folly unworthy of attention from a man of the nineteenth century civilisation. Nor need we be repulsed from our task because of a small acquaintance with that Aryan psychology. The moment we are aware of its existence in the poem, our inner self is ready to help the outer man to grasp after it, and in the noble pursuit of these great philosophical and moral truths, which is only our eternal endeavour to realise them as a part of our being, we can patiently wait for a perfect knowledge of the anatomy and functions of the inner man. Ibid (p.8)
Looking at it from the Theosophical point of view, the King Dhritarashtra, is the human body which is acquired by the immortal Monad in order to go through the evolutionary journey; the mortal envelope is brought into existence by means of Tanha, or thirst for life. He is blind because the body without the faculties within is merely senseless matter, and thus is "incapacitated for governing," and some other person is represented in the Mahabharata as being the governor of the state, the nominal king being the body — Dhritarashtra. As the Theosophical scheme holds that there is a double line of evolution within us, we find that the Kurus spoken of in the poem represent the more material side of those two lines, and the Pandava princes, of whom Arjuna is one, stand for the spiritual side of the stream — that is, Arjuna represents the immortal Spark. (The Bhagavad-Gita, "Antecedent Words," p.xiii)
The alleged celestial origin for the two branches of the family, the Kurus and Pandavas, is in perfect consonance with this, for the body, or Dhritarashtra, being solely material and the lower plane in which the development takes place, the Kurus and Pandavas are our inheritance from the celestial beings often referred to in Madame Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, the one tending towards materiality, the other being spiritual. The Kurus, then, the lower portion of our nature earliest developed, obtain the power on this plane for the time being, and one of them, Duryodhana, "prevails," so that the Pandavas, or the more spiritual parts of our nature, are banished temporarily from the country, that is, from governing Man. "The long wanderings and varied hardships" of the Pandavas are wanderings caused by the necessities of evolution before these better parts are able to make a stand for the purpose of gaining the control in Man's evolutionary struggle. This also has reference to the cyclic rise and fall of nations and the race. The hostile armies, then, who meet on the plain of the Kurus are these two collections of the human faculties and powers, those on one side tending to drag us down, those on the other aspiring towards spiritual illumination. The battle refers not only to the great warfare that mankind as a whole carries on, but also to the struggle which is inevitable as soon as any one unit in the human family resolves to allow his higher nature to govern him in his life. Hence, we see that Arjuna, called Nara, represents not only Man as a race, but
also any individual who resolves upon the task of developing his better nature. What is described as happening in the poem to him will come to every such individual. Opposition from friends and from all the habits he has acquired, and also that which naturally arises from hereditary tendencies, will confront him, and then it will depend upon how he listens to Krishna, who is the Logos shining within and speaking within, whether he will succeed or fail. (Bhagavad-Gita, pp. xiv-xv)
The above was penned by Mr. W. Q. Judge in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The great American Theosophist was teaching the Gita to his many pupils, some of whom were Indians, and he unravelled its symbol and allegory a quarter of a century previous to Gandhiji.
IV. The Kernel of Gandhiji's Philosophy
The object of the Gita appears to me to be that of showing the most excellent way to attain self-realization. That, which is to be found, more or less clearly, spread out here and there in Hindu religious books, has been brought out in the clearest possible language in the Gita even at the risk of repetition. That matchless remedy is renunciation of fruits of action. This is the centre round which the Gita is woven. This renunciation is the central sun, round which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve like planets. The body has been likened to a prison. There must be action where there is body. Not one embodied being is exempted from labour. And yet all religions proclaim that it is possible for man, by treating the body as the temple of God, to attain freedom. Every action is tainted, be it ever so trivial. How can the body be made the temple of God? In other words, how can one be free from action, i.e., from the taint of sin? The Gita has answered the question in decisive language: "By desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, i.e., by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul."
— Gandhiji
The act that pleases that Lord within is the act which is done as presented with no attachment to its result, while the act that is unpleasing to Him is the one which we do, desiring some result therefrom. This practice is the highest; that which some day we must and will learn to perform. Other sorts are inculcated in other writings, but they are only steps to lead us at last to this. Therefore I said, Let us enter the Path as soon as we can.
Of course the person described here is one who has gone much higher in development than most of us have been able to do. But we ought to set up a high ideal at which to aim, for a low one gives a lower result at the expense of the same effort. We should not put before us an aim less than the highest merely because it seems that our success will not be as great as we think it ought to be. It is not so much the clearly perceived outward result that counts, as the motive, effort, and aim, for judgment is not passed upon us among the things of sense where human time exists, but in that larger sphere of being where time ceases, and where we are confronted by what we are and not by what we have done. That which we have done touches us only in mortal life among the delusions of material existence; but the motives with which we live our lives go to make up our greater being, our larger life, our truer self. Do actions we must, for no mortal can live without performing actions; those bring us back to earth for many weary incarnations, perhaps to final failure, unless the lesson is learned that they must be done with the right motive and the true aim. That stage reached, they affect us no more, for, like Krishna, we become the perfect performers of all action. And in so far as we purify and elevate the motive and the aim, we become spiritually enlightened, reaching in time the power to see what should be done and what refrained from.
— W.Q. Judge
IN OUR LAST INSTALLMENT we saw how Gita became at once the Bible and the mother of Gandhiji. H.P. Blavatsky has said that there are several keys to the noble poem. Of these Gandhiji's temperament found and used the psychological one. The Body was the field of battle, duties were
arms, the Kauravas the lower and the Pandavas the higher nature of every man. Not merely bent on application but urged by his soul to apply without loss of time, he began practising the Gita tenets. Certain words, certain verses became his direct clues.
Gandhiji's soul influenced by the pure light of love and of universal brotherhood heard the Voice of Krishna. What found most ready response in his soul was the path of works, Karma-marga, deeds to be performed according to Buddhi-Yoga. All duties to be discharged with mental devotion to the Deity, formless and universal, without a desire for reward, or even looking for any particular result. From that basic viewpoint he understood, applied and promulgated the message of the Gita. He asserted that without Truth and Non-violence deeds of the Gita type could not be performed.
Seeking ways and means to practise Buddhi yoga, Gandhiji made special use of certain ancient words: Satya — Truth; Ahimsa — Harmlessness; Tyaga — Renunciation; Yagna — Sacrifice. This Buddhi-Yoga defined in the second half of the second chapter of the Gita and which culminates in the definition "Yoga is skill in the performance of actions" contains definite precepts to be practised not only at set times but in the performance of actions contains definite precepts to be practised not only at set times but in the routine of hourly living at home, at the office, everywhere. These precepts when daily practised create the man whose marks are also precise. The precepts are followed by a picture which embodies the example: how does a steady practitioner of Buddhi-yoga look, talk, act? This description in verse 54 and following fascinated Gandhiji and they became his favourite verses.
In these verses Gandhiji found his goal, the way to reach it as well as the technique to overcome the obstacles in that
way. The goal was Realization of Self, the way was Satyagraha, the technique was asceticism which controlled the lower and cut a canal for the higher.
These verses attached Gandhiji and brought forth a quick intuitional response even at his first reading of them in 1889. He writes that two brothers who were students of Theosophy and pupils of H.P. Blavatsky's
Placed before me Sir Edwin Arnold's magnificent rendering of the Gita. I devoured the contents from cover to cover and was entranced by it. The last nineteen verses of the second chapter have since been inscribed on the tablet of my heart. They contain for me all knowledge. The truths they teach are the "eternal verities." There is reasoning in them but they represent realised knowledge. I have since read many translations and many commentaries, have argued and reasoned to my heart's content but the impression that the first reading gave me has never been effaced. Those verses are the key to the interpretation of the Gita. I would advise even rejection of the verses that may seem to be in conflict with them. But a humble student need reject nothing. He will simply say, "It is the limitation of my own intellect that I cannot resolve this inconsistency. I might be able to do so in the time to come." That is how he will plead with himself and with others.
With this closing passage of the second chapter of the Gita as his guide he gave a fresh interpretation to important words and terms. In this Gandhiji followed his great predecessors. Words and terms which are living when fecundated by vital mind-souls yield a new meaning to a world-old message. He writes:
The Gita itself is an instance in point. It has given a new meaning to Karma, Sannyasa, Yajna, etc. It has breathed new life into Hinduism. It has given an original rule of conduct. Not that what the Gita has given was not implied in the previous writings, but the Gita put these implications in a concrete shape. I have endeavoured in the light of a prayerful study of the other faiths of the world and, what is more, in the light of
my own experiences in trying to live the teaching of Hinduism as interpreted in the Gita, to give an extended but in no way strained meaning to Hinduism, not as buried in its ample scriptures, but as a living faith speaking like a mother to her aching child. What I have done is perfectly historical. I have followed in the footsteps of our forefathers.
At one time they sacrificed animals to propitiate angry gods. Their descendants, but our less remote ancestors, read a different meaning into the word "sacrifice," and they taught that sacrifice was meant to be of our baser self, to please not angry gods but the one living God within. I hold that the logical outcome of the teaching of the Gita is decidedly for peace at the price of life itself. It is the highest aspiration of the human species.
Again:
For me the Gita became an infallible guide of conduct. It became my dictionary of daily reference. Just as I turned to the English dictionary for English words that I did not understand, I turned to this dictionary of conduct for a ready solution of all my troubles and trials. The words like aparigraha (non-possession) and samabhava (equability) gripped me.
Herein can be traced the cause of trouble between the orthodox Hindus and Gandhiji. The traditional interpretations of the orthodox were unacceptable to Gandhiji, as they were to no less a Reformer than the Buddha. Gandhiji followed the method of the Buddha (see the second installment of this series), and interpreted the Bhagavad-Gita by the inner light of his own Soul; the results of his study and reflection he used in the performance of actions; in this, of course, the cycle in which he lived and laboured played its part i.e., the thoughts and feelings of those who surrounded him and whom he served played a role of their own. In doing this he followed the very method which Krishna Himself adopted in giving a new clue to words and terms. For example, the Gita reduces the authority of the Vedas; it
subordinates shruti to soul-experience. Thus, for example, in describing this very Buddhi-Yoga it is stated that the Vedas are an essay on the three Gunas, qualities of Matter, which the Soul has to transcend, and it is pointed out that for a Self-realised Soul who swims in the sweet Waters of Wisdom and Immortality Vedic rites and teachings are of no use whatever. These verses (Gita II. 45-46) are further clarified by Krishna:
When thy heart shall have worked through the snares of delusion, then thou wilt attain to high indifference as to those doctrines which are already taught or which are yet to be taught. When thy mind once liberated from the Vedas shall be fixed immovably in contemplation, then shalt thou attain to devotion. (Gita II. 52-53)
The Gita does not advocate a rejection of the Vedas, of Shruti, what is heard, but points the way to the Higher Wisdom of the Spirit. It interprets old terms in a new way suited to the Kali-Yuga, the cycle which opened with the passing of the Master Krishna. Gandhiji heard with the power of his own Inner Ego fresh interpretations of great words and terms suited to his age and generation and made vital and viable what had become stale, unprofitable and dead.
This method adopted by Hindu Teachers and Sages makes the restatement of the One Truth and the indivisible Message of the Wisdom-Religion or Theosophy without doing violence to Its previous records. Thus Krishna, Buddha, Shankara and others gave new interpretations of the Vedas without rejecting their basis. This is what Gandhiji did. Viewing the world beyond India and passing to the time before the Vedas we come upon the self-same method which H.P. Blavatsky adopted in recording her Message of Theosophy in her Secret Doctrine and other books.
Aspects of the One Truth come each as a Message delivered by a Perfected Sage which in the course of time and interpretations becomes corrupted, necessitating its reformulation. By this process the Truth intermingled with fiction and falsehood has to be used by Reformers, great or less great. And this is not limited to India and Hinduism. Similar phenomena have occurred in different countries and at all times. Words, terms, nomenclature, undergo corruption pari passu with the corruption of ideas, and each time they have to be rescued from the degradation which ignorance and superstition have imposed upon them. A freshening up suited to time, place and circumstances has to be attempted. This indicates how there is a true Fundamentalism of the Prophets and the false one of priests. The former deals with the way of Life, the latter with the debasing way of blind belief and creedalism. Theosophy is the knowledge about the former, the one Universal Religion; priestcraft and creedalism beget differing religions. As already shown, Gandhiji fully recognized this.
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. There is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will.
THESE lines of Lowell's came to our mind as we were reading the sage advice given by Rajaji, India's Governor-General. He was speaking to the Pressmen of Bombay on the 10th of August. In answer to remarks about the grave vicissitudes of the middle class he is reported to have said that if the people of that class "gave up caste feeling and readily jumped over to the occupations of the working-class, they could better their prospects." The chief reason why this is not done is the lack of real appreciation of the dignity of all labour.
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine.
This concept, which all sages have taught, including the National Hero, Gandhiji, is not understood by the sons and daughters of India who speak of him as the Father of the Nation. What more striking precept could he have given, backed by his own great example, than the teaching about doing the scavenger's work? The Governor-
General said that
any disinclination to work was the worst form of caste feeling. In his experience, he found there was an element of obstinate attachment to caste, creating class feelings among the middle-class people. They must be prepared to accept any occupation.
Our work is born with us. How many of us are missing
our calling? Our instruments of sense, be they bodily or mental, are also born with us; they are within us. How many of us are neglecting our tools endeavouring to make use of somebody else's? The last condition in our opening quotation, however, is the most important — "for those who will." When we depend on outer and extraneous influences we run the risk of neglecting the use and employment of our own resources, which are intrinsic and within us. The curse of the stupid doctrine of vicarious atonement affects the race on the plane of business and economics; graft, personal "pull", family and hereditary influence are some of its manifestations. If as a religious belief this tenet kills the soul through debasement, in the sphere of business and on the plane of action it impoverishes the Will, kills initiative, begets cowardice, and makes man a slave of others. The will to work enables a man unerringly to come upon his vocation — the work with which, and to do which, he is born.
And why do so many not find their own job and their own place? Because of false standards. What is right and proper to do, what are the honourable and non-honourable ways of earning livelihood, are not judged in the light of one's own aptitude and character, but in the garish light of worldly opinions. It is not recognised that work as work is holy — cleaning the street, cooking the dinner as ennobling as painting a picture or creating a poem. Nay, still worse; mental corruption has gone so deep in modern society that it will not acknowledge that cleaning the street is more ennobling to the soul and more serviceable to the race than selling commodities that dirty the very mind of the race, like some books and periodicals, like some food and drinks. How many fair readers will accept the fact — for that is what it is — that cooking a dinner is a more noble, more important, more spiritual vocation than "thumping" a typewriter? Each
profession will find its own divinity, even the typewriting, and the book-keeping, when it will accept all work as sacred, all professions as holy.
There is a very telling tale, which George Eliot has versified, of Stradivarius, the maker of violins. He says:
My work is mine,
And, heresy or not, if my hand slacked
I should rob God — since He is fullest good —
Leaving a blank instead of violins.
I say, not God Himself can make man's best
Without best men to help Him. I, am one best
Here in Cremona, using sunlight well
To fashion finest maple till it serves
More cunningly than throats for harmony.
Tis rare delight: I would not change my skill
To be the Emperor with bungling hands
And lose my work, which comes as natural
As self at waking.
"God could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins without Antonio."
The purpose of the Inner Divinity in man is not only to draw him out of his carnal nature but also to aid him so to transmute it that it shall radiate the Efficiency and the Beauty of the World of Spirit, with which that Inner Divinity shines.
Now whenever we want to worship God in anything, we consecrate it. But if a man excludes his fellows from participation in common worship, we are entitled to say that God flees from such worship. And he is installed where there is repentance and the bar against one's fellows is removed. I hope this explanation is capable of being understood even though it may not be appreciated. In my opinion, it covers profound truth. If the truth is not seen, the fault lies in my inability to express clearly what I want to say.
ON THE 2ND OF THIS MONTH (October 1949) devotees of Gandhiji will remember him especially, that being his Natal Day. The mark of the true devotee is his fidelity to the potent ideas of the Gandhian psycho-philosophy.
The adoration of the true devotee is intelligent: understanding with his mind the teachings, he practises assiduously whatever he can of these, noting at the same time his own limitations. No follower can at once apply all of the teacher's philosophy; and between the ideal and the realizable there is a gulf. What is true of any sage-teacher and his followers is equally true of Gandhiji and the hundreds who are endeavouring to make applications in their personal lives of the philosophy of Satyagraha.
One more book* is added to the large number pouring out of the printing-press. A volume of over 200 pages by Miss Mary Barr (known among Gandhiji's circle as Mira Behn) contains much of interest. We select here from two
* Bapu; conversations and Correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi. By F. Mary Barr. (International Book House Private Ltd., Bombay 1. Rs. 2.75)
letters which Gandhiji wrote to the author on the subject of idol-worship. A devotee's yagna — Sacrificial offering — at the feet of his Guru is one type of idol-worship and its value is well defined in true mysticism.
The words of Gandhiji quoted at the beginning of this article convey a profound truth, as he himself recognizes. Every mystic heart, every mind which has penetrated the realm of Occultism, knows that there is a meaning to the rite of image-worship. The rite has been misused and has become degraded in the process of time, in this country as elsewhere. All acts of Divine Magic have their counterparts in the black art. Between the realm of Pure Light and the abyss of Darkness there are many expressions of traditional image-worship, which dwindle into sacerdotal idolatry. Gandhiji writes something thought-provoking to Miss Mary Barr, which readers of THE ARYAN PATH should become familiar with. Stating that he himself does not "believe in idol-worshippers." He adds that
in some form or other idol-worship is a condition of our being. Mosque-going or Church-going is a form of idol-worship. Veneration of the Bible, the Koran, the Gita and the like is idol-worship. And even if you don't use a book or a building but draw a picture of divinity in your imagination and attribute certain qualities, it is again idol-worship, and I refuse to call the worship of the one who has a stone image a grosser form of worship. In the imagination of the worshipper God is in a consecrated stone and not in the other stones lying about him. Even so, the altar in a church is more sacred than any other place in it. You can multiply for your self instances of this character. All this is a plea for a definite recognition of the fact that all forms of honest worship are equally good and equally efficient for the respective worshippers. Time is gone for the exclusive possession of right by an individual or group. God is no respecter of forms or words, for He is able to penetrate our actions and our speech and read and understand our thoughts, even when we do not understand them ourselves and it is just our thoughts that matter to Him.
This is in accord with the statement in the Gita that along many different paths men walk towards the Supreme Spirit. And yet the warning given by Dr. Bhagawan Dasji in his most useful compilation, The Essential Unity of All Religions, should be heeded:
Image-worship would serve its rightful purpose, if it is kept within strict limits; not positively encouraged; and if the elders and spiritual ministers keep constantly reminding the people that the image is only a symbol, a remembrancer, of the one God.
The Bhagavad-Gita states that
those who devote themselves to the gods (Devas) go to the gods; the worshippers of the Pitris go to the Pitris; those who worship evil spirits (Bhuts) go to them and my worshippers come to me.
The greatness of Mahatma Gandhi was not simply that he freed India, but that he himself grew toward Truth.
THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY, on October 2nd, of the birth of Gandhiji was the occasion for heart-searching in the country's periodicals by not a few of his leading countrymen and, in the depths of their own consciousness, no doubt, by some of these and many more who have professed themselves the followers of Gandhiji but have departed more or less widely from his teachings. And there are countless others, following afar off, who in him have glimpsed a light in the surrounding darkness and have tried, in the measure of their vision and their earnestness, to draw nearer to it.
In the October ARYAN PATH† reference was made in these columns to an interesting recently published addition to the growing number of books about the martyred Indian leader — Bapu, by F. Mary Barr. Four more books on Gandhiji, published outside of India, have come to us and may be mentioned here.
The first is a revised edition of the essays and reflections of his life and work, edited by Professor S. Radhakrishnan, which was published first in 1939, under the title, Mahatma Gandhi.‡ The new edition has a Memorial Section of some 130 pages in which are brought together nearly twenty
† Gandhiji on Image Worship
‡ Mahatma Gandhi: Essays and Reflections of His Life and Work. With a New Memorial Section. Edited by S. Radhakrishnan. (George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London. 557 pp. 1949. 15s).
tributes to his memory, many of them admirable, some of them self-portraits, reflections in the mirror which every great soul holds to lesser men. They are all worth reading, though less poignant than the immediacy of many of the shorter tributes at the time of his death which are brought together in an Appendix under the title "World Homage."
Another and a very valuable reprint is the beautiful one-volume edition of The Story of My Experiments with Truth which has been brought out by the Phoenix Press, with a fine speaking photograph of Gandhiji as frontispiece.† The availability in compact form of this inside story of the life of Gandhiji up to 1921 will be welcome to many readers.
Easily the most-talked-of recent addition to the books inspired by Gandhiji is one by the American writer, Vincent Sheean, Lead, Kindly Light,‡ a large volume written with a certain amount of sincerity but not with deep understanding, though it is obvious that the writer's contact with Gandhiji just before his death and his presence at Gandhiji's assassination made an ineffaceable impression on him.
Of the utmost importance, however, is a smaller and much less pretentious volume, deserving of far more attention than it has received, Herrymon Maurer's Great Soul: The Growth of Gandhi* The quotation with which this article begins is its first chapter heading. That quotation gives the key note not only to the understanding of the volume but also to its moving and obvious sincerity and power.
Mr. E.M. Forster's contribution to the Memorial Section
† Gandhi: An Autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth. Translated by Mahadev Desai. (Phoenix Press, London. 420 pp. 1949. 21s).
‡ Lead, Kindly Light. By Vincent Sheean. (Random House, New York. 374 pp. 1949. $3.75)
* Great Soul: The Growth of Gandhi. By Herrymon Maurer. (Doubleday and Co., Inc., Garden City, N.Y. 128 pp. 1948. $2.00)
of Mahatma Gandhi brings out his honest and intense realization, on hearing the news of the assassination of Gandhiji, of his own smallness and that of those around him,
how impotent and circumscribed are the lives of most of us spiritually, and how in comparison with that mature goodness the so-called great men of our age are no more than blustering schoolboys.
That feeling of awe before genuine moral greatness is salutary, but holds perhaps less of positive inspiration that the picture that is given us of a Great Soul in the making in Mr. Maurer's small book, written with good insight by one who seems to be a real and genuine admirer of the Great Soul Gandhiji became.
Interwoven with his running account of the outer events of Gandhiji's life are his teachings and the reactions of others to them and to him, the great fact of whose life, Mr. Maurer holds, was growth.
Into a world lighted by Truth, fed by it, kept alive by it, but yet ignorant of it, there came a man who sought it, felt it, and declared it. This man, whom people called Mahatma, the Great Soul, lives so that men could know that there is a power more real than the power of money or weapons or prisons, and that through it men could break the ancient chains of violence... in a world where men were in bondage he found freedom in Truth.
Mr. Maurer sees in Gandhiji's martyrdom a victory for Truth.
...the world which could still Gandhiji's voice could not still his great soul, the living witness to that for which men hunger, the conquest of evil by good. Whether the victory be of this time or some later time, the overwhelming flood of Truth released by the self-suffering of good men is again upon the world...
Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If He's not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn;
The Cross on Golgotha will never save thy Soul;
The Cross in thine own heart alone can make thee whole.
Oh, shame — the silkworm works and spins till it can fly,
And thou, my soul, wilt still on thine old earth-clod lie?
IN THIS MONTH OF DECEMBER, when the Sun moves northwards, the winter solstice is marked on our calendar as the Natal Day of Nature. Ages before the modern era, many peoples of the world celebrated the festival of Nature's Rebirth — a reflection of the truth of the Second Birth, the Birth of Christos in the mind of man. The first step towards such rebirth comes from the solemn resolve to identify oneself with the Divinity within the Mind of each; then, to seek Its guidance, to act according to Its Will, to take refuge in It. Every mortal feels the need of something more than intellectual assurance of his own immortality. The Mahatmas, Christs and Buddhas of the race have assured us that Power abides within us — the Power to live Peace, to radiate Light,
because Wisdom has been learnt.
At Santiniketan and at Sevagram a World Peace Conference is to be held at Christmas time. The winter solstice is a fit season for this task and it is good that a few earnest men and women from all parts of the world have come here to meet their comrades in India. The success of their deliberations will depend mainly on the accession of strength to their own souls, the strength which ultimately makes of man a Prince of Peace. This is what Gandhiji, the creator of this
Conference, would have told them. For, without personal effort to live in Peace, labour to establish it in the world must be in vain. The real good of this Conference will be invisible — the change it works in those who attend, making of them men of peace in the home, at the club and in the mart.
A few men can save the world — but they must be not only men of good-will but also men of minds humbled by Wisdom, men of hearts lighted by Knowledge, men of hands strong enough to cleanse their own flesh of the blood of egotism and personal selfishness. Thus only can Gandhiji be remembered, in the Sanctified Silence in the cave of the Head filled by the Light of Compassion.
This gathering ought to derive inspiration; it will not come from India but primarily from him, and to him the Conference must look for energy to remember and to live Peace. And among his teachings is this significant one. He asserts that we are not left "without any guidance whatsoever. The sum-total of the experience of the Sages of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come." To seek the soul within so that our very conscience may become enlightened by its light, needs study of lofty ideas which free the mind from the slavery of personal selfishness.
Our own personal desires, predilections and pride colour the mind. Unless it is freed from theses, the mind cannot absorb the truths of the World of Peace. A warring mind, with its army of passions and lusts, is incapable of expressing a truly pacifist attitude. The fact that this problem has not received the attention it deserves has contributed to the failure complained of by many Pacifist organisations.
Therefore a study not only of the ethics of Pacifism but also of its metaphysics is necessary. Is Nature at peace or is it red in tooth and claw? The Masters have taught that Nature is at Peace and, more, that at its heart is Bliss. Study and
reflection on Gandhiji's ideas are essential for seekers of a formula for Peace. Let not these lines which have been put in the mouth of Jesus apply also to Gandhiji:
Of those who sought my crib at Bethlehem
Heeding a voice and following a star,
How many walked with me to Calvary?
It was too far.
Holding the reins of the war-horses for Arjuna, Sri Krishna taught the way of work and worship. In our own Yuga, Gandhiji, holding the reins of a great political struggle, also taught in his own way the way of work and worship. The Gita was reborn in our times through Gandhiji's mouth. Let us revere the teaching and not merely utter the words. True reverence to the Gita lies in daily sincere reflection over its substance and shaping mind and action accordingly.
THESE WORDS were spoken by India's Governor-General. Rajaji, speaking at the Gita-Jayanti celebrations on the 4th of December at New Delhi, refuted the claim that the Gita supported the waging of war. It refers to the greatest of all wars, which takes place on the Field of Duty which is located in the mind of man. To do one's duty by every duty, avoiding the dangerous turn towards the performance of another's duty, and without calculating the profits resulting from such performance — that is the message of the ancient scripture.
He who fights his own animal nature finds neither time nor inclination to fight another man. And because the animal in each one of us does not want the Divine in us to fight it, it sneaks out to give battle to other lower selves, on one selfish pretext or another. Family feuds, class struggles, nationalistic war — all spring from the lower nature of men. The constant enemy of Arjuna was his lower nature, not Duryodhana; that enemy surrounded Arjuna as smoke surrounds fire, while Duryodhana and his mighty Kauravas were standing at a distance. The teaching, which closes the third chapter of the great book, is often overlooked.
All books of the Mysteries are written in cipher. Only a few in number and often small in size, such books are archetypal — nourishing babes with milk and strong men with meat. They yield more than one meaning — one for the man of the senses, another for the man of learning, another for the disciple struggling on the Path to Holiness, and still another for the Enlightened Seer. W.Q. Judge, who made the Gita his constant and consistent companion, referred to it as the study of Adepts. It was Mr. Judge who was a very early, if not the first, modern expounder of the allegorical nature of the Gita, pointing to its symbols and interpreting them in his own inimitably way. In 1887, Mr. Judge wrote of the allegorical imagery of the Gita and stated:
Instead of the conflict being a blemish to the poem, it is a necessary and valuable portion, we see that the fight is to be fought by every human being, whether he lives in India or not, for it is raging on sacred plain of our body. Each one of us, then, is Arjuna.
Gandhiji, and our spiritually minded Governor-General after him, have followed the right interpretation of the Gita, deciphering a profound cipher, however elementary that deciphering be, making it clear that the Gita does not advocate war and murder and bloodshed but something else.
The Gita is the book for all who aspire to become good citizens, first of their own land and then of the world. But it must be interpreted correctly so that its message may be understood. Reiterated, that message will work its miracle. It is India's good Karma that it has at its head a man who values the Gita as a book of constructive power, and who endeavours to breathe its intellectual atmosphere and to apply its moral principles in his own and his nation's life. May he find time to do so more and more! The spiritual education of our people is the most pressing need of the country. That
Rajaji recognizes this is very clear from his message to the Pacifists gathered at Santiniketan. He told them:
India is maintaining her army and other military forces up to the measure of her capacity. She cannot claim to be a nation pledged to pacifism without being guilty of hypocrisy. All the same, the genius of India and her ancient, as well as present-day ideals, are inspired by a love of peace. Mahatmaji's leadership has made India a place of pilgrimage to lovers of peace and haters of war all over the world.
That is why in these columns last month we suggested that the Pacifists should look for guidance not from present-day India, but from Gandhiji, who sowed the seeds of the Life of Peace for the whole world. To understand his lifework it is necessary to know the philosophy of the Gita which inspired him to action. The great Buddha spoke of this greatest of all wars and repeatedly asserted that he who conquered himself was greater than the conqueror of worlds. He recognized no other conquest.
Salutations to the Prowess of Krishna! May it be with us in the fight, strengthening our hearts that they faint not in the gloomy night that follows in the path of the day.
The Republican form of government is the highest form of government, but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature — a type nowhere at present existing.
— Herbert Spencer
AS WE ARE PENNING these few lines all Indians are preparing to celebrate, in the pomp of joy, India's emergence as a Republic into the world of politics. This is to take place on Thursday — Thor's Day — the 26th of January. May the influence of the presiding Regent of the day, Brihaspati (Brahmanaspati) "the father of the Gods" prove auspicious! Greece reverenced him as Zeus, the chief of the Olympian Gods who shook "his ambrosial curls" to say no or gave "the nod" of his approval in proclaiming the fate of individuals and peoples. Less than a week later, on Monday, the 30th, all who love India and the Cause of Truth will bemoan in holy remembrance the Martyrdom of the Father of the Nation, which is made up of Hindus and Muslims, Christians and Jews, Parsis and others.
Gandhiji was the architect of the Republic. He was not allowed to live to see the consummation of his noble and unsullied patriotism. Irreligious fanaticism killed the body in which the soul dwelt — the soul which Lives, and it cannot fail to bless the country which Gandhiji served with many sacrifices.
As coincidence would have it — we call it Karma — between these two dates falls the birthday of Thomas Paine on the 29th of January. Paine played a magnificent part in creating the great American Republic, now the United States
of America. In his Last Will and Testament, drawn up on 18th January 1809, Paine wrote:
I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time has been spent in doing good and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the Will of my Creator, God.
Similar are numerous thoughts and acts of these two builders — Gandhiji and Paine. Both belong to the Immortals. It looks certain that the influence of the former will touch the human heart more deeply than did that of the great pamphleteer who awoke the American people to their destiny by wielding not the sword but the pen. And his Age of Reason is read by many even today.
But to turn to India, the New Republic. Will it incarnate as Aryavarta, the Land of the Nobles? Will the ancient Soul once again embody the virtues of Truth and Compromise, Patience and Non-violence? Four are the outstanding virtues with which Gandhiji won the freedom of India. Truth was his God with whom he never compromised, though on every necessary occasion he displayed the spirit of holy compromise founded on reason, justice and mercy. His compromises were not those of the politician and the diplomat, the trader or the beggar, but of the saint of tolerance and the wise man of insight. His Ahimsa was guarded by patience which "fears no failure, courts no success." He planned and now millions of freed slaves are attempting to build according to the great architect's plan. In what measure will they follow it?
The Republic is aiming at being a Democratic State. But Plato, who visioned the True Republic, spoke of its powers for good and for evil. In his Eighth Book he states that
governments don't spring up out of stones and trees but from the quality of mind and way of living of the citizens — as the scale is turned by this or by that, and all the rest is changed with it.
The death of a democracy lurks in its false concept of Freedom says Plato. Tyranny is "an outgrowth from democracy" and it "too came to its end through its idea of good," which is Freedom.
What will the Indians make of their newly born republic? If the Voice of the People is to be the Voice of God, then people of a different calibre and capacity must arise. People must change from what they now are. An appreciable majority must know and apply what Gandhiji taught. But such a class cannot arise till a group of leaders has emerged, leaders who will purify and elevate themselves in the art of sacrifice through personal mortification. Plato also describes the capacity of such leaders:
They will have to turn upward the eyes of their soul and look up to that which gives light to all, and when in this way they have seen the good itself, let them use it as their example in the right ordering of the state, the citizens, and themselves. They will give the greater part of their time to philosophy, but when their turn comes they will work as servants of the state, taking office for the good of the state and looking on this not as something to be desired but as necessary.
AN INTERESTING BROCHURE has been issued. Some devotees of Gandhiji, perceiving that their master's ideas and doctrines, given lip acceptance by almost all in the seats of the legislators and the administrators, are not being carried out in action, are responsible for its issue. Its caption is Principles of Sarvodaya Plan. Prepared by a few and endorsed by 200 earnest workers in various fields, who gathered at the Sarvodaya Economic Conference held at Wardha in December 1949, the document is an important contribution.
Founded upon Gandhian psychology and philosophy it naturally opens with other-worldly ethics — and it is right that it should do so. Equally naturally, however, it does not put forward a system of philosophy which gives a sure and logical basis for such ethics and which the world needs.
The brochure confines itself mainly to economic matters. It puts forward suggestions to discard numerous plans now in vogue and to substitute others founded upon Gandhian economics. It does not perhaps sufficiently take into account that the present Government, composed of Gandhiji's followers and admirers (Can any doubt that Pandit Nehru is one such?) have done their best according to their lights, under trying circumstances. Nor does it take into account the fact that men of Cabinet rank (and there is among them a woman devotee of sterling qualities — Rajkumari Amrit Kaur), though familiar with Gandhian economics and ethics, may not be able to see the pressing need of applying principles of Satyagraha under the existing circumstances. This because they may not be fully familiar with the
principles underlying these economics and these ethics. Those principles are philosophical and metaphysical in character. It may well be questioned if most of those who sponsor the Sarvodaya Plan are themselves familiar with the philosophy and the metaphysics — the thoughtful and thought-provoking Religion of Gandhiji.
His character shining through his actions — personal and national — has caught the imagination of his devotees, who are a few, and of his professed followers, who are numbered by lacs. But Gandhiji's ideation, the soul of those selfless actions, true deeds of love, are not easily perceivable. His words are recorded but his Voice, the Inner Soul Voice, is not registered. Many of Gandhiji's most pregnant and potent sayings and statements, the soul side of Satyagraha, of Truth and Non-Violence, are not quoted by his followers generally for they are not valued at their true worth. Why is this? In some cases, doubtless, because of greed and wrong motive. These have ever formed the self-constructed barriers and obscurers. Legislators and administrators as well as reformers and devotees are influenced, directly or indirectly, by these barriers and obscurers. Gandhiji taught, in the words of W.Q. Judge, that
Ethics must have a basis not in fear, not in command, not in statute law, but in the man himself.
Man's attitude moulds his thought and his feelings and expresses itself in his actions in the routine of life as well as on exceptional occasions. Self-discipline is necessary to understand philosophical propositions of Gandhian or any other spiritual lore. What is read is partially understood but what is lived inwardly leads to a full appreciation of what is studied.
Our competitive system and selfish desire for gain and fame are constantly building a wall around people's minds to everyone's detriment.
So wrote W.Q. Judge. He was writing about the mass influence on the personal human mind. In collective Karma, national and racial, lies the explanation of how even earnest and sincere people are subtly influenced by mass-cerebration and in that cerebration "selfish desire for gain and fame" very greatly prevail.
Our leaders, legislators, administrators, reformers, need to learn the occult truth of mass-hypnosis influencing them. They themselves may become contributors to strengthening further this influence. How instead can they resist and overcome it? W.Q. Judge explains:
When you sit down to earnestly think on a philosophical or ethical matter, for instance, your mind flies off, touching other minds, and from them you get varieties of thought. If you are not well-balanced and psychically purified, you will often get thoughts that are not correct. Such is your Karma and the Karma of the race. But if you are sincere and try to base yourself on right philosophy, your mind will naturally reject wrong notions.
What mental attitude and aspiration are the best safeguards and most likely to aid the mind in this predicament?
Unselfishness, altruism in theory and practice, desire to do the will of the Higher Self which is the 'Father in Heaven', devotion to the human race. Subsidiary to these, discipline, correct thinking, and good education.
Never will I seek nor receive private individual salvation. Never will I enter into final peace alone; but forever and everywhere will I live and strive for the redemption of every creature throughout the world.
— Pledge of Kwan Yin
THE WORLD aspires to establish peace while many of its leaders prepare for war. This is a gigantic shadow of what is taking place in the heart of almost every person. Man wishes and prays for tranquillity of mind while he engages in the struggle to possess power, longs for lucre, and allows that very mind to be exploited by the senses and the passions.
There is a great deal of talk and effort, often sincere, to render service to our neighbour and our next of kin. The desire to be friendly and kindly is wide-spread and that concretizes in a variety of organizations for the service of men. Thus individuals project organizations on the screen of civilization.
Personal service is darkened by ambition and by egotism and brings on frustration. Selfishness, ambition, competition, also vitiate the service when it is organized; and salaried workers overlook sacrifice with gaze fixed on salaries. Service and sacrifice are a necessity of soul-progress. They create the future helper and Master, the Bodhisattva and Nirmanakaya. Present-day organized service deprives the individual of that mystical experience of interdependence implicit in the metaphysical doctrine of Causation, as the individual contacts in sacrifice others and all, in an ever-widening sphere. The summation of this mystical experience is in the sublime Pledge of
Kwan-Yin quoted at the beginning of this contribution.
The point of good neighbourliness is missed by many a person and by most of the nations because the doctrines of psychology and philosophy underlying these aspirations and endeavours are false. In the modern world, governed by modern knowledge, the real origin and nature of human mind and human morals are not known. The roots of egotism and pride, of passion and prejudice, are hidden alike from the physicist, the physiologist, the chemist, the biologist and the psychologist. Often neighbourliness, goodwill, friendliness, are shadowy feelings, leading people astray, to frustration and failure. The League of Nations failed because its legislators and administrators tried to fashion good-will out of false concepts; co-operative actions do not arise from competitive thoughts, howsoever human ingenuity plan to create and implement handsome blue prints.
This simple truth, missed by our modern politicians and priests, has ever been emphasized by seers and sages, from Krishna to Christ, from Gautama to Gandhiji.
In this month of May a few will honour the memory of the Great Enlightened One and once again derive inspiration from that fact. The whole world ought to honour that memory. One true way to do so this is to reflect upon the Master's words on Metta, for which an adequate English term is almost impossible to coin. It implies good-will, friendliness, neighbourliness, kindliness, generosity, sagacity etc.
The Mettasutta praises a peaceful mind and goodwill towards all creatures. Listen:
Do you desire tranquillity of mind and a peaceful heart? Then you know what is good for yourself.
The marks of one who has acquired that tranquillity and peace are these: he is able, upright and straight; he has right speech; he has no vain conceit of Self; he has few wants; he is of frugal appetites; his senses remain composed; he is not greedy after gifts; he is not mean.
And how does he pray?
May every living thing, feeble or strong, tall or short, subtle or gross of form, seen or unseen, those dwelling near or far away, those who are born and those still to be born — may every living thing be full of bliss.
Thus he becomes even as a mother, who, as long as she doth live, watches over her only child. His is the all-embracing mind whose goodwill flows unhampered by any ill-feeling, above, below, across, in every way.
He has no enemy.
He is the Friend of all.
O Bhikkhus, cultivate Metta, therefore. Standing or moving, sitting or lying down, free from sloth, establish this mindfulness of goodwill. Thus enter brahma-Vihara.
THE EXPRESSIONS of the physical and moral devastation caused by the fury and hatred of war are so very many that we are apt often to overlook the deeds of love and sacrifice which are its real glory and victory. Military victories and defeats are mostly an illusion. The hatred which infects large masses on either side is the real defeat of the war. When fighters return to their native lands coloured by vice and harshness and pride, they proclaim the defeat which their country has suffered. The real victory of war is gained by those few who withstood the fury of enmity and hatred, who fought without malice and with some charity and who return whole of soul, however maimed in body.
On the moral plane, defeat and victory of the last ghastly war still remain to be assessed. Economic and political defeats and victories are ephemeral and illusory, and that is once again becoming clear in the current events, especially at Lake Success. The greater the necessity, then, to be on the lookout for any record of moral strength, intellectual generosity, spiritual sacrifice, on the part of individuals, or groups of them, on either side. Victory is centred in beneficence, which brotherliness radiates; defeat in the ugliness which hate spreads. Thus one of the mysteries of war is that neither party gains victory or suffers defeat. Each has gains and losses on the moral plane, and the balance of moral power must weigh more with the truly victorious. This invisible process, in which the individual plays a very important part, goes on unobserved by economists, politicians and militarists. These leaders are blind to the unrealities of war and suspect not the nature of
real victory.
The ghastly effects of the atom bomb on Hiroshima are described in a thousand publications. Acts of mighty valour shown by some among the sufferers are not sung; nor is the deep resentment felt by many United States citizens towards their own Government for perpetrating this act properly assayed. The atom bomb did not win the war for the Allies, nor has it brought defeat and disgrace to Japan. We are once again reminded of this by the noble effort started last September By The Saturday Review of Literature. Its Editor, Norman Cousins, visited the city and wrote from there an account of the resurrection of Hiroshima. How the hospital, under Karma, became the target of the fatal bomb; how "the heart of city was laid open with a hot knife"; how "if you lived through that second, you found that your clothes were on fire, and your arms and legs and face were on fire" — it was a moving account in The Saturday Review of Literature for 17 September 1949. But we wish to note the movement of love which it and its humane Editor started: the high-spot of his visit was the Yamashita Orphanage. His moving account should be read — the heroism of the Yamashitas; their vision and resourcefulness rooted in what the Buddhist called Metta — love, tenderness and mercy; how they created their home where orphans found parents; "there was not enough of it." It moved the American editor and gentle man to his own vision and action. He wrote:
Before coming to Japan, several people had told me that they would like to adopt Japanese children orphaned by the bombing. Under the Oriental Exclusion Act, however, these adoptions are not possible. I should like to suggest the next best thing — moral adoptions. By moral adoptions I am thinking of Hiroshima children who would be adopted by American families and who would carry the names of the people adopting them. The children would continue to live in Japan — perhaps in some place such as
Mrs. Yamashita's — but the American families would be responsible for their care and upbringing. Then, later, if Congress passes a law permitting Japanese children to come to America, these morally adopted children could become legally adopted as well.
This was a year ago. In its issue of 3 June 1950 a report-note appears with several letters, one from the world-famous Helen Keller, the blind lady whose vision is as deep as it is correct. The report says that all 71 children have been adopted by SRL readers. In addition, other children are receiving beneficence. Mrs. Teiko Yamashita writes:
Concerning the moral parents no adequate words of thanks can be found in my dictionary. I thank you very much, that is all I can say. From many moral parents in your country come kind and gentle letters in large numbers, and the children are rearing much more pleasantly. When a child hears about his moral parent he writes the name on a card. One boy says smiling, "Mine is in California" while a girl says, "My mother is a music teacher." They are all very proud, with filial heartiness. They put the pictures from America near their beds every night. I feel as relieved as if the proposal of marriage for all my sons and daughters were decided.
The spirit shown by U.S.A, citizens, however limited their number, is a sure expression of the victory of the Allies. Signs of defeat strike our mind's eye more often. It is heartening to see signs of victory; this is one.
The sum-total of the experience of the sages of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come.
(Young India, 21 April 1921)
I have no desire to found a sect. I am really too ambitious to be satisfied with a sect for a following, for I represent no new Truths. I endeavour to follow and represent Truth, as I know it. I do claim to throw a new light on many an old Truth.
(Young India, 25 August 1921)
THESE are Gandhiji's words. During this month, tomorrow to be exact, India will celebrate his Birthday. Not only in the political sense is he the Father of the Nation. Gandhiji made himself a superb incarnation of the Spiritual Energy — Atma-Shakti — of Ancient India. He laboured not merely for the political freedom of the Country; much more did he work to make India once again the Land of Good Works. His spiritual programme of Satyagraha has been inspiring men and women in other continents, and today there are many thousands who look to this country and to Gandhiji's immediate followers to lead them on the way to Peace through Non-Violence — the Peace which a war-torn world yearns for, and the Non-Violence which men and women, young and old, ardently wish to hold in their own hearts and express in their own lives. Such have mentally perceived that hatred ceaseth not by hatred and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law.
It is the Religion of Gandhiji, not his political creed or even his
social service programme, which attracts the thoughtful all over the world. The world is watching: how is Gandhiji's India shaping her home and foreign policy, for the redemption not only of India but of all mankind? There is disappointment, at home and abroad, that the political organization which he guided for over a quarter of a century has failed to rise to its opportunities; that the once unsectarian and truly national organization is fast becoming sectarian; that the Congress Governments have so far not succeeded in following the immortal ideas of Gandhiji. Our great Prime Minister, Nehru, has set an example, however feeble it might appear to be, to adapt those ideas to the Foreign Policy which he is shaping. Satyagraha seems to inspire the Prime Minister, on whom the mantle of Gandhiji has fallen. There are sundry good omens in other Departments of Government, but they are obscured not only by nepotism and corruption but also by religious bigotry and political violence prevailing in the country. Communalism is the friend, however unconscious, of Communism, and these two are the enemies of Peace and Non-Violence, of Internationalism and Universal Brotherhood.
The most pressing need of India is a careful study of the Gandhian psycho-philosophy. How can Gandhiji's principles be applied in national life if they are not studied and expounded? As for understanding his philosophy, at least a few should practise his ideas for purifying and elevating their minds.
Those who talk of a theocratic Hindu State do so on the basis of a very orthodox and untrue interpretation of the Vaidika Dharma, the religion based upon the Vedas. Gandhiji, following the great example of the Buddha, tried to extricate that once pure creed from ritualism, meaningless mummery, false interpretations leading to abject supersti-
tions and even to immorality. This is a fit occasion to remember and also remind our fellow-men that the Hinduism of Gandhiji is not that of the temples and priests, of rituals practised by the orthodox Hindus for the living and the dead, of absurd caste-rules in the matter of dining, marriage and untouchability. Gandhiji once wrote:
Hinduism is in danger of losing its substance, if it resolves itself into a matter of elaborate rules as to what and with whom to eat. Abstemiousness from intoxicating drinks and drugs and from all kinds of foods, especially meat, is undoubtedly a great aid to the evolution of the spirit, but it is by no means an end in itself. Many a man eating meat and with everybody, but living in the fear of God, is nearer his freedom than a man religiously abstaining from meat and many other things, but blaspheming God in every one of his acts.
(Young India, 6 October 1921)
It (Dharma) includes Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc., but is superior to them all. You may recognize it by the name of Truth, not the honesty of expedience but the living Truth that pervades everything and will survive all destruction and all transformation.
(Harijan, 2 January 1937)
Our Secular State need not and should not be an irreligious state. To it the teachings of Gandhiji should be nourishment. It is the Religion of Life founded on Knowledge, good works and deep devotion to the Cause of Human Brotherhood.
Weeds are the bane of fields and hatred is the bane of this mankind; therefore offerings made to those free from hatred bring great reward.
(Dhammapada verse 357)
THE WAR OF IDEOLOGIES between Capitalism and Communism has brought about a change in the minds of large numbers who see the evil in both systems. If Capitalism creates and degrades the wage-slave, Communism makes the citizen a mindless machine enslaved by a small hierarchy of autocrats headed by a political pope. People living under Stalin's rule have forgotten the boons of free speech and free thought and freedom of movement; but people in democracies enjoying these freedoms have their own problems — mental inhibitions, fear of insecurity, and gnawing discontent.
The Way of Life taught by such Princes of Peace as Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ has been made attractive and practicable for the modern world by Gandhiji. It is but natural, therefore, that there are now a desire and a demand for the teachings of Gautama in the West and for those of Jesus in the East.
The Gita can bring the modern man to an understanding of the phenomenon of wars in human history by pointing to their hidden but true cause, and explaining its import. They all have a single root — the psychological strife between the human individual and his constant enemy within himself. The Gita enables the modern man to apprehend the profound significance of the Sermon on the Mount; that significance is epitomized also in a single statement of the Buddha
affirming the Eternal Law and Religion — dhammo sanan-tano — in Verse 5 of the Dhammapada:
Not at any time are enmities appeased here through enmity but they are appeased through non-enmity. This is the eternal law.
The moral philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount is looked upon by most as impracticable and even fantastic, because the logic, reasoning and intellectual arguments behind it and implicit in it are not expounded in the Sermon itself. People do want to cease from hatred and to live by love, but in trying to do so they meet with frustration. The preacher of the Sermon on the Mount did not offer — since time was not allowed to him to do so — a reasoned demonstration of the truths which his sweeping intuitions revealed. Gautama Buddha offered to the questioning minds of men adequate and satisfying answers to why and how the Eternal Law should be practised.
Many of us have the religious sense and disposition, but are not clear as to the object to which this sense is directed. Devotion, to be reasonable, must be founded on truth.... In view of the variety of counsel he advised his disciples to test by logic and life the different programmes submitted to them and not to accept anything out of regard for their authors. He did not make an exception of himself.
These are the words of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who has rendered a further service to ancient thought by his new publication — The Dhammapada (Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, London, New York, Toronto. 12s. 6d.). He has already made a substantial contribution in popularizing Hindu lore in the Occident; and he has also helped his co-religionists to re-orient their religious viewpoint. This particular publication will render help to the Hindus in ways other than does his volume on the Gita. This country most seriously needs quickly to revive her interest in
the ethics founded upon the psycho-philosophy of her greatest Master in historical times. As Radhakrishnan rightly points out:
The effort to build one world requires a closer understanding among the peoples of the world and their cultures. This translation of the Dhammapada, the most popular and influential book of the Buddhist canonical literature, is offered as a small contribution to world understanding. The central thesis of the book, that human conduct, righteous behaviour, reflection, and meditation are more important than vain speculations about the transcendent — has an appeal to the modern mind.
Great books like the Gita and the Dhammapada need to be popularized. These are not sectarian books for Hindus and Buddhists. They offer instruction to all who are athirst for the immortal waters of Wisdom. The popularizing of the sermons and sayings of the Buddha in the West and of those of the Christ in the East will take us a long way towards the establishment of the one world of which Radhakrishnan speaks. But something more.
Comparative study of such teaching as those in the Gita, the Dhammapada and the Sermon on the Mount will unmistakably point to the Root Morality of Universal Wisdom. There is only one Way of true living; to walk that way one needs conviction. Faith belongs to the mind enlightened by intuition.
But "Intuition soars above the tardy processes of ratiocinative thought" and carries within it the benign influence of "the universal Buddhi (the Mahabuddhi or Mahat in Hindu philosophies) the spiritual, omniscient, and omnipotent root of divine intelligence, the highest anima mundi or the Logos," says The Secret Doctrine of H.P. Blavatsky.
To practise in daily life the ideas of that universal ethics, the mind has to be educated in their value. The mind needs not only breadth but also depth; only a study of the universal
philosophy can bring that gift to the mind. A new layer of the human mind has to be quickened. Study of and meditation on the Dhammapada will evoke such intuitions as we possess; simultaneously the mind will be purified and elevated by them so that it will become porous to more, and also profounder intuitions; such intuitions possess the power to mould the mind to the sublime pattern of the Buddha mind. But how many will make the attempt? The Master has said:
Few amongst men are those who reach the farther shore: the other people here run along (this) shore.
What conscious Art of man can give me the panoramic scenes that open out before me, when I look up to the sky above with all its shining stars? This, however, does not mean that I refuse to accept the value of productions of Art, generally accepted as such, but only that I personally feel how inadequate these are compared with the eternal symbols of beauty in Nature.
— GANDHIJI
THESE ARE the words of Gandhiji. They signify the importance of real Beauty in man's mortal life. Man's environment is not to be neglected. The soul has environed itself in the corpus and not without a purpose.
In India both body and environment are grossly undervalued. For centuries we have neglected the teachings of the Sages, on body and environment. It would seem as if one of the hidden purposes of the British Rule in India had been to awaken us to the truth that matter, body, environment have values.
The Occident has over-emphasised and over-valued environment. It has blundered into the belief that sanitation and architecture, pictures and songs, radio and television sustain and evolve the soul. Nay more — these are the creators of the human soul! India seems likely to be lured by the glamour of gadgets.
Lusts of all kinds continuously enslave man; often he knows it not. When his attention is drawn to his enslavement he excuses himself after a fashion and philosophises — it all is as Science teaches, Determinism. Modern Knowledge, even of psychology, psychiatry and psycho-analysis, does not
provide the answer which the ancient Oriental Psychology gives. The latter offers an explanation and a remedy for the lust of things.
The constant enemy of man on earth is a power which circulates in his brain, his blood, his glands and his senses. It overpowers his mind, blinds his intuitions and silences the action of Spirit Itself. The process is well described in the closing portion of the third chapter of the Gita.
It is this power, inimical to Man, the spiritual Thinker, which brings about "enjoyments which arise through the contact of the senses with external objects which are wombs of pain." This power inclines man's senses to objects of possession and creates in him the strength of egotism and causes pride to rule his will. It causes the contact of the senses with the many objects created by human hands and human mind. These are often created for the purpose and in the hope of increasing the wealth and power of their creators. Such man-made objects are not always after the pattern of the pure mind.
What human hands create as objects are surcharged with human feelings; they carry the magnetism of the maker of the objects. In the shop window, objects attract by their form, their colour, their glitter. But the attraction is ensouled by the ambitions, yearnings and hopes of the fabricating hand and brain. The lure of the world is not as imponderable as it appears to be. The substantial nature of human magnetism is not suspected by ordinary knowledge. The transmission of the fabricator's magnetism to the objects of his making has become very complex in our machine age with its mass production. But the subtle aura of man-made goods, however invisible, is a fact and it plays an important part in the lure which attracts men and women to the siren song of the "constant enemy."
Occultism, the Science of the Higher Life, warns against following the desires and the passions and advocates discrimination even in the purchase and use of objects. That great Science does not advocate foolish asceticism, or recommend sensuous hedonism. It suggests the Vow of Poverty to be observed in and by the mind of the Heart. The motive of such poverty is the enjoyment of objects of the senses as vehicles of experience which will lead to true development.
To enjoy the totality of human creation without coveting the wealth of another is possible, when the Gita teaching is followed. The good, the beautiful and the true have pragmatic values. To use the world as his footstool in the true sense, man must be practical, as the up-to-date capitalist, bourgeois, or proletarian is not; nor is the modern aesthete practical. Between the creative artist and the skilful artisan there is a gulf. It has to be bridged. The Sage who worships Pure Truth, the Saint who embodies Pure Virtue, the Seer who creates Pure Beauty are builders of that bridge.
The great pair of opposites, Necessity and Luxury, contains a clue. The balance point between the two must be reached. The pride of poverty is as false and as ugly as the pride of possessions. Egotism, separating the True from the Beautiful, is the source of Evil. Destroy Egotism and Evil dies and Good lives. Then man-made beauty reflects Divine Beauty. Is not that the truth to which the Buddha was pointing when he said to Bhaggava, the Wanderer, "Whenever one reaches up to the Release, called the Beautiful, then he knows indeed what Beauty is"?
THE MODERN STATE, totalitarian or democratic, large or small, is patterned on the business corporation. Marshal Stalin heads the Board of Directors of the capitalistic corporation known as Russia; President Truman heads the Board in that known as the U.S.A. To be sure, the latter Board is duly elected by the shareholders; the former is not. Through his vote the American citizen has, like the ordinary shareholder, some say-so as to how the business shall be run; and, if denied his rights can take his grievance to the highest court in the land. The Russian subject is not free even to protest, to say nothing of having no influence on policy; he has no rights; he can only take what he is given and do as he is told. The war of ideologies of which we hear so much is, from this point of view, primarily a war between the advocates of radically different methods of seeking the same professed ends — the economic well-being of the citizen and the political security of the state.
The primacy of these ends is commonly taken for granted. The economic "standard of living" receives more attention than the "standard of life", with its implication of moral values. There is no question that outer conditions of life in the United States — abundance of food, educational and employment opportunities, sanitation, etc., present a standard for other countries to emulate. But many problems remain unsolved in spite of economic prosperity. Widespread neurosis, juvenile delinquency, prostitution, venereal disease, alcohol, racial and creedal prejudice persist in the Democracies and no doubt also behind the Russian purdah,
though to what extent and how dealt with are matters of speculation.
The fundamental reason for the failure of all modern nations to achieve the goal of an enlightened and responsible as well as prosperous body of citizens is to be found in the almost universal failure to put first things first. Neither totalitarian Russia nor democratic America will save themselves, to say nothing of saving the world, until their policy is changed and moral principles, moral values, receive the place in their consideration that politics and economics have long usurped.
It would not be a new experiment. Three centuries B.C., in the great Empire of Asoka, the primacy of moral values was recognized in principle and practice. Is it not time to consider some of the fundamental teachings found in Asoka's Edicts and to call the great Buddhist Emperor of ancient India in consultation for the erection of the new World State? For it can never stand if built on the competitive increase of armaments, which must inevitably lead to war. It can rest firmly only on the rock of tried and tested moral principles.
Asoka's chief concern was to promote Dharma, duty or the moral law, among his people. His Rock and Pillar Edicts set forth, in different languages of his time, the requirements of moral conduct in injunctions as valid today as when they were inscribed.
Good is Dharma. But what does Dharma include? (It includes) freedom from self-indulgence, abundance of good deeds, kindness, liberality, truthfulness, and purity.1
Asoka was a model king, even by modern material standards, in his solicitude for his people's physical well-being and
1 Citations are from Asoka, by DR. RADHAKUMUD MOOKERJI. (Macmillan and Co. Ltd., London.)
comfort, causing shade-trees to be planted along the highroads, having orchards planted, wells dug, rest-houses built; but after enumerating these benefactions he explains:
that the people might strictly follow the path laid down by Dharma was this thus done by me.
Officers enforced the law, "being in a position to recall to duty the fickle-minded," but Asoka held outer conformity to the regulations to be less important for the advance of the people in Dharma than "inner meditation," which led them to applications beyond the requirements of the law. He sought to implant in his people regard and love for the moral law, by example as well as by precept:
Whatever good deeds have been done by me, these the people have followed and these they will imitate and thereby they have been made to progress, and will be made to progress.
By the breadth of his religious tolerance no less than by the universality of his sympathies is Asoka fitted to be chosen as one of the architects of the new World State.
"Concord alone," he declares, "is commendable, in this sense, that all should listen and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others."
The breadth of his sympathies is proved by benefactions to neighbouring countries, in which as well as at home, he was responsible for instituting medical and veterinary treatment. The missions which he sent abroad to spread the ennobling teachings of the Buddha are well known and have had a potent influence on world thought. The spirit which animated his efforts is reflected in his Rock and Pillar Edicts, which breathe a universality as much needed by the modern world as are his abjuring of war and his preaching of nonviolence towards living beings. For Asoka declares:
All men are as my children; as on behalf of my own children, I desire that they may be provided with complete welfare and happiness both in this world and the next, the same I desire also for all men....
My highest duty is, indeed, the promotion of the good of all. There is no higher
work than the promotion of the commonweal.
THE SPIRIT OF WAR is synonymous with the Force of Violence. That spirit has many expressions but in itself is immortal. That Force manifests in numerous ways but conserves itself ever and always. The source of war and of peace, of violence and of non-violence, of mortality and of immortality is one and the same: "I am death and immortality," says Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, (IX. 19). Unless lovers of peace comprehend the implications of this philosophic proposition their efforts to wage war against wars will not be wholly successful. We cannot destroy violence without destroying peace. But in what way can the death-forces be used to gain immortality? How can the forces of violence be made to serve the cause of peace and non-violence? It is an alchemical process and true pacifists have to learn the art of this alchemy.
The evil omens of war were apparent even on the day when people were celebrating the advent of peace after the ignominious fall of Hitler. Recent events make the destruction of this civilisation by war a graver possibility than it ever was. Lovers of peace everywhere are bestirring themselves to organise for peace; and among them are some followers of Gandhiji, firm and convinced believers in the principle of non-violence.
Gandhiji not only understood with his mind, but also applied with his heart the truth that war and peace make a pair. He comprehended the alchemy referred to above so
thoroughly that he proceeded to apply its teachings to mass movements in India; having practised them in his own personal life and having experimented with them publicly in South Africa, he courageously exercised his knowledge and influence in and through events which are now matters of history.
Gandhiji saw that the very forces of ignorance, of moral temerity, of old-fashioned blunderbuss patriotism, have to be transmuted. His was the rare sense which the common sense of numerous administrators and politicians and publicists could not appreciate. Gandhiji's appeal to the soul-force of the people was rooted in his faith that men did not possess souls, but were souls and possessed mental and moral weaknesses which the powers of the soul could overcome. Therefore he led them to fight with the weapon of non-violence the evils of injustice, exploitation and tyranny. At times he spoke of his "Himalayan blunders" but what were they? The inability of the people to stand firm in the resolve of nonviolence. The process of alchemy had gone so far in them and no farther, and so, again and again, he cried halt, took to preaching the doctrine of satyagraha and then, once again, launched into experimenting with the force of truth and non-violence in his people. Within his own personal self the spiritual transmutation was so great, so nearly complete, that he became a target for death by foul murder.
Unless this technique is understood in a greater measure by those who call themselves pacifists, their efforts may consist of feverish or even eloquent propaganda, but will not bring forth Peace.
Pacifists must learn to wage war against the warlike and violent forces in their own flesh and blood and brains. Unhappiness, affliction, suffering, consciously experienced become a cleanser and a purifier. This is not the suffering
ordinarily experienced by everyone. It is an extraordinary type of affliction which brings the sure consciousness that the soul is, that soul-force is available, and that mental anguish, moral suffering, bodily disease are stepping-stones. This higher type of suffering consciously faced brings to birth the new man — the first of the four classes of the righteous ones who are dear to the Divine. Through such conscious evaluation of suffering man transmutes cowardice into courage, ignorance into knowledge, conceit into humility, egotism into altruism.
Unless a few become men of peace after the pattern of Krishna, Buddha and Jesus and follow the example of the 20th-century apostle of peace through truth and non-violence, wars in their destructive character will not cease.
Suffering is upon the whole earth today. It is making for discontent and competition, and leading to national pride and prejudice poisons the international atmosphere. Neither the UNO nor UNESCO will successfully overcome these forces of evil till they plan and create an army, however small, of men and women who study the alchemy of peace by waging the greatest of all wars — the war against their own animalism. The war-beast will prowl the wide world over unless such an Army of Peace-Men face it and help it to overcome its disease by deep heartfelt suffering. Such a reflection gives meaning to a saying in the ancient Mysteries — "Blessed be the Name of the Great God, the Most High, who sends suffering to His devotees so that they may rise to Him in Purity and Beauty." It makes the saying of the ancient occultists a pregnant aphorism: "Woe to those who live without suffering."
GANDHIJI'S BIRTHDAY on the 2nd of this month will be celebrated by his true friends in heart-silence. Therein alone real memory of the real Gandhiji can be evoked.
Memory and the loss of memory come from the Divinity who overbroods the thinking man. Oriental Psychology teaches the art of conserving memories pleasing to the higher man; at the same time it teaches how to destroy the memory of past experiences which might drag the embodied soul to acts of destruction. "Look not behind or thou are lost." The Dhammapada advocates abandonment of sensuous living: "Retire, with no backward glance, leaving behind the pleasures of sense, leaving all sorrow behind." The backward glance of memory may prove a treacherous snare dragging us back to the backward life.
As we contemplate the saddening events occurring in India and the ominous ones precipitating themselves in the world, we mourn for "the sound of a voice that is still." But is the voice of Gandhiji so inaudible as we fancy? There is feverish activity in many quarters to collect, collate and comment upon his written and spoken words. That is not altogether a bad sign; it will be even better, however, if a little more deliberate and systematic effort is made to attempt the application of his ideas and teachings. In our personal lives as in the public service a definite attempt at applying his doctrines would benefit the practitioner and the country alike.
Fear and courage form a pair. These two emotions stir the blood and impel to action. Fearlessness is named as the
first of the virtues of the Divine nature described in the 16th Chapter of the Gita. Mortal man can gain real Courage only from his immortal Spirit-Soul. To gain that Courage the mortal man has to begin by developing that "fear of the Lord (which) is the beginning of wisdom." Fear of enemies, of strong friends, of overpowering events, of sundry forces which attack us from without, these make cowards of us all — almost all of us. To acquire Courage we have to turn the force of fear within us, to that deeper layer of consciousness where the Fearless Warrior abides. There we learn of the root of our many fears.
The soul's natural fear is of the likelihood of its separation from the God and Gods of living Nature. The neglect of the fear of the Law and of Those who are the Perfect Servants of the Law causes the spread of fears, like the "black and soundless wings of midnight bat." The root of our mundane fears is that false spirit of independence of the mortal who in arrogance fancies that he can manipulate and conquer the sources of all opposing and fearful forces. Hitler's fearlessness was of this type. He died a coward's death, committing suicide, unable to face the undoing of his pride.
Gandhiji's courage was rooted in the fear of God, the Fearless Warrior in us, to whom pain and pleasure alike are avenues of experience. Hitler's courage was shot through and through with mundane fears and it killed his will while it strengthened his obstinacy. Gandhiji was fearless in facing mundane obstacles and mortal weaknesses, the wrath of an Empire as well as that of his countrymen, because he feared the Law of Justice, and so honoured the Law of Mercy. He followed the Law of Divine Fear which brings to birth in man Divine Courage.
Who is there who today is not enveloped by mundane fears — fear of starvation, of nakedness, of poverty; fear of
myriad possessions, of plenty, of prosperity which may be lost; everyone's life is permeated with insecurity and security is sought through armies and aircraft, and in other dubious ways. Courage alone feels security, for through it a man gains his own Soul by losing the whole world. This courage alone is the help of the helpless and in dire calamity it stands its possessor in good stead. Did it not enable Gandhiji to die with understanding in his heart, love in his mind, forgiveness on his lips?
Our civilization is in great danger: will it die as Hitler died or will it live through sacrifices leading perhaps to martyrdom — as Gandhiji still lives?
Shakespeare's advice holds good:
Tis true that we are in great danger;
The greater therefore should our courage be.
Let us reflect upon this martyrdom and memorize by heart its great lessons. That would be the best way of celebrating Gandhiji's birthday.
AMBITION to amass wealth is almost universal. The base on which our civilization rests is finance. The citizen's power, even in a democratic state, lies in his money bags. All great sages, on the other hand, have referred to poverty as a virtue necessary for the higher life; and a new slant on the practice of poverty emerges from a contemplation of the ideal of the Rajarshis. The example of Janaka and others indicates that the Trusteeship idea stressed by the ideal Brahmana of the 20th century, Gandhiji, is not a new one. His favourite Ishopanishad verse, as explained by him, brings out the fact that a yogi and a rishi may dexterously allow the coins of gold and silver to roll for the good of the whole and all.
The amassing of wealth is an art which ordinarily cannot but be classified as a black art. The mighty magic of money is most often performed by those whose motives and methods are neither pure nor unselfish. "Get on, get honour and get honest" — is the accepted plan, and thousands of young men and women ruin themselves in advancing from the one to the next step at each of the three stages. When the last stage arrives, when a few of the rich are ready for living honestly, many among them find their hopes shattered and the fruits of their arduous sowing and reaping turn sour and bitter.
There are, however, hints in the sayings of the sages which teach that the amassing of wealth can be a practice of the art of white magic. Thus in the Chinese Canon of the celebrated Dhammapada we come upon the advice of one of the most practical minds in the history of humanity, who
moved his fellow men to Noble Living. In Canto XIX of the Chinese Text entitled "Old Age" this subject is handled by the Master with his usual consummate skill. Here is the story.
The Enlightened One was residing in the Jatavana. In a nearby village there was a Brahmana school where 500 youths were training themselves in the secret lore of their caste.
They were full of disdain for all others and spoke of the Buddha slightingly: "His talents reach but a little way compared with ours; we ought to challenge him to come and debate with us." So the Master responded and came with his Bhikkhus. While they were waiting there arrived on the scene an old Brahmana and his wife, begging for food. The Master knew the couple of old; he asked the youths if they knew who the old man was. "We know perfectly. He was formerly rich. But took no care of his money, was foolish in using it and now look at him. Fool!" Thereupon the Buddha spoke:
There are four things difficult to do. Those who can do them will certainly obtain merit and escape poverty. What are the four? They are related to the four ages of men:
In the heyday of youth — don't be disdainful. Learn how to earn rightly.
In the prime of life — don't seek sense pleasures. Learn to acquire wealth and not squander it.
In middle age — be Mindful of Charity. It is not easy to dispense Charity righteously.
In old age — seek the Wise in the art of becoming a Trustee of all your possessions.
It is for want of observing these four rules that this old Brahmana gentleman has come to his present condition and is like an old stork sitting beside a dried up pond.
Again, continued the Master, there are four opportunities given to every one to enrich life:
In the heyday of youth — seize the opportunity to make high moral resolves.
In the prime of life — seize the opportunity to plan for a just distribution of riches.
In middle age — seize the opportunity of widening your capacity for gaining more merit.
In old age — seize the opportunity to gain knowledge of the Three Honourable Ones.
On the 2nd of this month of October all true devotees and disciples, many friends and admirers, will celebrate the birthday of Gandhiji. Political followers will salute the Father of the Nation, but will they recall Gandhiji's words and, not satisfied with a verbal repetition, resolve to work toward the goal he points to?
My love, therefore, of nationalism or my idea of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if need be the whole of the country may die, so that the human race may live. There is no room for race hatred there. Let that be our nationalism.
When people come into possession of political power, the interference with the freedom of the people is reduced to a minimum. In other words, a nation that runs its affairs smoothly and effectively without such state interference is truly democratic. When such a condition is absent, the form of government is democratic in name.
Gandhiji always asserted that his political work was ensouled by his religious principles. In formulating and executing our plans — economic, political or social — we all should continuously repeat his advice. Without its inspiration our India is likely to become more and more a totalitarian state. Gandhiji said:
Self-Government means continuous effort to be independent of government control whether it is foreign government or whether it is national.
And to those who speak of Hindu Raj, or who indulge in narrow parochial and provincial notions, here is a reminder:
It has been said that Indian swaraj will be the rule of the majority community, i.e., the Hindus. There could not be a greater mistake than that. If it were to be true, I for one would refuse to call it swaraj and would fight it with all the strength at my command, for to me Hind Swaraj is the rule of all people, is the rule of justice. Whether under that rule the ministers were Hindus or Mussalmans or Sikhs and whether legislatures were exclusively filled by the Hindus or Mussalmans or any other community, they would have to do even-handed justice.
Gandhiji's moral philosophy constitutes a most important part of his message to India and the world of the 20th century:
I claim to have no infallible guidance or inspiration. So far as my experience goes, the claim to infallibility on the part of a human being would be untenable, seeing that inspiration too can come only to one who is free from the action of pairs of opposites, and it will be difficult to judge on a given occasion whether the claim to freedom from pairs of opposites is justified. The claim to infallibility would thus always be a most dangerous claim to make. This, however, does not leave us without any guidance whatsoever. The sum-total of the experience of the sages of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come.
I do not believe that an individual may gain spiritually and those who surround him suffer. I believe in advaita, I believe in the essential unity of man and, for that matter, of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him, and if one man falls, the whole world falls to that extent.
Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realisation. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections. I am painfully conscious of both in me. The silent cry daily goes out to Truth to help me to remove these weaknesses and imperfections of mine. I own my fear of snakes, scorpions, lions, tigers, plague-stricken rats, and fleas, even as I must own fear of evil-looking robbers and murderers. I know that I ought not to fear any of them. But
this is no intellectual feat. It is a feat of the heart. It needs more than a heart of oak to shed all fear except the fear of God.
India's national Karma has been and is being created by all her sons and daughters through their own personal Karma. The Father of the Nation has dealt with numerous aspects of the country's national Karma; but Gandhiji is more than the Father of the Nation — he is a Soul with its own enlightenment, a lover and compassionator of all human souls.
World Karma carries within itself the national Karma of every country including India. The highest duty of a true devotee of Gandhiji should be to raise himself to the plane of that feeling where love for all humanity is generated and whence its radiation will bring to birth in other hearts the recognition that the Human Family is one and indivisible.
Gandhiji practised and exemplified the instruction of the Mahayana School of the Master and followed in the footsteps of the Tathagata. Will not a few of us, at least, sincerely endeavour to copy the example of Gandhiji?
Of teachers there are many; the MASTER-SOUL is one, Alaya, the Universal Soul. Live in that MASTER as Its ray in thee. Live in thy fellows as they live in It.
Our voice is raised for spiritual freedom, and our plea made for enfranchisement from all tyranny, whether of SCIENCE or THEOLOGY.
THESE WORDS came to our mind when we were perusing the reports of many speeches delivered on the day of Gandhiji's Martyrdom — 30 January. Those words were penned by H.P. Blavatsky in the first volume of her first book, Isis Unveiled, published in 1877. She was deeply sensible of the titanic struggle of our civilization that was developing then and which now is in full and fast swing.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the great war of ideas was waging. The two opposing ideas were — the quest and application to life of the laws of the true knowledge of the Immortal Sages, and the pursuing of a course which bifurcated into the opposing blocs of materialistic science and superstitious theology, both dogmatic, each in its own way.
That war of ideas brought forth many vital changes in human thinking. On every plane — scientific and religious, philosophical and social, political and economic — revolution in and of knowledge took place. In the midst of the babel of tongues of that pedagogic revolution a silent spiritual renaissance came to birth and has been silently progressing. The number of natural born mystics was greatly augmented by those who educated themselves in mystical thinking and living. This was before the close of the century. Among poets and novelists and other creative artists mystical expressions became more pronounced. And, furthermore, mystics of rare
quality arose all over the world; some became known but most have remained unrecognized. The process is continuing. India produced its own crop of mystics in the wake of Ram Mohan Roy — Dayanand Saraswati, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Ramanarishi, and the greatest and profoundest of them all — Gandhiji.
The tragedy of Gandhiji's martyrdom was dual: his passing combined the tragedy of Abraham Lincoln, the hero of Nationalism, and that of Jesus Christ, the hero of the Kingdom of the Spirit. It is but natural that India reveres Gandhiji as the Father of the Nation, while the world at large reveres him as the Man of Spirit, the Man of God.
Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit, speaking at Sevagram, struck the true note:
The world today is in greater need of Gandhiji's teachings of peace and universal brotherhood than ever before.
Similarly, India's leader, Jawaharlal Nehru advised the children to try their hardest to unify the people of India despite the many diversities among them of language, culture and religion. Also, he charged the adults to broaden their hearts and to develop national unity. He rightly pointed out that "political freedom is not enough, we have to achieve economic freedom also." But Gandhiji wanted more and ever spoke of spiritual freedom. We missed that note in the reports of Shri Nehru's speeches, although he did point out the truth:
Today is Mahatma Gandhi's day of martyrdom. If we merely express sorrow, then it will have no meaning. We have to look to Mahatma Gandhi's entire life, understand his principles and teachings and learn from his vast achievements.
The economic independence of a politically free state is not enough. Was not that the burden of Gandhiji's teachings?
We must grant that the U.S.A, enjoys economic independence and so does the U.S.S.R., but are the peoples of these States happy, contented, enlightened, ready to enhance intelligently the cause of peace and of one world? As political freedom without economic freedom does not suffice, so both these freedoms without real spiritual freedom do not suffice. We can not do better than quote these words of Gandhiji from Harijan of 2nd January, 1937:
Let there be no mistake about my conception of Swaraj. It is complete independence of alien control and complete economic independence. So at one end you have political independence, at the other economic. It has two other ends. One of them is moral and social, the corresponding end is Dharma, i.e., religion in the highest sense of the term. It includes Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc., but is superior to them all.
By political independence I mean... sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority... Economic independence is not a product of industrialization of the modern or the Western type. Indian economic independence means to me the economic uplift of every individual male and female by his or her own conscious effort... I have no doubt that we can make as good an approach to it as is possible for any nation, not excluding Russia, and that without violence.
SHRI NEHRU, who was addressing the federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said:
When the country is working hard and has got a difficult journey ahead, there is a certain incongruity in some people not doing so and just lazying and displaying and indulging in ostentatious display. It is bad form. It verges on vulgarity that when millions of people are struggling for the barest necessities of living, others should flaunt their wealth — I would say even to possess it is bad form, but certainly this business of flaunting it is excessively bad form.
I am afraid Delhi at the present moment is not a good example to the rest of India or anybody. I should like to tell people in Delhi — and people in Delhi consist of all kinds of official and non-official elements; I refer to both — when I see the type of feasting that is going on here, your cocktail parties and the rest, you will forgive my using the word, I am disgusted.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. There have been whisperings and criticisms for some time past about the social life in the capital of India. Both officials and non-officials have been guilty of what Shri Nehru calls "ostentatious display." Not only the rich but also the not so wealthy who copy the rich are involved; and the latter, unless wrong methods of making money are resorted to, must be piling up debts.
Money gained in the black market, through nepotism, and in other illegitimate ways brings its own reaction — degradation and corruption of moral character. There is the blunting of the voice of conscience which leads to a variety of crimes and sins. Let us hope that the warning words of
the Prime Minister, and the fine example he has been setting all along, will produce the desired result.
Is there not an intimate connection between the method of making money and the way in which it is spent? Ill gotten wealth is tainted wealth and to cleanse it of the taint knowledge of spiritual alchemy is needed; if not cleansed that taint may act as a curse. This psychospiritual alchemy, elevating or degrading money and its possessors is an idea worth reflecting upon, i.e., to be a trustee of money made or inherited for Sattavic Dana, Spiritual Charity, is the one and only way of enjoying wealth.
Our materialistic outlook ignores the psychic influences which surround money. Buying and selling, hoarding and spending, borrowing and lending have not only economic consequences. Money also brings curses, not only blessings; the motives and the methods involved in creating wealth and in enhancing it, produce blessings or curses as the case may be. This is not only true of persons but of business houses and governments as well. Such an idea will be pooh-poohed, but for all the scoffing and the ridicule it is true. There is a moral side to the well-known Gresham's Law in economics — "bad money drives out good."
The Hindus at least ought to enquire into the legend of Kuvera. Having performed austerities for a thousand years, he obtained the boon of becoming the God of Wealth. Kuvera is the keeper of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, and all the treasures of the Earth; besides, he has nine particular Nidhis or treasures — who comprehends the nature of these? But Kuvera, according to the Vedas, is a chief of the evil spirits. He is represented as a white man (leucodarmic) deformed in body, having three legs and only eight teeth. His very name points to his ugliness. He is known by several titles: Dhanapati, Lord of Wealth, Ichchha-Vasu, one who
has Wealth at Will, Ratna-Garbha, Womb of Jewels, and is the King of Yakshas, Kinnaras, and Rakshasas, powers inimical to men. How different are these characteristics from those of the benign Luxmi, the Goddess of Prosperity!
Our legislators, administrators, civil servants, police officers, as well as merchants and scientists, bankers and bakers of different types should read from time to time these old-world narratives, folk-tales, fairy tales, epics and myths which are as true, if not truer than history. Man as a thinker owes it to himself to look at his actions by the light of the mind; not with his passion-fraught mind, Kama-Manas, which can see but glamorous distortions but with his truth-shot mind, the Sat-Chit, which reveals the Good and the Beautiful.
There is much reason to fear that modern systems of administering human Society will prove a commentary on and a justification of Manu's ideals — but by contrast.
THESE WORDS were spoken in 1909 by the venerable Dr. Bhagavan Das. Read today they sound like a prophecy fulfilled. The two wars were a direct result of wrong principles used in governing nations. But even the devastating wars have not awakened the States to change their system of administration built upon false foundations.
In his excellent lectures published under the title, The Science of Social Organisation, Dr. Bhagavan Das has pointed out how modern society can and should be built on the pattern drawn by the great Lawgiver Manu, who is quoted:
Only he who knows the Science of the true and all-embracing Knowledge, only he deserves to be the leader of armies, the wielder of the Rod of Justice, the King of men, the Suzerain and Overlord of Kings.
Even India has forgotten the Laws of Manu, and Gandhiji's interpretation of the Varna-Ashrama Dharma has been more often ignored than followed. Perhaps it was difficult for his many followers to examine that interpretation while they were engaged in the struggle for the country's freedom. But now, in shaping the India of tomorrow, that interpretation should be studied, with a view to its application.
One major difficulty is that Gandhiji's Religion expresses itself through political, social and economic ideas and therefore appears diffusive. The task of the Indian legislator and administrator is to understand and apply those principles;
the understanding of them will be simplified and their application strengthened if they will take the trouble to examine the ideas propounded by Dr. Bhagavan Das in his Science of Social Organization. Not only is his exposition of the important subject of education valuable, but also his teaching on the building of the State. In these days the democratization of the State has been given a wrong direction, not only in Russia but also in all Occidental States, and by those Oriental ones who copy them.
One common defect is related to the principle of equalization. The triad of the French Revolution is not equitably applied — Liberty and Equality outrun Fraternity, and so Liberty turns into license and Equality becomes the womb of self-assertion and ruinous pride. Manu also teaches that Self-Dependence is the mother of happiness and other-dependence the womb of unhappiness. Nature reveals the principle of equality in and through diversity in every kingdom, including the human. Nature is intelligent and counteracts the foolish attempt, say, in Russia, to destroy the capitalist and the bourgeois, or in the U.S.A, to do away with the Socialist and the Communist. Some Indians take pride in pointing to Australian or New Zealand social phenomena, and especially applauding the Russian custom, that the taxi-driver will sit down to dine with his passenger and will drink with him. It is good that humble birth is no handicap and aristocratic birth no advantage. But this kind of equality has another side to it. Our esteemed friend Dr. Bhagavan Das would, we imagine, say:
While it is quite right that the chauffeur should eat at the same restaurant table with the owners of the car and the minister and his wife, and be treated as an equal in this respect, yet he will scarcely be able to carry on equally well the minister's work, or a bank-manager's or a general's, or a science professor's. And that the latter should have to wash
their own dishes and clothes, and cook their own food would mean much loss of time from their proper work. This is where Manu's fourfold scheme comes in and is justified.
In modern India, Fraternity, Universal Brotherhood, should be stressed as of the highest value. Then "equality" of men and women, of human beings and animals, etc., will be correctly understood. Further, liberty will not turn into license, and the talk of rights will be replaced by the due recognition of the Duties of Man. Manu does not advocate untouchability any more than the levelling down of all to a uniform mediocrity when he teaches:
One's own ploughman, an old friend of the family, one's own cowherd, one's own servant, one's own barber, and whoever else may come for refuge and offer service — from the hands of all such Shudras may food be taken.
BODILY HEALTH is valued highly by all. That "Health is Wealth" is true in more than one sense. Great efforts are made by governmental and social organizations to educate the people as to how not only to prevent disease but also to build up health.
As in other spheres, modern knowledge here started off with some false premises. The ancients and their modern heirs like Paracelsus, Mesmer, Du Potet and others were long suspected and scorned. Thanks, however, to the discovery that people who worry seem especially prone to such an ailment as ulcer of the stomach, psycho-somatic medicine has recently gained ground. The Body-Mind interrelation is now universally recognized, and psychiatry has become an acknowledged branch of medicine.
Ancient Sages emphasized the connection between body, psyche and human spirit. The indissoluble links between Man, the Microcosm, and the Supreme the Macrocosm, were thoroughly understood. Health and Holiness, which come from the same root, meaning "whole", were deemed necessary for the progress of man, the mortal, towards the Integrated Immortal, the Master of His Own Being and so the Master of the Living Universe.
Manu and other lawgivers have laid down rules of health for the attainment of this progress: health of the corpus, and of feelings, of thoughts, of will; and of the links which bind these together to create Man, the unit.
One important factor in this programme is what, how and when to eat. In our own times Gandhiji experimented
with various edibles, considering dietetics to be a vital art. But he took the same view that the old Sages did — the body being the temple of the Most High not only what goes into the mouth as food but also what comes out of it as words and tones has to be considered, the latter being more important than the former.
Man must not be looked upon as a body, or a mind, or a soul, but as a unit in which many forces are at work; forces in Nature which, with due co-operation, keep all forms of life in good health.
Pythagoras is reported by Iamblicus and others as taking the same view. His pupils in the Sodality of Krotona were not only instructed in mathematics and music but also in dietetics — what might be eaten and what should not be touched.
Thus, in his Golden Verses:
Eat not the food proscribed,
But use discretion
In lustral rites,
And freeing of thy soul.
Foods should be taken with such discernment that the inner psychological purification is not hindered or halted. For the freeing of the Soul from the bondage of the senses, purificatory rites were undertaken, but their efficacy was lowered by indulgence in proscribed foods.
Pythagoras, however, did not advocate the extreme asceticism of body-torture:
Nor should'st thou thy body's health neglect,
But give it food and drink and exercise
In measure; cause it no distress.
One cause of ill health, disturbing to the concord between brain and mind, is an unbalanced diet, one which does not
maintain the balance between the body and the dweller in the body. Measured exercise aids both assimilation and elimination, thus restoring the equilibrium. There exists a parallelogram of forces of the body, speech, emotions and ideas, and food is a factor of its equilibration. Bodily distress is Nature's signal of the imbalance of forces which have therefore become discordant.
And then there is this verse:
Know this for truth,
And learn to conquer these:
Thy belly first;
Then sloth, luxury and rage.
Proscribed food, taught the Greek Sage, caused inertia. Gluttony is not only overeating but also consuming the wrong quality of food. Sloth results; indifference to life sets in; then luxuries are sought while real needs are neglected. Comfort, ease, luxury and more luxury are followed by frustration, and thus anger, wrath and rage are born.
All diseases emanate from the Great Disease — discord and disturbance between Man and the forces of Nature. Earth, water, fire, air and light are in him as they are in the Macrocosm. His Powers, of Will, of Thought, of Speech and all others are derived from Nature, Mother of all Powers. Man's prerogative is to help Nature by recognizing that his own creative spirit and the Great Spirit are in constant unison, and living accordingly. This is Holiness; this is Health. Turning away from them, man enters the universe of Great Disease.
OURS is a materialistic civilization. This can be determined in numerous ways; but here is a sure and undeniable proof: All men and women today are educated to value very highly the great Without. To the "civilized" world objects seem more important than ideas. Scientific investigators use the power of thought, will and feeling to enrich the world of objects. "Factual and objective" approaches to politics, sociology and education are increasingly called for. Pragmatism, "matter-of-fact treatment of things" and Utilitarianism, which make actions right because they are useful and profitable, are the soul of modern business. If finance is the soul of politics and business, the pride of possession is the spirit of finance.
Even in the sphere of religion also creedalism teaches the Asiatic, the European, the American and the Australasian to look to priest and church, to seek guidance from the Without. The irreligious, the agnostic, the atheist, the rationalist, also seeks guidance in the Without. If God and Heaven are believed in they are "above" while the powers of evil dwell in Hell "below". Even God and Heaven are not one; the former lives and labours in Heaven and so "All's right with the world"; but is it? Modern philosophers, Oriental and Occidental alike, speculate about the Great Reality and they are not able to value truly the instruction of sages and seers, mystics and occultists, for they study but do not practise.
It is reported that a revival of religion is taking place. But it is not religion per se that is being revived but creedalism and sacerdotalism, in truth an expression of a lower and
dangerous psychism. Spiritualists, Psychical Researchers, Pseudo-Theosophists and Pseudo-Mystics, vaguely feeling that the sensuous world is nothing but dust and ashes, are trying to point to the world within and speedily find themselves in the Hell within the blood and brain of man. The babble of the ghosts is taken for the message of the gods! The light which shines from the great ensnarer Mara is valued as the Tathagata Light of Wisdom Supreme. Psychic healers, psychoanalysts, hypnotists, para-psychologists, are becoming the padres and purohits of the neurotic, the morally confused and the mentally defective.
Turning from the Without to seek God and Heaven and Peace and Bliss and Enlightenment within is often not only futile but dangerous when done in ignorance. For within the skull is the brain and it is mistaken for the mind. Mind is mistaken for soul; psyche for nous; soul for spirit and the glamorous luminosity of Hell for the supernal light of Heaven. And above all an anthropomorphic God for the summum bonum. This is the price our "civilization" is paying for rejecting the doctrines of the True Wisdom-Religion and adopting the teachings of religious creeds, Pseudo-Socialism, Marxian Communism, Scientific Materialism. George Santayana was stating a profound truth — "O World, thou choosest not the better part!" Equally right is he in pointing to modern knowledge as
....a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Men of modern knowledge — theologians, philoso-phicules, psychiaters, bomb-builders, nationalist politicians and others of that ilk — are in power, seeing with only one eye, the mind, blind in the other, the heart. Such are the
leaders; how then can humanity be helped? They are teaching humanity to blind the heart and to use only the mind.
Blind belief and superstitions of an earlier era are reincarnating in our cycle as neo-blind belief and new superstitions. "The tender light of faith" will not be found in this Psychic World. Only the pure and compassionate reason can make itself a fit and worthy channel for the Presence of the Divine Spirit. The true World Within is simple, single, impartite, eternal; the radiance of Wisdom and Compassion suffuses it but only the Pure Thinker, the Unfettered man, can osmose it into his own being. Such should be the guides, philosophers and friends of humanity.
The age is revelling at a debauch of phenomena. The same marvels that the spiritualists quote in opposition to the dogmas of eternal perdition and atonement, the Roman Catholics swarm to witness as proofs of their belief in miracles! The sceptics make game of both. Who is to open their eyes and those of their class in other creeds?
In this country Gandhiji set the example of a sincere seeker of the True and had his own Voice within him; he experimented with Truth. It is not given to many to follow that difficult path. His findings are there but they will not satisfy many. What are the first steps for men and women of this decade, that they themselves may shun ignorance and the glamour of world-deception and train their minds to cognize the World of Light within?
ONE of the major differences which mark our civilisation as inferior to some ancient ones is our outlook on discipline. Instead of Self-Discipline we live and labour under discipline imposed upon us from without. When Divine Kings and Raja-Rishis ruled, and even when such wise Emperors as Asoka or Marcus Aurelius reigned, their guidance and instruction engendered Self-Discipline. The seeking of inner contentment and environmental satisfaction was then a pleasure, and brought some happiness born of understanding.
Among the great Gurus who were and are the Fathers of their Chelas it was Self-Discipline which was enjoined. The Philosophy of Discipline is founded upon the knowledge of the divinity of man's higher nature, controlling, purifying and elevating the lower and carnal nature. Those great Gurus were and are Master Psychologists, not experimenting in ignorance and limitations of their own. Nor are they so rash and so misguided as to stir up the animal tendencies of their patients and pupils. Many modern psycho-analysts and psychiatrists do that, mainly because the real character of the Will-Power of the human being is, more or less, a sealed book to them.
Modern schools, colleges, academies and research institutions, consider that they must impose a discipline, through a code of rules and instructions. Revolt rather than conformity is the order of the day. Employees and college students, among others, are suffering from frustrated wills, and resort to retaliation which is more harmful to themselves than to others.
In a general way, in our civilization, indiscipline marks the life of the individual in the home; and a variety of groups is formed, such as social clubs, students' associations, chambers of commerce and trade unions, which sanction indiscipline. Class war results. What looks like success or failure as the outcome of such strife, in reality degrades the moral fibre, not only of the contestants on both sides but also of society as a whole.
Nowadays real Discipline plays a minor part in spiritual life. The Divine Discipline called Yoga offers useful instruction regarding (1) the subduing of the animal psyche, (2) the raising of the human psyche to a nobler attitude, and (3) the creating of a channel through which the Divine Psyche can speak and act. (4) Knowledge is offered for study, (5) meditation is advocated for the purpose of application, (6) the service of fellow souls is recommended as essential for testing one's own knowledge and the efficacy of one's own efforts at right practice. Above all, there is taught (7) the Development of the Will, which is not wholly dependent on the mind, but is separable from it.
These seven steps to Divine Discipline or Yoga are timeless, and as necessary today as in the past for right living, which implies living in and by the power of the One Spirit.
Discipline is manifesting itself in Super-Nature, the Discipline of the One Self in relation to all selves — sub-human, human and superhuman.
This Divine Discipline of the Lord of Yoga encompasses every member of the human kingdom. His Great Sacrifice is primeval and is performed through Ideation-Imagination (Tapas) and Boundless Compassion (Dana or Karuna). Violence is the force which disturbs the smoothness of its flow.
Violence very often is involved in mistakes. Further, violence in a thousand blunders is expressed by men and women unconsciously to themselves, ignorant of the serious harm they are causing. There are cases when, with evil intent, men and women indulge in committing violence; this is the real Sin against the Holy Spirit.
Political legislation, social reform, including educational, and economic adjustments should take into account this important and fundamental principle active in Nature. What was obscured till Gandhiji appeared on the scene and courageously proclaimed, to all and sundry, the mighty and majestic truth of Ahimsa, Non-Violence, is now acknowledged by everyone as the real panacea for all human ills; but how many legislative and reform bodies are there which act upon that beneficent principle?
Individuals must practice non-violence in the daily affairs of life as a matter of soul-discipline, for that is one of the surest ways to build up a non-violent State — the true Welfare State, wherein harm to one is harm to all and beneficence is universal and impersonal.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs's is the kingdom of heaven.
— The Sermon on The Mount
THE EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY of the passing away of Gandhiji, on 30 January, should be an occasion for heart-searching by all those who profess to be his followers. The best way of remembering the Father of the Nation is to reflect upon his martyrdom, to learn by heart its great lessons and to consider afresh what should be done to atone correctly for his sacrifice, so that the blood of this martyred saint might water the Garden of Peace and Unity in the India he loved.
Not only in the political sense is Gandhiji the Father of the Nation. His greatness is not to be measured by the fact that he freed India from foreign bondage; or even by his endeavours and achievements which gave a deathblow to social and religious evils. His greatness is enshrined in his devotion to and growth toward Truth and in the inspiration of his example. It is in his Religion of Life, his moral philosophy, his dynamic programme of Satyagraha, which he did not only preach but actually embodied. Very striking indeed are his own earnestness and sincerity in practising in day-to-day living the eternal principles he enunciated. He showed the grand triumph of the Human Soul. Is Gandhiji's moral philosophy something original and unique? His humility unfolded an insight and he declared:
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-Violence are
as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.
My strength lies in my asking people to do nothing that I have not tried repeatedly in my own life.
It is significant that he called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. They alone do really follow him who are daring enough to experiment with Truth in all walks of life and to follow wherever Truth may lead them. Many have given lip acceptance to Gandhiji's ideas and teachings, but few have made a deliberate attempt to apply them in their personal lives or in public service. Why is it so? Because the knowledge which brings enlightenment and conviction is not pursued. The most pressing need of India, as of the world, is a careful study of the potent ideas of the Gandhian psycho-philosophy. How can Gandhiji's principles be applied in individual or national life if they are not studied and understood? It is through self-discipline of the whole man that true knowledge of moral verities can be absorbed by the mind. Such knowledge is an effective purifier. Even the Buddhas can but point the way which man himself has to walk.
Since Gandhiji's death much has been done to popularize the Gandhian teachings. His written and spoken words have been collected, collated and commented upon; but unless these are "learnt by heart," digested by the mind and assimilated by the consciousness, practical application is impossible. Many of his pregnant and potent pronouncements, the Soul side of Satyagraha, are not generally quoted even by his avowed followers. Why? Are such not quite palatable even to them? Or is their true worth not comprehended?
Can India make history by creating the Gandhian Era, when Russia and China and the U.S.A, and so many other
countries are manufacturing the Era of the Atomic Bomb? This work is for the sincere individual and to him these words of Gandhiji are sure to bring inspiration:
My uniform experience has convinced me, that there is no other God than Truth...the only means for the realization of Truth is Ahimsa To see the universal
and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself.
Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all the walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one's surroundings.
But the path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know, that I have not in me as yet that triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.
LAST MONTH Gandhiji was specially remembered by his devotees, for it was on the 30th of January, 1948, that he died a martyr.
Martyrdom, in one form or another, has been the price paid by many among those who have sought to restore to humanity the knowledge which it had in the Golden Age of Truth, but which was subsequently lost. These have struggled to achieve freedom of thought and moral emancipation for a large mass of people. They promulgated spiritual ideas as opposed to forms, ritualism and dogmatism. In their efforts to act upon the higher thoughts and nobler aspirations of the people towards the living of a higher and nobler life they burst through the limitations of the established religious and social order of conventionalism and conservatism. Ignorance and fanaticism have done to death not a few of mankind's great benefactors, from Socrates and Jesus to Lincoln and Gandhiji. These were great Protestants and wise Reformers — fearless and compassionate with understanding and forgiveness.
The word "martyr" literally means "witness," but during the early days of the Christian era, when many Christians "testified" to the truth of their convictions by sacrificing their lives, the word assumed its modern sense. Again, at the time of the Protestant Reformation which began as a revolutionary challenge to sacerdotal authority, and may thus be regarded as a notable achievement in human liberation, there was a long roll of martyrs who died for their faith. Each century has seen the struggle for freedom continuing on all
fronts, but with changing circumstances emphasis was transferred from one to another of them. Proverbially "it is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr." Fanatics and foolish men and women too have rushed into needless dangers and sought death. In their enthusiasm for martyrdom they became ego-centric, overlooked and forgot their moral duty. The breaking of conventions is wrong when it drags all down to a lower plane of thought; it is true when it raises others to a higher plane of understanding and of action. "Folly loves the martyrdom of fame," said Byron, but such foolish persons are soon forgotten.
This month our thoughts turn to Giordano Bruno, who, on the 17th of February, 1600, was burnt alive for teaching a spiritual philosophy of life. His execution branded the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church with an infamy which lasts even to this day. Bruno died a martyr for repeating the doctrines taught by Pythagoras and the Eastern Sages, who taught when a bigoted religious organization did not exist and narrow creedalism did not flourish. The ideas of Bruno are recognized today as having been "of epochal importance in the history of the human mind," in the fields of science, philosophy and religion. To quote from his profession of faith before the Inquisition:
I hold, in brief, to an infinite universe, that is, an effect of infinite divine power... There are infinite particular worlds similar to this of the earth... All those bodies are worlds, and without number, which thus constitute the infinite universality in an infinite space, and this is called the infinite universe.
Moreover, I place in this universe a universal Providence, by virtue of which everything lives, vegetates and moves, and stands in its perfection, and I understand it in two ways; one, in the mode in which the whole soul is present in the whole and every part of the body, and this I call nature, the shadow and footprint of divinity; the other, the ineffable
mode in which God, by essence, presence, and power, is in all and above all, not as part, not as soul, but in mode inexplicable.
Moreover, I understand all the attributes in divinity to be one and the same thing Together with the theologians and great philosophers, I apprehend three
attributes, power, wisdom, and goodness, or, rather, mind, intellect, love, with which things have first, being through the mind; next, ordered and distinct being, through the intellect; and third, concord and symmetry through love.
Giordano Bruno and others like him, who could not be persuaded to deny what their souls told them to be right, in dying defeated death. The utmost that the axe of the executioner or the fire of the Inquisition could do was to pluck away its garment from the soul.
Let us recognize these noble martyrs. Had it not been for their death-defying devotion to Truth we would not have that freedom of thought, opinion and expression which is ours to enjoy, to use or abuse, according as we have or have not absorbed "the mind, intellect, love" for which Bruno lived and for which he passed through the fire of death to become a Flame of Life.
We are all members of one body, and the man who endeavours to supplant and destroy another man is like the right hand seeking to cut off the left through jealousy. He who kills another slays himself; he who steals from another defrauds himself; he who wounds another maims himself; for others exist in us and we in them.
The rich weary themselves, detest each other, and turn in disgust from life, their wealth itself tortures and burns them, because there are poor in want of bread. The weariness of the rich is the distress of the poor.
— Eliphas Levi
THIS YEAR India's Republic Day has been marred by narrow, divisive and parochial views. The false political philosophy underlying the move to create linguistic provinces stands fully exposed. Further, it has evoked an appreciation in thoughtful Indians of the great and good work of the British rule which unified this vast country in a single whole. This unity we must preserve as our common inheritance.
We are once again experiencing our Nemesis — shall we fight and overcome it or shall we succumb to its evil? We allowed ourselves to be exploited by the forces which divided us; our divisions brought to India the dominance of a foreign power; we suffered but we do not seem to have learnt the lesson. In our newly gained political independence we are again falling prey to the evil force of unbrotherliness. British rule compelled us to accept some democratic ways, for the strong hand of the British Raj enforced law and order. The foreign rulers, however, woefully failed us, inasmuch as real
education in peaceful and brotherly living was not imparted — they themselves neither preached nor practised it. The false racial pride of the British in itself should have awakened the Indian classes, if not the masses, to an appreciation of solidarity and should have united them. It is pitiable that the inner lesson of our political enslavement for a hundred years has been lost on us. Our present task should be to make India a Republic of Brotherhood. Our future progress and services to the world depend on this.
Our very way of living reflects our failure to value the first virtue of true morality, viz., Brotherhood. The minds of our legislators and administrators hold not the truth that unity subsists between all men, in essence and in substance. Our educators themselves need to be educated in this fact.
The reflective mind has little difficulty in perceiving the unity of Nature in spite of the manifold diversities. Man, as a self-conscious intelligence, has also reached the abyss of heterogeneity. His task is to cease to wallow in those murky waters. His first task is the mental perception of the supreme homogeneity of Nature. This will enable him to feel himself as one with his fellows. This should become the duty of all.
The strife and suffering of man are peculiar to his state of self-consciousness. Strife persists because the inner purpose of our self-conscious state is not seen. A dire heresy of separateness influences us. Every type of strife — class and caste conflicts or wars of nations — is a kind of tumour formed by that heresy. That man should persist in his illusion of separateness, in spite of knowledge imparted, is unnatural and alas! in our era has reached an abnormal state.
This illusion has so thoroughly overcome us that even reasoning persons say, "United we stand, divided we fall," they themselves act contrary to their proclamation. Who dissents from the nobility and truth of the doctrine of
Brotherhood? It is something that all desire. Why is it not practised? Because it has been denied in and by man's desire-mind. Whether we recognise it or not, we cannot escape the fact that we are united to all men — mentally, morally and even physically. Modern science points to the ancient truth that the living seeds of which the body is composed are constantly being exchanged. We exude and we take in those living germs which other men have used and stamped with their own influence. The old doctrine of Nitya-Pralaya, constant death, and Nitya-Prabhava, constantly coming to birth, of man's body and mind, has implicit in it the truth of Universal Brotherhood and the Unity of all Nature.
What makes Brotherhood so difficult of realisation for us? Our selfishness — the great expression of the mundane and the mortal. Personal pride, rivalry and retaliation, the sense of possession and of power — these are the ingredients which form the "civilised" man. Such a spirit is visible in the business world, in political life, in the social whirl, in so many other spheres. Our perverted religious beliefs, our faulty system of education, justify and encourage rivalry and competition.
Marcus Aurelius taught:
It is the intellectual part of creation alone that has forgotten its mutual love and unity. Here only we see no waters speeding to rejoin the parent stream. And yet, let man flee as fast as he will, he is none the less overtaken, and Nature is too strong for him. Observation will show the truth of what I say: for the seeker will sooner find earth untouched by earth than a single man absolutely divorced from his fellows.
One sure way to overcome the machinations of personal pride and unbrotherliness is to seek the one true way of altruistic service of our fellow men. Such service should not
be partisan, for a class or a caste or group. It should be disinterested and so universal. The right attitude towards vast Nature as a unified whole will bring to birth right behaviour towards all our fellow men. Service to an individual is service to all, provided our attitude is universal and impersonal. A man is truly strong in himself when he values himself as a part of the whole. He acquires the strength of Harmlessness.
GANDHIJI will be specially remembered and spoken of on the 2nd of this month, that being his Natal Day. The roots of his life and the tree of his being bear the name — Simplicity. How many among us are endeavouring sincerely to live a simple life of self-discipline? In this age sensual pleasures and their continuous enjoyment are the be-all and end-all of life; it looks upon the artificial stimulation and multiplication of wants as the sign of progress; its highest worship is of Mammon. History shows that living the simple life in accordance with Truth and Love has been difficult in any cycle; it is more difficult today. It entails penance and suffering. In the Gandhian philosophy the ideal man is he who has definite moral and social principles of asceticism.
What kind of asceticism did Gandhiji practise and advocate? He was not a hatha-yogi. He saw "no inherent merit in the mortification of the flesh."
Mortification of the flesh is a necessity when the flesh rebels against one; it is a sin when the flesh has come under subjection and can be used as an instrument of service.
He did not believe in running away from the din and disturbances of life. His asceticism consisted in the regulation of desires for the purposes of the soul, in disciplining the body and the mind in the light of reason and intuition. His principle of simplicity made him avoid the two extremes — indulging the senses and forcefully suppressing them.
Objection has often been taken to Gandhiji's love and praise of poverty and suffering. But the fact that these are to
be voluntary endows them with deep soul-significance. No one has fought more valiantly than Gandhiji against the enforced poverty and misery of the Indian masses. What he pleaded for was the deliberate and Voluntary restriction of wants; this promotes inner contentment and happiness in one's environment and increases the capacity for service. His aim was to identify himself with the poorest and the lowliest and thus to realize the feeling of Brotherhood.
Non-possession is allied to non-stealing. A thing not originally stolen must nevertheless be classified stolen property, if one possesses it without needing it. Possession implies provision for the future. A seeker after Truth, a follower of a Law of Love cannot hold anything against tomorrow....If each retained possession only of what he needed, no one would be in want, and all would live in contentment....Take no thought for the morrow is an injunction which finds an echo in almost all the religious scriptures of the world.
Gandhiji held non-possession to be applicable not only to things but also to thoughts. He who harbours impure and selfish thoughts, and craves power or possession, violates simplicity. "A man is the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes." Throwing away possessions without the eradication of desires is not the way; lust of every type is the womb of evil.
The conquest of lust is the highest endeavour of a man or woman's existence. Without overcoming lust man cannot hope to rule over self. And without rule over self there can be no Swaraj or Ram Raj.... No Worker who has not overcome lust can hope to render any genuine service to the cause of Harijans, communal unity, Khadi, cow-protection or village reconstruction.... Brahmacharya must be observed in thought, word and deed Its root meaning may be given thus: that conduct which puts one in touch with God.
Gandhiji's conception of real living can be summed up in this
single phrase: "That conduct which puts one in touch with God." He wrote in his Autobiography:
What I want to achieve — what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years — is self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.
He translated this devotion to God, to the Ishwara-Allah seated in the hearts of all, and zeal for union with Him into love and active service of his fellow men. Service of the suppressed classes is the very essence of the simple life according to Gandhiji. He describes his gospel of selfless action thus:
It is wrong to call me an ascetic. The ideals that regulate my life are presented for acceptance by mankind in general. I have arrived at them by gradual evolution. Every step was thought out, well-considered, and taken with the greatest deliberation. Both my continence and non-violence were derived from personal experience and became necessary in response to the calls of public duty I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.
The manner of using our money or spending our estate enters so far into the business of every day, and makes so great a part of our common life, that our common life must be much of the same nature as our common way of spending our estate. If reason and religion govern us in this, then reason and religion have got great hold of us; but if humour, pride, and fancy, are the measures of our spending our estate, then humour, pride, and fancy, will have the direction of the greatest part of our life...
If you do not spend your money in doing good to others, you must spend it to the hurt of yourself. You will act like a man, that should refuse to give that as a cordial to a sick friend, though he could not drink it himself without inflaming his blood. For this is the case of superfluous money; if you give it to those that want it, it is a cordial; if you spend it upon yourself in something that you do not want, it only inflames and disorders your mind, and makes you worse than you would be without it.
— William Law: A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
OUR ATTITUDE to our possessions, especially money, greatly colours and shapes our life. In our economic civilization money rolls with a tremendous force.
Generally speaking three attitudes are current. By far the most prevalent attitude is to regard wealth and possessions, whether material possessions or possessions such as fame and power, as ends in themselves. And they are used for personal and selfish purposes, for self-glorification and sense-gratification. This in spite of the positive evidences that these alone do not produce happiness. The Gita describes those who are
ever in pursuit of wealth and who even stoop to questionable means to obtain it as "deluded" and "demoniac".
Secondly, there are those who believe that economic prosperity cannot go hand in hand with spiritual progress. And so they take to the begging bowl and call themselves sannyasis. But often their thoughts and feelings dwell on riches and sannyasis turn bhikharis (beggars), a great tax upon the country and a nuisance to society. They are "false pietists of bewildered soul."
Thirdly, there are those who look upon money and possessions as being neither good nor evil in themselves; these are simply objects of trust and avenues of experience. They do not subscribe to the view that poverty is essential for spiritual living; for them asceticism consists in the wise and beneficent use of all things, the right attitude of mind to wealth and poverty. They are the practitioners of the Divine Discipline or Raja-Yoga.
Money can prove a curse and a corruptor of Soul-life if it breeds selfishness or egotism. If used with a righteous motive and a correct method it can prove a blessing. Poverty is as great a curse if it begets vice; if assessed at its proper value as an instrument for the growth of endurance, patience and moral stamina it is a boon and a blessing. It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet there is truth in the words of John Donne that "the incorrigible vagabond is farther from all ways of goodness than the corrupt rich man is". On the other hand King Janaka, Ashoka, Marcus Aurelius and other Raja-Rishis, Royal Sages and Divine Kings, were spiritually rich and used their vast fortunes wisely because dispassionately. Their attitude to wealth was of Trusteeship, not of ownership. The Great Buddha Himself accepted with approval the gifts made to the Sangha.
A little reflection shows that no one can exercise exclusive and absolute ownership over wealth — of bullion, of knowledge or of virtues. Much of the suffering and misery now prevailing could be alleviated if people would understand and approve the Trustee-Dharma. The beneficiary of the trust is collective humanity. One should not wait to become rich to become a trustee. However small one's stock of money, let him begin now. His success does not consist in giving away much, but in using whatever he has in the right way, with discrimination and detachment. Only then will he be a "Conqueror of Wealth."
Money is the emblem of a Power in Nature, personified as the Goddess Laxmi by the Hindus, Amalthæa by the Greeks. The modern world, ignorant of the real nature of that Power, exploits it, and so money instead of healing the wounds corrupts the heart of poor humanity. Those who would be masters of that Power in Nature must learn the correct utility of money, one of the vehicles of that Power. There are wrong forms of charity dealing with mere effects; one must by real personal exertion use money for removing the hidden causes of evil — false knowledge, personal ambitions to gain fame and power, and the like. But above all one should imitate the sweet and abiding virtue of that Power — Bounty. Enlighten all who sit starving not only for the bread which feeds the body, but know not they are starving for the bread of wisdom. When wealth is used in an unselfish way and intelligently, for the elevation of the race-mind, that Power in Nature produces an alchemical change in the good giver of real gifts. The trustee attracts more wealth for his beneficent work.
One of the four classes of men dear to Krishna is of "those who desire possessions." These are soul-possessions, of which sense-possessions are the dark shadow, ugly and
misleading. Soul-possessions grow as they are shared unlike sense-possessions, which diminish in the sharing. What type of possessions should one yearn for? In the profound treatise Light on the Path aspirants are told to "desire possessions above all." It is explained:
But those possessions must belong to the pure soul only, and be possessed therefore by all pure souls equally, and thus be the especial property of the whole only when united. Hunger for such possessions as can be held by the pure soul, that you may accumulate wealth for that united spirit of life which is your only true self.
Wisdom is one such possession; Compassion is another. From Wisdom, it is said, seven branches of knowledge spring; from the womb of Compassion are born the seven divine virtues. For the right comprehension of Wisdom and the practice of Compassion a third factor is necessary — Good Company. The friendship of those who are like-minded and like-hearted helps us to develop the sense of real unity with all that lives and breathes. This is Real Wealth. It is divested of all selfishness, pride, envy. Desiring such wealth and using it for the good of all, we shall be filled with enjoyment and satisfaction.
Only base minds reckon whether one be kin or stranger. Men of noble conduct take the whole world for their home.
— Hitopadesha.
TIME DRAGS on slowly; but time also flies. The ten years since the martyrdom of Gandhiji look very long, but also very short —
so many outer changes have taken place in India and in the world, and so few as far as moral principles are concerned.
Much has been written about Gandhiji's strenuous life and stupendous work, and their magnificent outcome in and for India.
The second day of October is his Natal Day and naturally the minds of all lovers of peace and real human progress will turn to Gandhiji's efforts and achievements.
At this hour the inhuman, unjust and cruel policy of the South African Government affects the hearts of millions of men and women, and world opinion is trying to gather force for adequate expression. It is opportune, therefore, to reflect upon the work of Gandhiji in South Africa. The story of his struggle there between 1893 and 1914 has a message today for the entire international world.
Professor A. Berriedale Keith says that "for the history of the British Commonwealth prime importance must attach to his (Gandhiji's) services in South Africa." Why? Because his programme and policy espoused "the cause of recognition of the value of human personality." This was said in
1939. The results of the Second World War and the agonizing conditions found today everywhere, in East and West alike, make the Edinburgh Professor's words applicable to the human race as a whole. A great loss has already been suffered, for the value of human personality has declined.
Berriedale Keith added that since Gandhiji's departure "a narrow-minded racialism has once more gained increasing power"; if in 1939 this was "a matter for deep regret," what is the position in 1957? The United Nations Organization and the great Powers, the U.S.A, and Britain, Russia and China, are unable to stop the tyranny and immorality involved in the South African Government's crime of apartheid. It seems as if his stupendous achievement in beneficence is now lost.
What about Gandhiji's native land — India? The Hon. Jan H. Hofmeyer, then (in 1939) Chancellor of Witwatersrand University, had insight, for he wrote;
Often there is justice in the working of history. India, though not of its own volition, had given to South Africa one of the most difficult of its problems. South Africa in its turn, likewise not of its own volition, gave to India the idea of civil disobedience.
Karma, the Law of Justice that adjusts effects to causes, implicit in the above-quoted passage, needs proper study, reflection and consideration by all Indians who are lovers of humanity and champions of the building of One World. How is India going to use South Africa's gift referred to in the above quotation? It is not enough that India should negotiate on behalf of the Indians in South Africa and try to alleviate their woes. India must rise to help the millions of Negroes in South Africa. India must put into practice the doctrine of Universal Brotherhood and not only National Brotherhood. India must uphold "the value of human personality"
and not merely the status of her own nationals. The former attitude is ensouled by moral principles; the latter by socio-political expediency. The Black Man is as valuable to civilization as the Brown Man; both the White Man and the Black are brothers to the Brown.
Are we strong enough morally to champion the cause of Human Personality? Are we living in peace and harmony among ourselves? In other words, are we following the principles of Gandhian Morality? if so, to what extent?
Is the Indian Government of today practising moral principles in the formulation of its budget, in its industrial planning, in its language and provincial programmes, in its religious secularism, and in other ways?
Let us search our hearts on the 2nd of October — leaders and led alike. Self-examination in the light of Gandhiji's moral principles will reveal our limitations as well as our achievements. Intellectual honesty will lead us to the insight necessary to purify our national morality. It will bring us the courage to effect self-improvement. This is a greater and holier task than Five-Year Plans, than the starving out of English and the forcing of Hindi on all Indians, than any other projects for outer change, important though some of these may be.
JUST BEFORE the close of the nineteenth century the concepts which made science materialistic received what should have proved to be their deathblow. The discovery of radium and of kindred facts and forces unknown to an earlier generation compelled physicists and chemists, and therefore also physiologists and biologists, to abandon their notions about atoms and ether, about organic and inorganic forms of life.
By 1950 it was evident that the civilized world had failed to read the message of the closing decade of the last century. The discovery of radiation and of other recondite scientific knowledge was put to the use and service of violence, selfishness and pride born of ambition and avarice.
The end of the Second World War left the soul of the world suffering the abject poverty of falsely motivated knowledge. Hiroshima and Nagasaki thundered proclamation of the moral bankruptcy of political leaders and of the many men of science who had allowed themselves to be exploited by the politicians. From Leningrad to Los Angeles and from China to Peru every nation was attacked by the disease of violence.
The story of the failure of our so called civilization continues even now, but the stirrings of a greater power, than that which political kings can wield or scientific genii use are steadily growing stronger. That power is the Still, Small Voice of Deity which has begun to articulate the Divine Intuition in the Heart of Man.
The Influence of the Eternal Now is working in the ever
passing present, but its meaning and message are missed by the majority of our civilized people. The Influence of that Eternal Now focuses on a person here, in an event there, e.g., Gandhiji's personal life speaks not of past, present and future but of that Eternal Now — the manifested aspect of the Absolute Boundless Duration which is named in the Zoroastrian scriptures as Zervane Akarne. Similarly, in the mistaken action which destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there thunders forth the truth of eternity. The former, Gandhiji's soul life, is a bright and noble expression of Immortal Love; Hiroshima, the dark and ignoble expression of Immortal hate. Light and Darkness, the Gita teaches, are the world's eternal ways. The Divine Presence of Ahura-Mazda is there in the action of the Good Spirit, Spenta-Mainyu, as also in that of the Evil, Angra-Mainyu. These two Ahura-Mazda calls "My Spirits."
The spirits primeval are a pair and they together communed. These two differ in thought, in word, in deed, one the enhancer of betterment, the other the fashioner of evil.. The two spirits came together at the dawn — one the maker of life, the other to mar it, and thus they shall be unto the last. (Yasna XXX. 3,4)
I announce to your life's first two spirits of whom the Good accosted the Evil: Never our thoughts, nor creeds, nor understandings, nor beliefs, nor words, nor deeds, nor consciences, nor souls can be the same. (Yasna XLV. 2)
There are unmistakable signs of the Good Spirit of the Most High Ahura-Mazda working in the mind-manas and the intellect-buddhi of the race. We have before us a remarkable volume which in itself is a good sign of our times: Winds of Hiroshima by Ralph Tyler Flewelling. The author is a great-hearted philosopher whose fine work has energized many to a better understanding of the nature of man and
his evolution, and has brought to them a deeper insight to enable them to live by enlightened faith and not by blind belief. He is the Diogenes of the twentieth century and, as Editor of the quarterly Personalist, has served well the cause of culture and of universal brotherhood. Winds of Hiroshima (Bookman Associates, New York) should be in the hands of every publicist and every lover of his fellow men. Its author points to the enemies of modern civilization; what he says about creedal church Christianity is no less applicable to every other creed — Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Islam, etc.:
the elements in Christianity which indicate its aptness as a universal religion, a cosmic faith, must supersede the narrow, bigoted, and unyielding fanaticism which has to a startling degree nullified the plain teachings of the Man of Nazareth. The time is overdue for the reign of the spirit of truth in the hearts of Christians to take the place of trust in the great lie. The age of the Holy Spirit, which is to lead into all truth is at the doorstep of the world, that or destruction. Nothing can bind men together but a Gospel of Love.
But something other than creedal religion stands in the way of true progress:
Not only are we hindered by barriers set in the way of common sympathy among men of varying faiths who yet believe in the existence of Deity, but the situation is further complicated by the appearance of a widely disseminated "religion of irreligion," now, for the first time in history setting itself up to capture the world as a political movement. Professing democracy, it would destroy the very roots of democracy. It rests upon the exploitation of persons by forcing all to a slavery to the state, only substituting slavery to a bureaucracy for its former enslavement of the Tsar. In the name of freedom, freedom is denied. For the sake of persons, personality is smothered.
To fight these two enemies, the leaders of which are dictators, we need more men and women in whom the
Divine Intuition stirs. In every normal intelligence the Sense of Immortality and Divine Selfhood works. It stresses love of Spirit and its Power of Unity in manifestation and there-fore the solidarity of men or universal brotherhood. Says our esteemed author:
Forces are coming into play which violence cannot overcome. These forces lie in the realm of the mental and spiritual, too often held in contempt. These powers do not act, however, apart from the active cooperation of man. The victory will not be to him who can only outrun the excesses of the violent, but to him who, while strong in physical power, resists the temptation to abuse it, and meets such an enemy at the level of his greatest weakness, that of spiritual values.
The propagation of this truth of unfolding the love which casteth our fear and hatred is the highest duty that truly religious men have to perform towards those who are imprisoned by sacerdotalism, materialism and superstition.
There must be new inquiry ab initio concerning the reality of religion, as revolutionary and as searching as the scientific investigations of the day, not so much for the disclosure of old errors as to provide an intelligible vernacular of discourse for a new age. Religion must be viewed from the standpoint of spiritual reality, rather than from religious dialectic, and judged by the fruits of the spirit which it produces. This judgment must be applied to all efforts after the understanding of God, in all systems, with an outlook so broad as to resemble the Divine mercy; as wide as the sea of the Eternal Love. There is no thirty-eighth parallel for the Divine solicitude. For the new age, what any sincere man anywhere has learned of goodness, beauty, and truth in the meaning of life, is a matter of prime importance.
The volume has a special message for Indians. Gandhiji, paid lip-tribute by millions as the Father of the Nation, has not yet received the reverence of their hearts; very few have the reverence to worship the Ideal which his life embodied; millions of us have still to prove ourselves worthy of kinship
with him. Worship by lips will hinder — it has already begun to do so — but worship by a contrite, humble and truthful heart will help not only the worshipper but also his neighbours the world over.
MONEY, which wields such a tremendous influence in mundane affairs, has a moral counterpart in the world of Spirit. Several ancient texts refer to wealth of mind as superior to silver and gold; and again refer to soul wealth as the highest type of riches.
The world recognises the superiority of the cultured mind compared to an illiterate and an uneducated mind. But it does not see that there is something higher than mind. Therefore the wealth of knowledge is used by the educated mind to build up a bank account instead of creating the fund of moral power, intuitive perception, true love and heart philanthropy.
It is said in Sanatsujatiya that the real twice-born are not possessors of great material wealth, but rank first and are unrivalled in Knowledge of the Vedas; they are not to be shaken. Such may well be valued as forms of Brahma, for they have creative ability. They have Brahmic wealth, with which they spread moral power and spiritual beneficence, awakening all who aspire to possess that wealth.
Education is considered to be the highest asset for the building up of the prosperous State. But our educationists are far from the right perception of true principles. Our youths are not taught the truth that each one has been the maker of his destiny in the past and is so now. Schools and colleges, universities and academies, turn out "educated" young men and women by the thousand. They use their talent mostly for making money and getting on in life, so that they may become prosperous. Such use the motion of
knowledge to hook money for a "happy" existence, and there are those — not a negligible number — who, failing to gain wealth honestly, use crooked ways and become possessors of filthy lucre.
Everyone knows that most millionaires are not healthy; nor are they true wealthy, for they are not wise. He who uses his knowledge to gain mundane prosperity for himself lowers himself. Missing out the real meaning and purpose of human evolution, he becomes selfish and makes of himself an egotist.
Mental education should be used not only to improve personal life but also to rise spiritually and bring to birth the truly Moral Man. The educated man who has not learnt the value and the use of moral perception, of higher values of unselfishness and sacrifice, is said to have lived in vain. Our mental wealth should be used to procure spiritual wealth. The mind must seek its own higher aspect. The ordinary educated man who lives to amass money lives by the wandering power of the octopus mind; he does not know that there is within him the controller of the animal mind. The professional man, the man of business, the civil servant, are very impractical. In running after silver and gold they prostitute the mind; they miss out the securing of the Moral Power of the soul, wherein is real strength, joy and resourcefulness.
The same text, Sanatsujatiya, asks: "What sin is not committed by that thief, who steals away his own Self, who regards that Self as one thing, when it is a different thing?"
We drag down the Self of Truth-Beauty-Virtue and exploit it for worldly ends. We need to change our point of vision. A highly practical truth is enshrined in what sounds like a very impractical proposition: the educated man should move his mind to gain knowledge about his own higher mind
wherein is the wealth he is looking for. That man should know himself is an old-world maxim, which all of us quote but which only a few care to probe.
Among the people dear to Krishna are those who desire possessions (Gita, VII. 16). Seeking the higher wealth, we gain all that we are looking for — and more. We unfold Moral Power which is resourceful. Seeking material wealth, fame and power, we enslave and embitter ourselves. The burdens of material possessions, the shining mark they offer to avarice, pride, envy and misfortune, weigh down and haunt the rich until suicides are more frequent among them than among the poor. What then is the way out? The aspirant to the Higher Life has his own formula — "Desire possessions above all; but desire only those possessions which can be enjoyed by all pure souls equally." He who seeks real possessions, to have and to hold by the soul's franchise, envieth not and is never proud, for he knows well that the things that he prizes are the heritage of humanity.
THE FESTIVAL of the Spring Equinox has been universally celebrated and old historical records refer to it. Perhaps the most ancient, going back to periods of myth and legend, is the celebration of the festival in ancient Iran.
The festival, even today well known as Jamshid-i-Nauruz, is traditionally related to Shah Jamshid, the Divine King who taught humanity its arts and sciences.
"Mine is the Grace," he said, "I am both King
And Archimage, I will restrain ill-doers
And make for souls a path toward the light."
His wonderful achievements are narrated in the Shahnama of Firdausi and the myth of the Avesta Vendidad also tells his tale. During his reign of seven hundred years he laid the foundations of human progress, continuing the work of his predecessors, Gaiumart, Siyamak and Hushang.
Hushang's wisdom imparted to the race lines of knowledge, and among these how to make and use fire — always considered a major achievement in human evolution.
That night he made a mighty blaze, he stood
Around it with his men and held the feast
Called Sada.
This celebration by Hushang is the primeval foundation on which Jamshid reared the festival of Nauruz. After his wondrous exploits
The world assembled round his throne in wonder
At his resplendent fortune, while on him
The people scattered jewels, and bestowed
Upon the day the name of New Year's Day.
It happened to be the Day of the Spring Equinox.
And ever since that time that glorious day
Remaineth the memorial of that Shah.
And throughout long ages people have been reminded about the importance of the feast and festival of Nauruz.
Heed the passages —
The feast of Sada and the fanes of fire
With glorious Nauruz.
And in another place the great epic records that people
Flocked to the fire fanes, to the halls where
New Year's Day and Sada feast were kept.
The Fire Fanes, the Sada Feast and Jamshid-i-Nauruz form a triad, and it is not without its significance. The Birth of Fire in the reign of Hushang and the establishment of the Sada Feast on that occasion were made to form part of the celebration of the New Year's Day — the Day of the Spring Equinox.
"Perpetual Spring is the Persian's notion of a perfect climate," it is said. And the Day of the Spring Equinox has remained sacred with the learned and favourite with the masses. It offered spiritual uplift to the former and joyous entertainment to the latter.
The poet and the mystic feel, while the philosopher and the Occultist know, that all physical-plane phenomena are reflections projected from psychic and spiritual worlds. Seasons are no exception, and the Spring season on earth connected with sowing and germination is an outward and visible sign of an inward psycho-spiritual motion:
the flowering on the human plant of virtues — beautiful, colourful, fragrant — is natural to the Spring Season.
Sri Krishna names the season of Spring as one of his divine excellences. The Christians celebrate the paschal season which begins with the month of Mary, "the month when nature decks herself with fruits and flowers, the harbinger of a bright harvest." And so the devout followers are told: "Let us, too, begin for a golden harvest. In this month the dead come up out of the earth, figuring the resurrection; so, when we are kneeling before the altar of the holy and immaculate Mary, let us remember that there should come forth from us the bud of promise, the flower of hope, and the imperishable fruit of sanctity."
H.P. Blavatsky, commenting upon these words of Dr. Preston, says:
This is precisely the substratum of the Pagan thought, which, among other meanings, emblematized.... the resurrection of all nature inspiring, the germination of seeds that had been dead and sleeping during winter.
The Birth of Fire symbolizes the Promethean gift of self-consciousness to man by the Agnishwatta Pitris of the Hindu tradition. It represents the power of right resolve which the birth of self-consciousness implies; moral choice and responsibility, aspects of the free will in man, enable him to make the greatest of right resolves — to seek the Wisdom of the Spirit and of the Sages. This right resolve is the conception before the second birth is made at the time of the Winter Solstice and it has to be looked after and nourished.
This Soul nourishment is what the Sada Feast, established by Hushang and accepted by Jamshid, represents. As at the festival of Christmas, mundane merrymaking — the killing of turkeys, the making of puddings, etc. — takes place at Jamshid-i-Nauruz; there is the drinking of faluda and the consuming of kulfi, etc.
The nourishment of knowledge which sweetens the personal nature, the drink of love which creates the feeling of universal brotherliness, are overlooked today, but the ancient festival points to the truth.
On the day of the Spring Equinox, day and night are of equal duration; heat and cold are balanced and both are enjoyable and helpful.
The spiritual root of the seasons and its psychic projection are full of harmony and rhythm in Nature, and so would be the seasons on the physical plane; but man with his weak and misdirected free will, his lack of true knowledge, his attachment to sense life, his falling prey to world deceptions, exploits and robs Nature and she, ever compassionate, tries to restore the disturbed harmony through earthquakes and floods and snow-storms and hurricanes. Divine wisdom teaches that such cataclysms and catastrophes are man-made; modern knowledge laughs at this, but Gandhiji's intuition sensed this truth — "I want you to be superstitious enough with me to believe that the earthquake is a Divine chastisement for the great sin we have committed and are still committing."
The phenomenon of the Resurrection of the mortal into Immortality is a grand verity which the season of Spring signifies. The duty of man to his own Higher Self and to the Most High is to weed out the blemishes of his animal nature, to tend the growth and improvement of his human virtues, to be faithful to his spiritual pedigree and become the Immortal, wearing the Celestial Robe of Light and Glory. He may not be able to attain to it in this incarnation, but if he remembers that Eternal Spring represents a verity he will endeavour to make himself worthy of inheriting it in the near future.
We who break tradition, we believe mankind is one,
Humanity will only rise when nations decompose.
It is by constant suffering that man can conquer pain,
Thus too much pain itself has put an end to all my woes.
The cities that ye see today, tomorrow will in ruins lie,
The Tears that flow from Ghalib's eye are words of one who knows.
— Ghalib
ON the fifteenth of this month India will celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the political freedom she won in 1947. Five months later Gandhiji, the chief who had won that freedom, was martyred. His murderer was a Maharashtrian, a religious fanatic ensouled by hatred and ignorance, who fancied himself a patriot. What kind of patriotism was this?
If Gandhiji was a channel for the forces of love and constructive labour and a spokesman for millions, his murderer was a medium for the forces of religious, provincial and national dogmatism, infused into him by a few narrowminded and mean-hearted people.
"Light and darkness are the world's eternal ways," says the Gita, and, while the drama of Indian Independence displays the White Light of Truth and Harmlessness on the one side, it is stained by the black, violent evil on the other.
Patriotism of the right type ensouled Gandhiji and his true devotees and followers. He said:
For me patriotism is the same as humanity. I am patriotic because I am human and humane. It is not exclusive. I will not hurt England or
Germany to serve India. Imperialism has no place in my scheme of life. The law of a patriot is not different from that of the patriarch. And a patriot is so much the less a patriot if he is a lukewarm humanitarian. There is no conflict between private and political law.
At the present hour India is suffering from the fratricidal spirit of false patriotism. To begin with, there is inimical feeling towards things foreign; for example, those who advocate the use of English as the official language are dubbed unpatriotic and those who put the good of the country above that of their city or province are condemned. In the State declared to be secular, creedal rivalries flourish. And so on and so forth, and all in the name of patriotism. Such patriotism is of the dark side; it is parochial and, therefore, violent. In scathing language Leo Tolstoy has described this false type of patriotism:
Every government explains its existence and justifies all its violence on the ground that if it were not there things would be worse. Having convinced the people that they are in danger, the governments dominate them. And when the peoples are dominated by governments the latter compel them to attack each other. And in this way a belief in the governments' assurance of the danger of attacks by other nations is confirmed among the peoples.
Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed.
Patriotism is slavery.
The subjection of men to government will always continue as long as patriotism exists, for every ruling power rests on patriotism — on the readiness of men to submit to power for the sake of the defence of their
own people and country, that is, their State, from the dangers supposed to threaten them.
These views of the great humanitarian compeer of Gandhiji are worthy of serious study and calm reflection.
Has the India of 1958 something to learn from the ideal of Ahimsa and the ideas of Gandhiji and Tolstoy? Or is India to continue in its parochial mentality? Should no serious effort be made to instil into Indian hearts and minds the grand words of William Lloyd Garrison: "Our country is the World; our countrymen are all mankind"?
The real strength and supremacy of a state rests not on its wealth, not on its trade, not even on its education and culture. By its embodiment and expression of moral principles does a state show its real power. In the international world it is by its justice or injustice that any State is to be recognised as great or small, powerful or weak, good or wicked — justice not only within its own geographical boundary and to its own citizens, but mighty and magnanimous justice to all nations, to all peoples. Justice free from animosity and hatred, implies justice free from selfishness, justice charged by the spirit of wisdom which "sweetly ordereth all things."
On this occasion, before the celebration of Independence Day, it would be wise for all among the rulers and at least some among the ruled to seek for the causes for the prevailing parochialism, corruption, nepotism and mean parti pris. Devi Bhagavata asks: "How shall there be in the Samsara an uncaused action?"
What is the real problem of India? It is not to be located in the north in Kashmir, or in the south in Kerala State — these are effects and symptoms. Not in the language disputes, fraught with bitterness alike in Tamil Nadu and in Uttar Pradesh. Not in provincial rivalry, silly and unprofitable, as
between "Maha Gujarat" and "Samyukta Maharashtra." These effects will not be removed by technology, by mechanical and engineering skill, by several five-year plans.
A great proclamation is made in the old world History of Ch'u — "The State in Ch'u has no treasure, doing good is our only treasure." Not the force of greatness but the spirit of goodness should be brought forth. And so again the Wisdom of Ancient China proclaims: "The material prosperity of a nation does not consist in its material prosperity, but in righteousness." Men of affairs on Capitol Hill in Washington or in Westminster in London may smile smugly at these words, but for all that they are impractical. It was the politicians at Paris and Berlin, at London and Washington, who made wars and created Lenin and his cohorts, and not only the autocratic Czars. Let not Delhi and India follow their pattern, their rule of life, but let us look to the truly practical men — Confucius and Christ, Lao Tzu and Buddha, Pythagoras and Plato, and their modern pupils like Thoreau and Garrison, Tolstoy and Gandhiji.
Gandhiji is acclaimed everywhere as the Father of the Nation. Is not the true way to honour his memory to adopt fearlessly his policy of non-violence in State affairs — in our national planning and our international relationships? India produced Gandhiji, the man of peace, the patriot who loved all humanity, whose murder made him a martyr; we must salute him, his peers and his teachers — the Long Line of Cosmopolitan Souls, the Real Servants of the Human Race.
Thus shall the India of today realise the Will to Real Freedom.
AS THESE lines are being penned the news from the four quarters of the globe is disconcerting as well as disappointing. In the names of their respective governments the heads of States, supported by their like-minded colleagues, have been taking steps which threaten to throw the good of the world into the melting pot of war and strife, the apotheosis of evil. We doubt whether the masses of the U.S.A, or of the U.S.S.R., of Great Britain or of France, would support these actions if the truth were known.
From the moral point of view, in what measure is the Democratic side, represented by the U.S.A, superior to the tyrannical Autocracy of the U.S.S.R? Democratic States are superior to Totalitarian States because in them there are liberty of speech and action, impartial courts of law and justice free from executive interference, respect for the dignity of man, the voter, and clean methods of election to the legislatures. All these go to make the Democratic side more moral and truly humanitarian. How is it, then, that representatives of the Democratic side, the U.S.A and her friends, lapse into the ways of the Totalitarian States represented by the U.S.S.R. and her satellites? And an even more important question, What power and influence do the leaders of the Democratic States wield over their own population?
There is little doubt in our minds that the Democratic States do stand for a liberty of thought and of speech which is ruthlessly suppressed under the Totalitarian regimes. It seems to us, however, that the Democratic States are still in the grip of the evils of Nationalism, Which today is out of
place, out of line with evolution; a thing of the dead past. Nationalism is like a spook, a preta, masquerading as the Divine Spirit, as in the seance room, from the limbo of soulless forms. The so-called "Spirits" of the dead tempt and corrupt the minds of men. So also, today the Kama-rupa, the soulless form, of dead Nationalism tempts and corrupts the mass-mind of the Democracies. That soulless passion-form or Kama-rupa has succeeded in being accepted as the soul of the Totalitarian States. A nefarious type of Nationalism flourishes there, and the U.S.A, and her friends should resist intelligently the absorption and assimilation of those morbific forces of an effete Nationalism.
The cycle of Nationalism has run its course; the wheel of progress and of evolution, the Great Chakra of Vishnu, has rolled forward to enter the cycle of Internationalism, of One World; of Humanitarianism and Universal Brotherhood; of Cosmopolitanism and the true religion of Right and Righteous Living.
The Democracies should unite in the first instance, not to fight Russian and other autocracies, but to labour constructively for the creation of the real "Parliament of man, the Federation of the World." There is rivalry between Democratic States. Totalitarianism has for its motto — "Might is Right"; the freedom-loving Democracies must cleanse themselves of every taint of that impure motto. Justice and Mercy are two major aspects of the Law of Nemesis or Karma, and the Democracies should be stricter than they now are in the self-discipline of developing and expressing the light of justice and the power of mercy.
This, we feel, is what our Prime Minister Nehru has at heart. His many efforts for the good of the world at large are directed to creating a mental and moral atmosphere of pure brotherhood among all nations, all the peoples of the world.
His greatest enemies are those of his own household — those narrow-minded and unintelligent-hearted persons who are engaged in waging fratricidal strife on more than one front. Provincialism, casteism and creedalism are dogmatic and fanatic forces of evil.
We must all work for a United India in a United World. From this point of view Adult Education in India is of greater importance than even school and college education. The Humanities are more needed than technology is in the civilization of today. The Religion of Life and not organized religions; Soul education which enables man to master the machine which at present is enslaving man; the conviction of the need for a Brotherhood in actu and altruism not simply in name; these are some of the means to bring into being One World, One Humanity.
Selfishness, indifference and brutality can never be the normal state of the race — to believe so would be to despair of humanity, and it is said, "God will forgive thee all but thy despair."
NO MORE, ALAS! is it our fortune to publish the monthly essay that expressed, ever since the founding of The Aryan Path, its essential inspiration. For "Shravaka" has withdrawn into the Silence for whose Voice he found words, and we are bereft of that sage mediatorship. A little over nine years ago he gave his series a title, and himself a signature. To those who have a feeling for spiritual things his choice of these was like the giving of a well-known password and sign:
The "Doctrine of the Eye" is for the crowd; the "Doctrine of the Heart" for the elect. The first repeat in pride: "Behold, I know": the last, they who in humbleness have garnered, low confess:
"Thus Have I Heard."
Not in this series of essays alone but in all his long labours the implication is present: "Thus Have I Heard." At a boyish age he felt his vocation to Theosophy, the ancient Wisdom-Religion, which he found set forth in H.P. Blavatsky's great book: The Secret Doctrine. A long and single-minded life he devoted to the study, the practice and the teaching of that Wisdom, in unaspersed loyalty to its Masters and Their Messenger in our time. Out of that loyalty sprang his lifework: the gathering together of sparks scattered about India into a flame to which might come real seekers for real Theosophy. His thought was always, "May there be many such in this ancient land where Theosophy flourished in yugas gone by till today the 'mighty art is lost."
Many came to him, for his life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that, standing firmly in his own
place, he met all men in whatsoever way they approached him. Some were delvers into old Shastras. Without controversy, he dropped hints of where illumination might be found. Others who came with no faith in any doctrine, but only a love for the poetry of the world, found that he loved their love with a wiser love, and learnt from him to see the intuitive Wisdom of the poets; and so they passed into the Way.
Not his way; for he pointed to Robert Crosbie, who founded the United Lodge of Theosophists; to Crosbie's teacher, the Greatest of the Exiles, W.Q. Judge; to his teacher, the Messenger of the Masters of Wisdom, H.P. Blavatsky; to her Teachers, ultimately, to Whom leads the Way. In a personal letter he compared himself (for there was no owlish solemnity in his high seriousness) to a station-master. If a man had chosen his destination well, he might always expect help in getting on to the right line. Who knows how far along the Route the Station-master had been? From the outside one saw only a noble and unselfish man who had laboured effectively in the divine task of making pure Theosophy known again in India.
He spoke of himself seldom, and then only for a reason. Others he treated with a grave kindness, a princely courtesy of that high kind which does not overawe though it never descends to unnecessary familiarities. His humour had a way of setting people at their ease with the most exalted subjects, and when he made gentle fun of one, the human soul in one laughed with him at one's own personality.
All his immense work tended to that; to help the imprisoned splendour set itself free. In 1918, speaking to the first labour union in India, which he founded, he said:
There are many among you who think that we people are something big, something special, something that you are not. I want you to give
up that idea. All human beings, men and women, are divine. There is God within each one of you and that God is your only helper, the only person who will bless you, instruct you, inspire you, show the way out of darkness unto light. You are all Gods; you are all divine.
He saw this divinity of man in the true heights of all arts, sciences, philosophies, as it was the second object of H.P. Blavatsky's Theosophical Movement to show it. To bring appreciation of these nearer the common man is the object of the Indian Institute of World Culture, which he founded. His last Address to it was entitled "Our Soul's Need." It is reprinted in the pages following, that in its quiet, urgent sincerity our readers may behold the Man who gave it.
ON THE 11TH OF AUGUST 1945, as the first of the Foundation Day Addresses of this Institute was being delivered, there came the good news heralding the dawn of peace over a war-torn world.
On that, our Foundation Day, neither the UNO nor the UNESCO had come into existence. But the ideas for which they now stand already existed and we of the Indian Institute of World Culture made use of them in inaugurating our Institute.
This is the Fourteenth Foundation Day Address and it falls to my lot to deliver it — perhaps the last of such addresses from me, for this body is getting old; but we have now good counsellors on our Managing Committee, good helpers and servers on our staff, and friends in many parts of the world. The seed sown on the 11th of August 1945 has grown into a sturdy tree, capable of giving shade and shelter to many. For this, a word of thanks must go to our workers and colleagues, the foremost among whom was our never-to-be-forgotten helper, Dr. L.S. Doraiswamy.
My mind's eye has roved over several fields, seeking an appropriate subject for this year's Foundation Day Address. The Cycle of Necessity, called by the Greeks kuklos, has brought humanity to a decisive point in its evolution. Vishnu's Chakra, which points to humanity's march of progress, also expresses the same very important truth. A quiet study of the Cycle of Human Unfoldment convinces us — will, we feel sure, convince any dispassionate student who looks into this problem — that the hand of the Clock of
Karma points to the dawn of the emergence of man, qua man, man the individual, the Common Man. That expression, however, is often wrongly used, for what we mean by "the Common Man" is man in possession of a power common to all. That is, every man, every woman, every child who comes into this world by the gateway of birth with the Light Supernal which lighteth him or her.
Through centuries and yugas man has been learning the lessons of life through the avenues of dependence and conflict — dependence on others and conflict with others. The great saying of the Mighty Lawgiver Manu, that "Self-dependence is Happiness, other-dependence is Misery," has been applied in different senses in different eras. Thus, in our political struggle for India's freedom this saying was used by some of us who belonged to the Home Rule League. We explained how Self-Rule, the rule of India by Indians, would be happiness, while British Rule brought us the misery of other-dependence.
With India's winning of political sovereignty a new era commenced and the world also has reached, in its life-movement, a new day. It is the yuga when each human being has to learn Self-dependence, so that he is not dependent on other men, on his Government or political party, on social servants, or on other similar factors. To face difficulties, to unfold resourcefulness, to learn to stand on our own feet, to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow — all this takes us away from abject dependence on others, frees us from enslavement of every kind. This idea we should try to propagate and to popularise in the Indian Institute of World Culture.
We speak of Self-dependence. But dependence on which self? We have the selfish self of passion and anger and greed — the egotistic self whose will is ruled by pride. It is not dependence on that lower or carnal self which Manu recommends.
He refers to the One Eternal Self, the Great Self, the Mahat-Atman whose ray abides in the heart of each, and which is the Divine Self of every man. However fallen a person may be, the Light of Divinity is there within him. Within the skin of a leper a God sits; every sinner is a potential saint; every ignoramus of today is a Sage of tomorrow.
This idea gives to the very concept of other-dependence a new meaning, a new function. But the amplification of that idea would take us away from our field of study.
The Divinity within each of us — what a grand, energising and inspiring truth it is! But how few, how very few, realise the stimulating fact! It is well said:
Alas, alas, that all men should possess Alaya, be one with the Great Soul, and that possessing it Alaya should so little avail them!
Behold how like the moon, reflected in the tranquil waves, Alaya is reflected by the small and by the great, is mirrored in the tiniest atoms, yet fails to reach the heart of all. Alas, that so few men should profit by the gift, the priceless boon of learning truth, the right perception of existing things, the knowledge of the non-existent!
The great Gift which the Gods have transmitted to us, from the Divine Mind — this gift is not used, much less appreciated.
It is said, "Man does not live by bread alone." But, in this which is called the Economic Civilisation, money which buys bread has become the Supreme God. More money, to buy not only bread, but cakes also! What is called a high standard of living — our friends in the U.S.A, call it "the American way of life" — means furnished houses, rich raiment, foods tasty to the palate, visits to cinemas and the like. All these would be perfectly in order were housing and furniture marked by cleanliness; were clothes clean and not gaudy and ostenta-
tious — remember, "the apparel oft proclaims the man" — but suited to the environmental conditions and the purse. Foods should be not only for the palate, but also for the nourishment of the whole body; cinemas are places of recreation, but recreation means "re-creation"; do the pictures we see, and are sometimes thrilled by, re-create our mentality, our morality?
We in modern India are suffering from the reverse of what is called a high standard of living. We of this land fancy that our way represents the way of the simple life; that we are a spiritual people. Our way of life is not simple and it has brought us bodily diseases and mental debility. We are not a spiritual people, but a spiritually fallen people; the only fact behind the prevailing superstition is that Aryavarta of old has left us the superb texts of spiritual wisdom. But how many are educated to understand them and, among the educated, how many are capable of appreciating the Noble Wisdom of the Great Aryas?
To live in an unsanitary hovel is not to live the simple life; to live in a clean hut is, and correspondentially it is better to live in a clean body and an alert mind than in an ailing body and an argumentative or fat mind, unable to jump over any idea.
We reminded ourselves that man does not live by bread alone; then by what else and more than by bread? What is called a high standard of living implies, does it not, multiplying our physical-plane wants for the body? This may be described as the horizontal progress of the human personality which generates rivalry and competition, ambition and greed, giving birth ultimately to discontent, disappointment, and even despair. There is another line of progress, which may be described as vertical — from the senses to the brain, from the brain to the heart, from the heart to very Soul
within. It is the pointing to this vertical line of evolution which is the special dharma of this Institute.
The care of the Soul and the Soul's instruments requires a higher kind of knowledge; knowledge is the key to personal and physical-plane success; but it is Wisdom which is necessary for seeking the Soul and securing its help and co-operation, its guidance for the mind, its inspiration for the heart.
Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men,
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
The Greek Oracle at Delphi commanded, "Man, know thyself!"; and in this ancient land the cry went up: "Tat tvam asi" — "Thou art That." But the masses of men and women have gone on without any serious and sincere attempt to ascertain who or what man is. Similarly, the masses of the Indian people, in spite of the Upanishads and the Gita, in spite of the Dhammapada and other superb Buddhistic texts, have gone on as if Atman were nought, the mind were material and the heart the seat of passion and the love of pelf.
The Indian Institute of World Culture has for its great and chief aim the education which takes the human heart to understanding, the human mind to right morality and the human hands to efficiency — accuracy and punctuality and purity.
The speciality of our Institute's programme is the spreading of humane ideas. Mere technical and mechanistic thoughts will not serve our people or the world at large. It is the mellowing influence of the classics — the myths, the epics, poetry, etc., which the brain and blood of the men of today are craving, perhaps unconsciously to themselves. We appreciate the work of the great scientists in every field, but by no means do we consider that modern science possesses
the last word of Knowledge. Its knowledge and its methods may bring more bread and better bread, but they bring also more bombs, poisonous and devastating. Since man will die by bombs and cannot live by bread alone, therefore humanism, the classic subjects which touch and train not only the senses and the mind but also the heart and the Soul, are of greater value and importance. To spread such thoughts should be one of our aims.
It is my purpose today to present to you some ideas on this highly important topic which pertain to our future progress. Allow me to do so and, to begin with, do not consider the theme to be impractical. The present-day world conditions are a direct result of the "practicality" of the politician and the legislator in every land. There is no time for me to offer facts and figures and statistics to show how common is juvenile delinquency, how wide-spread are the diseases of the adult, how many the immoralities, as witness the venereal diseases, alcoholism, the psychoses and the neuroses. Condemning others will not bring us wisdom. The search for the Soul, the living of the life of the Soul, is practical, most practical, and also creative of national and international peace and good will for all humanity.
It is sometimes said that every man is a philosopher, i.e., every man lives according to his own understanding, the power of his own consciousness. This, in a way, is true. But does this idea not carry the implication that the culture of that consciousness, that understanding, is a pressing need of all people today?
What definite knowledge can we supply, in however small a measure, through the channel of this, our beloved Institute, so that those who come here may benefit from it and start their journey Soul-ward? We aspire that all of us
should seek the Light of Wisdom which unfolds the power of Contentment and of Peace; and the strength of the Self.
The Ancient Philosophy, that which antedates the Vedas themselves, offers a Way of Life and some of its very definite principles we should now like to consider.
To begin with the doctrine of Evolution: the Ancient Sages did not teach Evolution as modern science does. Its picture of progression presents the truth of Emanation. What is Emanation? How is it different from modern science's doctrine of Evolution? Emanation is not opposed to Evolution. The Emanationists hold that nothing can be evolved — or, as the word means, be unwombed or born — unless it has first been involved, thus indicating that life is from a spiritual potency above the whole. The doctrine of Emanation deserves study by every sincere and serious mind.
Emanations imply that from the One Supreme emanate Intelligences of different grades on the side of consciousness and also the worlds of graded substances on the side of Matter: Lords of Light and of Wisdom, Great Buddhas and Dhyanis and Rishis; and then, grade by grade, lesser intelligences and, appropriate to each host of intelligences, worlds in which these function. Thus, e.g., the well-known Three Lokas — Spiritual, Psychic and Material — are worlds of substances of different grades in which intelligences live and function and evolve.
Then the second implication is this: On this physical, material globe which we call Earth, all intelligences, from the highest to the lowest, live and labour and evolve. Here we find living Great Souls, Mahatmas, labouring for human welfare and helping Nature in Their own seclusion and by Their own silence. And there are on Earth geniuses, mystics, poets, philosophers, mathematicians and scientists and their students and pupils. Here also are the animal, vegetable and
mineral kingdoms. And behind what is visible to the naked eye and audible to the ear of flesh are the universes or lokas of sights and sounds. The Invisible Universe, with its lights and its darknesses, is not taken into account by modern knowledge; a great deal of human suffering is due to the non-recognition of this very important truth. One of our aims should be to bring the Invisible — the dark psychic and the bright spiritual — nearer to the consciousness of all who come under the influence of the Indian Institute of World Culture.
Next, in this ancient and immemorial philosophy the human kingdom occupies a unique position inasmuch as self-consciousness is acquired and used by man alone. All kingdoms in visible and invisible Nature are living; every atom is a Life and is conscious, but not self-conscious. The human kingdom alone possesses the power of self-consciousness, i.e., reflective consciousness, with the ability to compare, contrast and draw conclusions, to evaluate objects and events, which are all forms and processes of life. There are those who have passed through (shall we say graduated from?) the human kingdom, who guide and instruct ready learners. There are men and women now learning and evolving in the human kingdom — from the abject savage to the materialistic scientist, from the philosopher to the poet, from the mathematician to the mystic. The Indian Institute of World Culture should keep in view these different types of learners and offer to those of each type the best nourishment available for them. Next truth: Evolution in the human kingdom is not only by the Impelling Force of Nature, or by Natural Impulse guided by Divine Will and Divine Mind. Part of our human progress is by and through that process. But there is to be taken into account also the important factor of the freedom
of the Human Will and man's Moral Power of determining his own course of life. In this every man is checked or helped by his own self-made destiny. To fulfill, in some measure at least, the purpose of his evolution man must possess real knowledge of his own origin and nature, and of the goal of life. Modern knowledge is not sufficient and the instruction of the Sages and Seers of the entire Ancient World and Their modern Heirs has much more to teach us.
What will be the most practical way for us today to perceive, even in silhouette, the basic principles of this ancient Divine Wisdom? Let us present to you three Great Ideas on which the Science of the Soul is founded. The Ancient Sages and Their modern Heirs have taught:
These three fundamentals are the pure essence of all religions, however distorted the existing creeds. Let us consider them.
The first, that everything existing, exists from natural causes, cannot be rejected by any thoughtful, educated man. Even the scientist, circumscribed by his incomplete knowledge, will agree to this proposition in principle. But let us apply that to ourselves, to each one of us. Here and now we exist with our bodily health or ill health, our brain knowledge and ignorance, the merits and limitations of heart of each of us. Natural causes produced every one of us. But who are "we"? What do we mean by "I" and "we"? Are we the ever-aging and continuously dying body? Are we our unsteady and wandering mind? Are we our emotions, our
longing for pleasures and our desire to avoid pains? Who says, "I am getting old"? Who says, "My mind is wandering"? Who says, "I feel elated" or "I feel frustrated"? And who determines what I shall eat and drink, what I shall read, what I shall do?
The Man is truly the Human Soul who uses the body, improving or degrading it; who uses the mind, elevating or corrupting it; who uses the character, ennobling or degrading it. We, as Souls, are the creators of our Destiny. This is Karma: What we are in body, mind, character, is what as never-dying Souls we have made of these in the School of Life.
Of course, this implies Reincarnation: Heredity, atavism and the environment in which we find ourselves are but avenues of the Law which moves to progression and, through righteousness, to perfection. Life is a Great School; each one of us is a pupil in a particular grade; each one is learning, diligently or slothfully. Reincarnation is the Doctrine of Hope, provided we also perceive the value of the Law of Karma, the Doctrine of Responsibility. It is the hope born of the conviction of Reincarnation which is the leaven that leaveneth the whole life.
That brings us to the second proposition: Virtue brings its own reward and vice and sin bring their own punishment. Our deeds and words, our thoughts and emotions, are the effects of the virtues and vices which we have gathered from the past and which it is our privilege and responsibility to improve or correct in the present. By virtue we ennoble, by vice we degrade our character; we gain knowledge or remain ignorant; we build health or ill health. It is the morality of each man which has been building him through the long past and is building him in the living present. In this civilisation we put undue emphasis on mental knowledge, which is really
dangerous to the Soul; further, there is the unwise emphasis on technology and mechanics. Therefore in our Indian Institute of World Culture, while valuing the knowledge of science and praising the painstaking and truth-seeking labours of the great scientists, we must lay special stress on the humanities, which directly touch the moral basis of man — the primary instrument of the human soul. Virtue begets virtue; vice begets vice.
Let us turn to the third truth: The state of man in this world is probationary. The aim of existence, the purpose of life, is not inquired into by most men. "Who knows? God only knows," they say. Then there are people who exclaim, "What else is there to do but to eat, drink and be merry? For tomorrow we die." Such ignorance, such cynicism, is unworthy of Man, the Thinker.
Who has not experienced the buffetings, the tests and trials of life? But how many ask, 'Why is there so little of joy, so much of pain and sorrow in our lives?" The Divine Wisdom lays down the principle that in the School of Life we are learners on probation; we have tests and trials and they are explainers of the processes of life. Every event of life brings its lesson, its test, and so it is said that "the state of man in this world is probationary." In what way are we to understand this proposition? There is this verse which gives us a clue:
This earth, Disciple, is the Hall of Sorrow, wherein are set along the Path of dire probations, traps to ensnare thy EGO by the delusion called "Great Heresy."
If Universal Brotherhood is the panacea and its practice will lead us to the life of Understanding, of Peace and of Light, the idea that man lives in the midst of enemies and
not of friends creates and envelops us in illusions, delusions, discontent and darkness.
Philosophically it is taught by all mystics that Unity binds all souls into one grand mosaic. The test for every human soul consists in his understanding and appreciation of the fact that the human kingdom should be, must be, regarded as a family. Behind and underlying diversity there is Unity. There are feud and war between us and others, individually and nationally, because there is strife between our own two natures — the animal and the human. Our test therefore lies in destroying in ourselves the immorality which springs from egotism and in acquiring the spirit which sees the Divine at work everywhere. The Beautiful is hidden in the ugly; the True is at the core of every untruth; the Good ensouls the Evil. Satan is the Archangel and His lust carries within it God's Love; His Wrath, God's Mercy; His Greed, God's urge to Righteousness. We are so saturated with our small sins and petty crimes that we fail to see that our greatest sin, our ghastliest crime, is to live and labour each as a unit separated from others. Destiny, Nature, God, tests us on this point of Love for all as against the love of our own self, or even the love of a few — our kith and kin, our friends and countrymen. Every time we widen our circle of friendship, our sphere of service of others, and offer our compassion to all, our gratitude to the Givers of bounty — on each such occasion we have passed our test as probationers on the path of life.
Underlying all our labour of love in this Institute should be the inculcating of this grand verity by precept and by example.
And now a few closing words.
First, may I appeal to you who are members of the Institute and also to those who are friends and admirers of
the Institute to cherish its unselfish spiritual principles? Pragmatism and utilitarianism are not always and uniformly beneficent; idealism and the power to hitch our wagon to a star have invariably produced good results — developed courage, patience, hope. Mammon worship is not conducive to moral unfoldment. The wealth of knowledge which purifies and elevates truly enriches life.
We have already spoken of Universal Brotherhood. To love our neighbours, whatever their race or religion, whatever their social status, whatever their customs, habits and manners — this represents the highest form of human morality. We must develop that morality, that moral outlook, and for this we need two principles. We need the spirit of real tolerance and we can unfold that tolerance, leading to appreciation, by a proper comparative study of our brethren's religions, customs and habits, manners and points of view. But for such a study to bring us practical benefit we have to look at the forces and faculties which unite man to man. Every human body is different from every other human body, and yet all human bodies are similar inasmuch as all of us have two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet and one tongue. The constitution of all human beings is also similar. Each is a Soul and has a mind nature, an emotional nature and a bodily nature. We cannot love our fellow men with understanding without adequate knowledge of the complete constitution of the human being.
Finally, allow me to give expression to my conviction, and I do so in the interest of this Institute. All of us desire intensely and fervently that it should grow, vibrating at the same rate and in the same fashion as in the past. What has created that vibrant power? What my colleagues and myself who are students of Theosophy as taught by H.
P. Blavatsky, whose 127th Birth Anniversary we are also celebrating
today, have been able to achieve is wholly and entirely due to the power and wisdom of Theosophy. The Institute does not aim at proselytising anyone, but we who have laboured for it have done so under the inspiration of the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Quan Judge, after whom the Cosmopolitan Home for our young friends is named. What I have presented to you today for your consideration is the direct result of the study of Theosophy as recorded in their writings.
And now may I, before I conclude, offer to one and all of you who are present, and also to those friends who are not here today, my heartfelt thanks for all the kindness shown, and for the opportunity to offer a slight sacrifice in the service of humanity? We labour in beautiful Bangalore, but our Institute radiates its bright influence, as a little candle throws its beams afar. May it continue to do so and may you all, friends and brothers, continue to help its growth, and its success along the lines of the Impulse originally given to it at the very start! May the blessings of the Most High and of the Gracious Guardians and Helpers of human souls be upon it, and upon all of you! Thank you.
B.P. WADIA
This must also now be the map of guidance for The Aryan Path. Always his vision and judgement and grasp of detail were the Editor's strongest support. Deprived of them, she trusts to have the kindness and help of those who were his friends, admirers, foster-children, in carrying on the work he inspired, founded and nursed.
EDITOR [The Aryan Path]
SPIRITUAL LIFE is the gaining of an attitude... Each individual, by his own self-effort, gains an inner attitude; and, because he has evolved up to a certain point, he expresses
something which is definitely his own, which profoundly represents his contribution to the spiritual service of his fellows. Spirituality should be understood as that particular attitude to life which enables a man deliberately to conceive the next step he has to take and to act self-consciously in reference to the world in terms of that step.
— B.P. WADIA, June 14th, 1921
1881-1958
A Life of Service to Mankind
Sri Bahman Pestonji Wadia was born on October 8, 1881, the eldest son of Mr. Pestonji Cursetji and Mrs. Mithibai Wadia. Sri Wadia was a descendant of the famous Wadia family of shipbuilders.
On January 1,1900, he joined his father's textile business. In 1904, he joined the Theosophical Society in Bombay and became an active member. In 1907 he went to Adyar, Madras, to work there. He was the assistant editor of New India, worked in the 'Home Rule Movement' and was interned in Ootacamund along with Mrs. Annie Besant and George Arundale. He started the first Labour Union in India in April 1918, in Madras. In 1919, he went abroad to attend a conference on the 'Trade Union Movement'.
Even then he had for some time been recommending the 'Back to Blavatsky' movement. When he failed in his efforts, he severed his connection with Adyar in July 1922.
From 1922-1929 Shri Wadia toured the United States and came in contact with the United Lodge of Theosophists, founded by Robert Crosbie in 1909. He started U.L.T. Centres in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In 1928 he married Sophia Camacho. They returned to India on May 31,1929, after starting U.L.T. Centres in U.K. and Europe.
He founded the first U.L.T. Centre in India in Bombay on November 17, 1929. In January 1930, he started the magazine The Aryan Path and in November that year he started The Theosophical Movement — a magazine devoted to the living of the Higher Life. In 1945 he founded the Indian Institute of Culture, which later came to be known as the Indian Institute of World Culture. On August 20, 1958, Sri B.P. Wadia Passed away in Bangalore, a few days after his soul-stirring Address, 'Our Soul's Need' was delivered at the I.I.W.C. As he was too ill, it was read by Mrs. Wadia.
He sacrificed his life in the cause of Masters and the service of humanity, and remained Their servant to the last. He was a guru and a guide to all who sought him. He was kind, loving and always eager to help all those who approached him for counsel. His articles contain seminal ideas, providing the leaven that will affect the Manas and Buddhi of the race.
Alas, Alas, that all men should possess Alaya, be one with the Great Soul, and that possessing it, Alaya should so little avail them!
Behold how like the moon, reflected in the tranquil waves, Alaya is reflected by the small and by the great, is mirrored in the tiniest atoms, yet fails to reach the heart of all. Alas, that so few men should profit by the gift, the priceless boon of learning truth, the right perception of existing things, the knowledge of the non-existent!
— From The Voice of the Silence
H.P. Blavatsky
There is no Religion Higher Than Truth - सत्यान् नास्ति परो धर्मः
