The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of Annie Besant
Annie
Besant
(1847
-1933)
Dharma
By
Annie Besant
Three Lectures delivered on Oct. 25, 26 and 27
1893
DIFFERENCES
WHEN
the nations of the earth were sent forth one after the other, a special word
was given by God to each, the word which each was to say to the world, the
peculiar word from the Eternal which each one was to speak. As we glance over
the history of the nations, we can hear resounding from the collective mouth of
the people this word, spoken out in action, the contribution of that nation to
the ideal and perfect humanity. To
But we cannot speak this word, so full of
meaning, so vast in its out-reaching force, without making our bow at the feet
of him who is the greatest embodiment of Dharma that the world has ever seen -
our bow to Bhishma, the son of Gangâ, the mightiest incarnation of Duty. Come
with me for a while, traveling five-thousand years back in time, and see this
hero, lying on his bed of arrows on the field of [Page 1] Kurukshetra, there
holding Death at bay, until the right hour should strike. We pass through heaps
upon heaps of the slaughtered warriors, over mountains of dead elephants and
horses, and we pass by many a funeral pyre, many a heap of broken weapons and
chariots. We come to the hero lying on the bed of arrows, transfixed with
hundreds of arrows and his head resting on a pillow of arrows. Far he has
rejected the pillows they brought him of soft down, and accepted only the
arrowy pillow made by Arjuna. He, perfect in Dharma, had, while still a youth,
for the sake of his father, for the sake of the duty that he owed to his
father, for the sake of the love he bore to his father, made that great vow of
renouncing family life, renouncing the crown, in order that the father's will
might be done, and the father's heart be satisfied. And Shantanu gave him his blessing,
that wondrous boon, that Death should not come to him until he came at his own
command, until he willed to die. When he fell, pierced by hundreds of arrows,
the sun has in his southern path, and the season was not favourable for the
death of one who was not to return any more. He used the power that his father
had given him, and made Death stand aside until the sun should open up the way
to eternal peace and liberation. As he lay there for many a weary day, racked
with the agonies of his wounds, tortured by the anguish of the mangled body
that he wore, there came around him many Rishis and the remnants of the Aryan
kings, and thither came also [Page 2] Shri Krishna, to see the faithful one.
Thither came the five princes, the sons of Pându, the victors in the mighty
war, and they stood round him weeping and worshipping him, and longing to be
taught by him. To him, in the midst of that bitter anguish, came the words from
One whose lips were the lips of God, and He released him from the burning
fever, and He gave him bodily rest and clearness of mind and quietness of the
inner man, and then He bade him teach to the world what Dharma is - he whose
whole life had taught it, who had not swerved from the path of righteousness,
who whether as son, or prince, or statesman, or warrior, had always trodden the
narrow path. He was asked for teaching by those who were around him, and
Vâsudeva bade him speak of Dharma, because he was fit to teach (Mâhâbharata,
Shanti Parva, § LIV).
Then there drew closer round him the sons of
Pându, headed by their eldest brother Yudhishthira, who was the leader of the
host that had brought Bhîshma to his death; and he was afraid of coming near
and asking questions, thinking that as the arrows were really his, being shot
for his cause, he was guilty of the blood of his elder, and he ought not to ask
to be taught. Seeing his hesitation, Bhîshma, whose mind was ever balanced, who
had trodden the difficult path of duty without being moved to the right hand or
the left, spoke the memorable words: "As the duty of Brâhmanas consists in
the practice of charity, study, and penance, so the duty of Kshattriyas [Page
3] is to cast away their bodies in battle. A Kshattriya should slay sires and
grandsires and brothers and preceptors and relatives and kinsmen, that may
engage with him in unjust battle. This is their declared duty. That Kshattriya,
O Keshava, is said to be acquainted with his duty who slays in battle his very
preceptors, if they happen to be sinful and covetous and disregardful of restraints
and vows. . . . . . Ask me, O child, without any anxiety". Then, just as
Vâsudeva, in speaking of Bhîshma, had described Bhîshma's right to speak as
teacher, so Bhîshma himself in turn, in addressing the princes, described the
qualities that were needed in those who would ask questions on the problem of
Dharma:
"Let the son of Pându, in whom are
intelligence, self-restraint, brahmacharya, forgiveness, righteousness, mental
vigor and energy, put questions to me. Let the son of Pându, who always by his
good offices honors his relatives and guests and servants and others that are
dependent on him, put questions to me. Let the son of Pându, in whom are truth
and charity and penances, heroism, peacefulness, cleverness and fearlessness,
put questions to me." (Ibid. § LIV.).
Such are some of the characteristics of the
man who may seek to understand the mysteries of Dharma. Such are the qualities
which you and I must try to develop, if we are to understand the teachings, if
we are to be worthy to enquire.
Then began that wonderful discourse, without
parallel among the discourses of the world. It treats of the duties of Kings
and of subjects, the duties of the four orders, of the four modes of life,
duties for every kind of man, duties distinct from each other and suited to
every stage of evolution. Every one of you ought to know that great discourse,
ought to study it, not only for its literary beauty, but for its moral
grandeur. If we could but follow on the path traced by Bhishma, then would our
evolution quicken, then would the day of
With regard to morality - a subject closely
bound up with Dharma, and which cannot be understood without a knowledge of
what is meant by Dharma - with regard to morality, some think that it is a
simple thing. So it is in its broad outlines. The boundaries of right and wrong
in the common actions of life are clear, simple, and definite. For a man of
small development, for a man of narrow intelligence, for a man of restricted
knowledge, morality seems simple enough. But for those of deep knowledge and
high intelligence, for those who are evolving towards the higher grades of
humanity, for those who desire to understand its mysteries, for them morality
is very difficult: "Morality is very subtle," as the prince
Yudhishthira said when he was dealing with the problem of the marriage of
Draupadi with the five sons of Pându. And one greater than that prince had
spoken of the difficulty; Shri Krishna, the Avâtara, in His discourse delivered
on the field of Kurukshetra, spoke on this very question of the difficulty of
action. He said:
"What is action, what inaction? Even the
wise are hereby perplexed. It is needful to discriminate action, to
discriminate unlawful action, to discriminate inaction; mysterious is the path
of action" (Bhagavad Gita, iv. 16-17.)
Mysterious
is the path of action; mysterious, because morality is not, as the
simple-minded think, one and the same for all; because it varies with the
Dharma of the individual. What is right for one, is wrong for another. And what
is wrong for one is right for another. Morality is an individual thing, and it
depends upon the Dharma of the man who is acting, and not upon what is
sometimes called "absolute right and wrong". There is nothing
absolute in a conditioned universe. And right and wrong are relative, and must
be judged in relation to the individual and his duties. Thus the greatest of
all Teachers said with regard to Dharma - and this will guide us in our tangled
path - "Better one's own Dharma, though destitute of merit, than the
Dharma of another, well discharged. Better death in the discharge of one's own
Dharma; the Dharma of another is full of danger" (Ibid. iv. 35.).
He repeated the same thought again at the end
of that immortal discourse, and He said - but then changed in such a way as to
throw fresh light on the subject: "Better is one's own Dharma, though
destitute of merits, than the well executed Dharma of another. He who doeth the
Karma laid down by his own nature incurreth not sin" (Ibid. xviii. 47.).
There He expounds more fully this teaching, and He traces for us one by one the
Dharma of the four great castes, and the very wording that He uses shows us the
meaning of this word, which is sometimes translated as Duty, sometimes as Law,
sometimes as Righteousness, sometimes as Religion. It means these, and more
than any of them, for the meaning is deeper and wider than any of thee words
expresses. Let us take the words of Shri Krishna when speaking of the Dharma of
the four castes: "Of Brâhmanas, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas and Shûdras, O
Parantapa, the Karmas have been distributed, according to the gunas born of
their own natures. Serenity, selfrestraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness and
also uprightness; wisdom, knowledge, belief in God, are the Brâhmana-Karma,
born of his own nature. Prowess, splendour, firmness, dexterity, and also not
flying from battle, generosity, the nature of a ruler, are the
Kshattriya-Karma, born of his own nature. Ploughing, protection of kine, and
trade are the Vaishya-Karma, born of his own nature. Action of the nature of
service is the Shudra-Karma, born of his own nature. Man reacheth perfection by
each being intent on his own Karma".
Then he goes on to say: "Better one's
own Dharma, though destitute of merit, than the well executed Dharma of
another. He who doeth the Karma laid down by his own nature incurreth not
sin".
See how the two words Dharma and Karma are
interchanged. They give us the key which we shall use to unlock our problem.
Let me give you first a partial definition of Dharma. I cannot make the whole
definition clear at once. I will give you the first half of it, dealing with
the second half when we come to it. The first half is that "Dharma is the
inner nature, which has reached in each man a certain stage of development and
unfolding". It is this inner nature which moulds the outer life, which is
expressed by thoughts, words, and actions, the inner nature which is born into
the environment suited for its further growth. The first idea to grasp is that
Dharma is not an outer thing, like the law, or righteousness, or religion, or
justice. It is the law of the unfolding life, which moulds all outside it to
the expression of itself.
Now in trying to trace out this difficult and
abstruse subject, I will treat it under three main divisions. First,
Differences, for people have different Dharmas. Even in the passage quoted,
four great classes are mentioned. Looking more closely, each individual man has
his own Dharma. How shall we understand these? Unless we grasp something of the
nature of difference; why they came to be, why they should exist, and what me
mean when we speak of differences; unless we understand how each man shows by
his thoughts, words, and actions, the stage he has reached; unless we grasp
this, we cannot understand Dharma. Then secondly, we shall have to deal with
Evolution. For we must trace these differences as they evolve. Lastly, we must
deal with the problem of Right and Wrong, for the whole of our study leads up
to the answer to the question. "How should a man conduct his life?"
It would not be worth while to ask you to follow me, into difficult regions of
thought, unless in the end we are to turn our knowledge to good account, and try
to lead lives according to Dharma, thus giving to the world that which
In what does the perfection of a Universe
consist? When we begin to think over a universe and what we mean by it, we find
we mean a vast number of separated objects working together more or less
harmoniously. Variety is the keynote of the universe, as unity is the note of
the Unmanifest, of the Unconditioned - the One without a second. Diversity is
the note of the manifested and conditioned - the result of the will to become
many.
When a Universe is to come into existence, we
learn, the First Cause, the Eternal, the Inconceivable, the Indiscernible, the
Subtle, shines forth by His own Will. What that shining forth may mean within Himself
none may dare to guess. What it means on the side from which we regard it, that
to some extent may be grasped. Ishvara comes forth, but He, coming forth,
appears enwrapped in the veil of Mâyâ - there are two sides of the Supreme in
manifestation. Many words have been used to express that fundamental pair of
opposites: Ishvara and Mâyâ, Sat and Asat, Reality and Unreality, Spirit and
Matter, Life and Form. These are words which we, in our limited language, use
to express that which is well-nigh beyond the grasp of thinking. All that we
can say is: "Thus have the Sages taught us, and thus we in humility
repeat".
Ishvara and Mâyâ. What is the universe to he?
It is the image of Ishvara reflected in Mâyâ - the perfected image of Ishvara,
as He has chosen to condition Himself for this particular universe whose
birth-hour is come. His image - limited, conditioned. His Self-conditioned
image, the universe is in perfection to declare. But how shall that which is
limited, that which is partial, image Ishvara? By the multiplicity of parts
working together in one harmonious whole; infinite variety of differences, and
the manifold combinations of each with each, shall speak forth the law of the
divine thought, until the whole thought is expressed in the totality of that
perfected Universe. You should try to catch some glimpse of what this means.
Let us together seek to understand.
Ishvara thinks of Beauty; at once His mighty
energy, all-potent, generative, strikes upon Mâyâ and develops it into myriad
forms of objects that we call beautiful. It touches the matter that is ready to
be moulded - for example, water; and the water takes on a million forms of
Beauty. We see one in the vast expanse of ocean, still and tranquil, where no
wind is blowing, and where the sky is mirrored in its deep bosom. Then we catch
another form of Beauty, when the wind lashes it into billows upon billows, and
abyss beneath abyss, till the whole mass is terrible in its fury and grandeur.
Then a new form of Beauty comes forth from it, and the raging and the foaming
waters are hushed, and the ocean is changed into myriad-ripples, glittering and
glistening under the moon which shines upon them, her rays broken and bent into
a thousand coruscations. And this gives us another hint of what Beauty means.
And then we look at the ocean where no land limits the horizon and where the
vast expanse is unbroken, and again we stand on the shore and see the waves
breaking at our feet. With every change of mood of the sea, its waters speak
out a new thought of Beauty. Another glimpse of the thought of Beauty thrown
into water we see in the mountain lake, in the stillness and serenity of its
quiet bosom; and in the stream that leaps from rock to rock; and in the torrent
that dashes itself into millions of spray-drops, catching and refracting the
sunlight into all the hues of the rainbow. So from water in every shape and
form, from the tossing ocean to the frozen iceberg, from the foggy mists to the
gorgeously coloured clouds, bursts forth the thought of Beauty impressed upon
it by Ishvara, when the word came forth from Him. When we leave the water, we
learn new thoughts of beauty in the tender creeper, in its mass of brilliant
colours, the stronger plant and the sturdier oak, and the dark obscurity of
forest depths. New thoughts of Beauty come to us from the face of every
mountain peak, and from the vast, rolling prairie where the earth seems to
break into new possibilities of life, from the sand of the desert, from the
green of the meadow. If we are tired of the earth, the telescope brings to our
view the Beauty of myriads of suns, rushing and rolling through the depths of
space. Then the microscope reveals to our wondering gaze the Beauty of the
infinitely small, as the telescope does of the infinitely great: and thus a new
door is opened to us for the contemplation of Beauty. Around us we have
thousands and millions of objects that are all beautiful. From the grace of the
animal, from the strength of man, from the supple charm of woman, from the
dimples of the laughing children, from all these things we catch some glimpses
of what the thought of Beauty is in the mind of Ishvara.
In this fashion we may sense something of the
way in which His thought broke into myriad forms of splendour, when He spoke as
Beauty to the world. The same is the case with Strength, Energy, Harmony,
Music, and so on. You grasp, then, why there should be variety: because no
limited thing may fully tell Him, because no limited form may fully express
Him. But as each becomes perfect of its kind; all combined may partly reveal
Him. Thus the perfection of the Universe is perfection in variety and in the
harmony of interrelated parts.
Having reached that conception, we begin to
see that the Universe can only gain perfection by each part performing its own
function, and developing completely its own share of life. If the tree tries to
imitate the mountain, or the water to imitate the earth, each would miss its
own beauty and fail to show that of the other. The perfection of the body does
not depend upon every cell doing the work of the other cells, but in each cell
doing its own part perfectly. We have brain, lungs, heart, digestive organs,
and so on. If the brain tried to do the work of the heart, and the lungs tried
to digest food, then the body would indeed be in a melancholy condition. The
health of the body is secured by each organ doing its own part. We thus realize
that as the universe develops, each part is going along the road which is
marked out by the law of its own life. The image of Ishvara in nature will
never be perfect, until each part is complete in itself and in its relations to
the others.
How can these innumerable differences arise?
How can all these differences come into existence? How does the Universe, as it
evolves as a whole, stand in relation to its parts evolving each on its
separate line? We are told that Ishvara, expressing himself on the Prakriti
side shows forth three qualities - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. No English words
are equivalent to or can satisfactorily translate these. I may however, for the
moment translate Tamas as inertia, the quality that does not move, that gives
stability; Rajas is the quality of energy and motion; and Sattva is perhaps
best expressed by harmony the quality of pleasure-giving, as all pleasure
springs from harmony and only harmony can give it. Then we learn that these
three gunas are further modified in seven kinds of ways, seven great lines, as
it were, along which innumerable combinations evolve. Every religion speaks of
this sevenfold division, every religion proclaims its existence. In Hinduism,
they are the five great elements and the two beyond. These are the seven
Purushas of whom Manu speaks.
These three gunas combine and divide,
arranging themselves into seven great groups, from which arise vast numbers of
things by various combinations; remember that into each separate thing each of
these qualities enters in different proportions, modified in one of the seven
fundamental ways.
From this primary difference brought over
from a Universe of the past - for world is linked to world and Universe to
Universe - we find that the downpouring life divided and subdivided itself as
it fell into matter, till, reaching the circumference of the mighty circle, it
rolled back upon itself. Evolution begins at the turning-point, where the wave
of life begins to return to Ishvara. The previous stage is the stage of
involution, during which this life is becoming involved in matter; in evolution
it is unfolding the powers that it contains. We may quote Manu where he says
that Ishvara placed His seed in the mighty waters. The life which Ishvara gave
was not a developed life, but a life capable of development. Everything exists
in germ at first. As the parent gives his life to generate the child, and as
that life-seed is built up through many combinations, until it reaches birth,
and then year after year, through childhood, youth and manhood, until maturity
is reached, and the image of the father is seen again in the son; so does the
Eternal Father, when He places the seed in the womb of matter, give the life,
but it is not yet evolved. Then it begins its up-climbing, bringing out one
phase after another of the life that it is gradually becoming able to express.
As we study the Universe, we find that its
varieties differ in their age. This is a thought which bears upon our problem.
This world was not brought into its present condition by one creative word.
Slowly and gradually and by prolonged meditation did Brâhma make the world. One
after another living forms came forth. One after another the seeds of life were
sown. If you look at any Universe at any point of time, you will find that the
variety of that Universe has Time for its chief factor. The age of the
developing germ will mark the stage at which that germ has arrived. In a
Universe, at one and the same time, there are germs of various ages and stages
of development. There are germs younger than minerals, making what are called
elemental kingdoms. The developing germs called the mineral kingdom are older
than these. Germs evolving as the vegetable world are older than those of the
mineral, that is, they have a longer stretch of evolution behind them; the
animals are germs with a yet longer past, and the germs we call humanity have
the longest past of all.
Each great class has this diversity as to its
beginning in time. So also the separated individual life in one man - not the
essential life, but the individual and separated life - is different from that
of another, and we differ in the age of our individual existences as we differ
in the age of our bodies. The life is one - one life in all; but it is infolded
at different stages of time, as regards the starting-point of the seed that
there is growing. You should grasp that idea clearly. When a Universe comes to
its ending, there will be present in it entities at every stage of growth. I
have already said that world is linked to world, and Universe linked to
Universe. Some units at the beginning will be at an early stage of evolution;
some will be ready to expand ere long into the consciousness of God. In that
Universe, when its life-period is over, there will be all the differences of
growth dependent upon differences in time. There is one life in all, but the
stage of unfoldment of a particular life depends upon the time through which it
has been separately evolving. There you grasp the very root of our problem -
one life, undying, eternal, infinite as to its source and goal; but that life
manifesting itself in different grades of evolution and at different stages of
unfoldment, different, amounts of its inherent power showing forth according to
the age of the separated life. Those are the two thoughts to grasp, and then
you can take the other portion of the definition of Dharma.
Dharma may now be defined as the "inner
nature of a thing at any given stage of evolution, and the law of the next
stage of its unfolding" - the nature at the point it has reached in
unfolding, and then the law which brings about its next stage of unfolding. The
nature itself marks out the point in evolution it has reached; then comes what
it must do in order to evolve further along its road. Take those two thoughts
together, and then you will understand why perfection must be reached by
following one's own Dharma. My Dharma is the stage of evolution which my nature
has reached in unfolding the seed of divine life which is myself, plus the law
of life according to which the next stage is to be performed by me. It belongs
to this separated self. I must know the stage of my growth, and I must know the
law which will enable me to grow further; then I know my Dharma, and by
following that Dharma I am going towards perfection.
It is clear then, realizing what this means,
why we should each of us study this present condition and this next stage. If
we do not know the present stage, we must be ignorant of the next stage which
we should aim at, and we may be going against our Dharma and thus delaying our
evolution. Or, knowing both, we may work with our Dharma and quicken our
evolution. Here comes a great pitfall. We see that a thing is good, noble and
great, and we long to accomplish in ourselves that thing. Is it for us the next
stage of evolution? Is it the thing which the law of our unfolding life
demands, in order that that life may unfold harmoniously? Our immediate aim is
not that which is best in itself, but that which is best for us in our present
stage, and carries us one step onward. Take a child. There is no doubt that if
you take a woman-child, she has before her a future nobler, higher, and more
beautiful than the present when she is playing with her dolls; she will be a
mother with a baby in her arms instead of a doll; for that is the ideal of
perfect womanhood - the mother with the child. But while that is the ideal of a
perfect woman, to grasp at that ideal before the time is ripe will do harm and
not good. Everything must come in its proper time and place. If that mother is
to be developed to the perfection of womanhood, and is to be mother of a
family, healthy, strong, able to bear the pressure of the great life-stream,
then there must be the period when that child must play with her dolls, must
learn lessons, must develop the body. But if, thinking that motherhood is
higher and nobler than play, that motherhood should be grasped before its time,
and a child be born from a child, the babe suffers, the mother suffers, the
nation suffers; and this because the season has not been regarded, the law of
unfolding life is violated. All sorts of suffering arise from grasping the
fruit ere the fruit is ripe.
I take that example because it is a striking
one. It will help you to see why our own Dharma is better for us than the well
executed Dharma of another that is not in the line of our unfolding life. That
lofty post may be for us in the future, but the time must come, the fruit must
ripen. Pluck it ere it is ripe, and your teeth are set on edge. Let it remain
on the tree, obeying the law of time and sequential evolution, and the soul
will grow according to the power of an endless life.
That then gives us another key to the problem
- function is in relation to power. Function grasped before power is developed
is mischievous in the extreme to the organism. So we learn the lessons of
patience and of waiting on the Good Law. You might judge the progress of a man
by his willingness to work with nature and to submit to the law. That is why
Dharma is spoken of as law, and sometimes as duty; for both these ideas grow
out of the root-thought that it is the inner nature at a given stage of
evolution and the law of the next stage of its development. This explains why
morality is relative, why duty must differ for every soul, according to the
stage of its evolution. When we come to apply this to questions of right and
wrong, we shall find that we can solve some of the subtlest problems of
morality by dealing with them on this principle. In a conditioned universe,
absolute right and wrong are not to be found, but only relative rights and
wrongs. The absolute is in Ishvara alone, where it will for ever be found.
Differences are thus necessary for our
conditioned consciousness. We think by differences, we feel by differences, and
we know by differences. It is only by differences that we know that we are living
and thinking men. Unity makes on consciousness no impression. Differences and
diversities - those are the things which make the growth of consciousness
possible. The unconditioned consciousness is beyond our thinking. We can only
think within the limits of the separated and the conditioned.
We can now see how differences in nature come
to be, how the time factor comes in, and how, though all have the same nature
and will reach the same goal, yet there are differences in the stages of
manifestation, and therefore in the laws appropriate for every stage. That is
what we need to grasp tonight, before we deal with the complex problem, how
this inner nature develops. Truly difficult is the subject, yet the mysteries
of the path of action may be cleared for us as we grasp the underlying law, as
we recognise the principle of the unfolding life.
May He, who gave Dharma to India as her
keynote, illuminate with His unfolding and immortal life, with His light
effulgent and unchangeable, these dark minds of ours that dimly try to grasp
His law; for only as His blessing falls upon the suppliant seeker, will His law
be understood by the mind, will His law be engraven in the heart.
EVOLUTION
WE
shall deal this evening with the second section of the subject commenced
yesterday. You may remember I divided the subject under three heads, for the
sake of convenience - Differences, Evolution, and the problem of Right and
Wrong. Yesterday we studied the question of Differences - how it came to pass
that different men had different Dharmas. I will venture to remind you of the
definition of Dharma we adopted; that it means the inner nature, marked by the
stage of evolution, plus the law of growth for the next stage of evolution. I
will ask you to keep that definition in your minds, for without it you will not
be able to apply Dharma to what we are to study under the third division of the
subject.
Under the head "Evolution", we are
to study the way in which the germ of life evolves to the perfect image of God,
remembering that we found that that image of God could only be represented by
the totality of the numerous objects making up the universe in their details,
and that the perfection of the individual depended on the completeness with
which he fulfilled his own part in the stupendous whole.
Before we can understand evolution, we must
find its spring and motive - a life which involves itself in matter, before it
evolves complicated organisms of every kind. We start with the principle that
all is from and in God. Nothing in the universe is to be excluded from Him. No
life save His life, no force save His force, no energy save His energy, no
forms save His forms - all are the results of His thought. That is our
fundamental position. That is the ground on which we must stand, daring to
accept everything that it implies, daring to recognise everything that it
connotes. "The seed of all beings," says Shri Krishna, speaking as
the supreme Ishvara, "that am I, O Arjuna! nor is there aught, moving or
unmoving, that may exist bereft of Me" (Bhagavad-Gita, x. 39.). Do not let
us fear to take that central position. Do not, because of the imperfection of
the evolving lives, let us shrink from any conclusion to which this truth may
lead us.
In another shloka He said: "I am the gambling
of the cheat, and the splendour of splendid things I" (x. 36.). What is
the meaning of these words that sound so strange? What is the explanation of
this phrase which appears almost as profanity? Not only in this discourse do we
find this position enunciated, but we find that Manu teaches exactly the same
truth: "From Himself He produces the universe". The life coming forth
from the Supreme puts on veil after veil of Mâyâ, in which that life is to
evolve all the perfections that lie latent within it.
Now the first question is: Does not this
life, which comes from Ishvara, already contain within itself everything
already developed, every manifested power, every possibility realized as
actuality? The answer to that question, spoken over and over again, in symbols,
allegories, and distinct words, is "No". It contains everything in
potency, but nothing at first in manifestation. It contains everything in germ,
but nothing at first as developed organism. The seed is that which is placed in
the mighty waters of matter, the germ alone is given forth by the Life of the
World. Those germs, which come from the life of Ishvara, evolve - step by step,
stage after stage, on one rung of a ladder after another - all the powers that
reside in the generating Father, the name that Ishvara gives to Himself in the
Gitâ. He declares once more: "My womb is the Mahat-Brahma; in that I place
the germ; thence cometh the production of all beings, O Bhârata. In whatsoever
wombs mortals are produced, O Kaunteya, the Mahat-Brâhma is their womb, I their
generating Father" (xiv. 3-4.). From that seed - from that germ containing
everything in possibility but nothing as yet in manifestation - from that seed
is to evolve a life, stage by stage, rising higher and higher, until at last a
centre of consciousness is formed capable of expanding to the consciousness of
Ishvara, while remaining as a centre still, with the power to come forth as a
new Logos, or Ishvara, for the production of a new universe.
Let us take this vast sweep of thought in
detail. Life involved in matter - that is our beginning. These germs of life,
these myriad seeds, or to use the Upanishadic phrase, these numberless sparks,
all come forth from the one Flame which is the supreme Brahman. Qualities are
now to be brought out of these seeds. Those qualities are powers, but powers
manifested through matter. One by one those powers will be brought out - powers
which are the life of Ishvara as veiled in Mâyâ. Slow is the growth in the
early stages, hidden as the seed underground is hidden, when first it strikes
its root downward, and sends its tender offshoot upward in order that later on
the growing tree may appear. In silence germinates this divine seed, and the
early beginnings are hidden in darkness, like the roots under the ground.
This power in the life, or rather these
innumerable powers which Ishvara manifests in order that the universe may be,
these myriad powers are at first unapparent in the germ - no sign of the mighty
possibilities, no trace of what it is hereafter to become. A word is spoken as
to this manifestation in matter, which throws much light on the subject, if we
can grasp its inner and subtler meaning. Shri Krishna, speaking of His lower
Prakriti, or inferior manifestation, says: "Earth, water, fire, air,
ether, Manas and Buddhi also and Ahankara - these are the eightfold divisions
of My Prakriti. This the inferior". Then He says what is His higher
Prakriti: "Know My other Prakriti, the higher, the life-element, O mightyarmed,
by which the universe is upheld" (vii. 4, 5.). Then a little later,
separated by many shlokas, so that sometimes the connecting link is missed,
other words are spoken: "This divine Mâyâ of Mine, guna-made, is hard to
pierce; they who come to Me they cross over this Mâyâ" (vii. 14.). This
Yoga-Mâyâ is, truly, hard to pierce; many do not discover Him involved in Mâyâ,
so hard to pierce it is, so difficult to discover. "Those without Buddhi
think of Me, the unmanifest, as having manifestation; knowing not My supreme
nature, imperishable, most excellent. Nor am I of all discovered, enveloped in
My Yoga-Mâyâ" (vii. 24, 25.). Then He further declares that by His
unmanifested life it is that the universe is pervaded. The life-element, or
higher Prakriti, is unmanifested, the lower Prakriti is manifested. Then He
says: "From the unmanifested all the manifested stream forth at the coming
of day; at the coming of night they dissolve, even in That called the
unmanifested" (viii: 18.). This occurs over and over again. Then further
on He declares: "Therefore verily there existeth, higher than that
unmanifested, another unmanifested, eternal, which, in the destroying of all
beings, is not destroyed" (viii. 20.). There is a subtle distinction
between Ishvara and the image of Himself which He sends forth. The image is the
reflected unmanifest, but Himself is the higher unmanifest, the eternal that
never is destroyed.
Realizing that, we come to the drawing out of
powers. Here we begin really our evolution. The outpouring life was involved in
matter, in order to bring the seed into the matter-surrounded conditions which
should make evolution possible. When we come to the first germinating of the
seed, our difficulty comes in. For we must throw ourselves, in thought, to the
time when there was no reason in this embryonic self, no imaginative faculty,
no memory, no judgment, none of the conditioned faculties of the mind that we
know of; when all the life that was manifested was that which we find in the
mineral kingdom, with the lowest conditions of consciousness. The minerals
manifest consciousness by their attractions and repulsions, by their holding
together of particles, by their affinities for each other, by their repellings
of each other, but they show none of that consciousness that can be called the
recognition of the "I" and the "not-I".
In every one of these lowest forms in the
mineral kingdom, Ishvara's life is beginning to unfold. Not only is the germ of
life there evolving, but He, in all His might and power, is there in every atom
of His universe. His the moving life which makes evolution inevitable. His the
force expanding gently the walls of matter, with immense patience and watching
love, in order that they may not break under the strain. God, Himself the
Father of the life, holds that life within Himself as Mother, unfolding the
seed unto the likeness of Himself, never impatient, never hurrying, willing to
give as much time from the countless ages as the little germ may require. Time
is nothing to Ishvara, for He is eternal and to Him all is. It is the
perfection of manifestation that He seeks, and there is no hurrying in His
work. And we shall see, later on, how this infinite patience works out. The
man, who is to be the image of his Father, shows within him the reflection of
the Self with which he is one, and whence he came.
The life is to be awakened, but how? By
blows, by vibrations, the inner essence is called into activity. Life is
stirred to activity by vibrations that touch it from outside. These myriad
seeds of life, not yet conscious of themselves, matter-enveloped, are thrown
against each other in the myriad processes of nature; but "nature" is
only the garment of God, is only the lowest manifestation in which He shows
Himself on the material plane. These forms strike against each other, shaking
thus the outer shells of matter in which the life is involved, and the life
within gives a quiver as the blow is delivered.
Now the nature of the blow is of no importance.
All that is important is that the blow shall be strong. Any experience is
useful. Anything which strikes that shell so forcibly that the life within
quivers in response is all that is wanted at first. The life within must be
made to quiver. That will awaken some dawning power in the life. At first it is
only a quiver within itself, and nothing more than a quiver, with no result on
its outer shell. But as blow after blow is repeated, and vibration after
vibration sends in its earthquake shocks, the life within sends out, through
its own enveloping shell, a thrill of answer. The blow has provoked an answer.
Another stage is thus touched - the answer comes forth from the hidden life and
goes out beyond the shell. This goes on through the mineral kingdom and the
vegetable kingdom. In the vegetable kingdom the answers to the vibrations
caused by contact begin to show a new power of the life - sensation. The life
begins to show out in itself what we call "feeling"; that is,
different answers are given to pleasure and to pain. Pleasure is fundamentally
harmonious. All that gives pleasure is harmonious. All that gives pain is
discordant. Think of music. Rhythmical notes, struck together as a chord, give
to the ear a sensation of pleasure. But if you strike your finger on the
strings without paying attention to the notes, you make a discord, which gives
pain to the ear. That which is true of music is true everywhere. Health is
harmony, disease is discord. Strength is harmony, weakness is discord. Beauty
is harmony, ugliness is discord. All through nature pleasure means the answer
of a sentient being to vibrations that are harmonious and rhythmical, and pain
means its answer to those that are discordant and unrhythmical. The rhythmical
vibrations make an outward channel through which the life can expand, and this
pouring forth is "pleasure"; the unrhythmical close up the channels
and frustrate the forth-pouring, and this frustration is "pain". [
The student should work out in detail this fundamental principle; he will
thereby much clarify his thoughts] The
forth-pouring of life towards objects is what we name "desire"; hence
pleasure becomes the gratification of desire. This difference begins to make
itself felt in the vegetable kingdom. A blow comes that is harmonious. The life
answers to that in harmonious vibrations and expands, feeling in that expansion
"pleasure". A blow comes that is a jangle. Life answers to that
discordantly, is checked, and feels in that check "pain". The blows
are given over and over again, and not until the repetition has occurred a
myriad times does a recognition of the distinction between the two begin to
arise in that imprisoned life. Only by making distinctions is our
consciousness, as at present constituted, able to distinguish objects from each
other. Take a very common illustration. Let a piece of money lie in the palm of
the hand and close your fingers round it; you feel it; but as the pressure is
continued, without any variation, the sensation of feeling in the hand
disappears and you do not know that your hand is not empty. Move a finger and
you feel the money; keep the hand still, and the sensation vanishes. Thus
consciousness can only know things by differences. And when difference is
eliminated, consciousness ceases to respond.
We come to the next thing which is manifested
as the life evolves through the animal kingdom. Pleasure and pain are now
acutely felt, and a germ of recognition, connecting objects and sensations,
begins; we call it "perception". What does this mean? It means that
the life develops the power of forming a link between the object that impresses
it and the sensation by which it responds to the object. When that dawning
life, contacting an external object, knows it as an object that gives pleasure
or pain, then we say that the object is perceived, and the faculty of
perception, or the making of links between the outer and the inner worlds, is
evolved when that is established; mental power begins to germinate and to grow
within that organism; we find it in the higher animals.
Let us take it in the savage man, where we
shall be able to pass more rapidly over these early stages. We find the
consciousness of "I" and "not-I" slowly establishing itself
in him - the two going together. "Not-I" touches him, and "I"
feels it; "not-I" gives him pleasure, and "I" knows it;
"not-I" gives him pain, and "I" suffers it. A distinction
is now being made between the feeling, thought of as "I", and all
that causes it, thought of as "not-I". Here commences intelligence,
and the root of self-consciousness is beginning to develop. That is, a centre
is being formed, to which everything goes in and from which everything comes
out.
I spoke of repetition of vibrations, and now
repetition produces results more rapidly. As repetition causes the perception
of pleasure-giving objects, the next stage is developed, the expectation of
pleasure before the contact takes place. The object is recognised as one that
has given pleasure on previous occasions; a repetition of the pleasure is expected, and that expectation is the dawn of memory
and the beginning of imagination, the interweaving of intellect with desire.
Because the object has given pleasure before, it is expected to give pleasure
again. Thus expectation brings into manifestation another germinating quality
of the mind. When we have the recognition of the object and the expectation of
pleasure from its return, the next stage is the making and vivifying of a
mental image of that object - the memory of it - thus causing an outflow of
desire, desire to have that object, a longing for that object, and finally a
going forth in search of that object that gives pleasurable sensation. Thus the
man becomes full of active desires. He desires pleasure, and is moved to seek
it by the mind. For a long time he had remained in the animal stage, when he
would never seek for a thing unless the actual sensation in his inner body made
him want something that the outer world alone could satisfy. Just for one
moment return to the animal; think what stirs the animal to action. A craving
to get rid of an unpleasant sensation. He feels hunger, he desires food, and he
goes in search of it; he feels thirst, he desires to quench it, and he goes in
search of water. Thus he always goes in search of the object that will gratify
the desire. Give him the gratification of desire and he is quiet. There is no
self-initiated motion in the animal. The push must come from outside. True, the
hunger is in the inner body, but that is outside the centre of consciousness.
The evolution of consciousness may be traced by the proportion which the
outside stimulus to action bears to the self-initiated stimulus. The lower
consciousness is stimulated to activity by impulses coming from outside itself.
The higher consciousness is stimulated to activity by motion initiated within.
Now as we deal with our savage man, we find
that the gratification of desire is the law of his progress. How strange that
sounds to many of you. Says Manu: Seeking to get rid of desires by gratifying
them is like trying to quench the fire by pouring butter over it. Desire must
be curbed and restrained. Desire is to be extinguished utterly. This is most
certainly true, but only when a man has reached a certain stage of evolution.
In the early stages, the gratification of desires is the law of evolution. If
he does not gratify his desires, no growth for him is possible. You must
realise that at that stage there is nothing which can be called morality. There
is no distinction between right and wrong. Every desire should be gratified;
when this commencing centre of self-consciousness is seeking to gratify
desires, then alone it grows. In this lowest stage the Dharma of the savage
man, or of the higher animal, is imposed on him. He does not choose; his inner
nature, marked by the development of desire, demands gratification. The law of
his growth is the satisfaction of these desires. So that the Dharma of the
savage is the gratification of every desire. And you find in him no
consciousness of right or wrong, not the faintest dawning notion that the
gratification of desires is forbidden by some higher law.
Without that gratification of desires there
is no further growth. All that growth must precede the dawning of reason and
judgment and the development of the higher powers of memory and imagination.
All these things must be evolved by the gratification of desire. Experience is
the law of life, it is the law of growth. Unless he gathers experiences of
every kind, he cannot know that he lives in a world of Law. Two ways does the
law find for impressing itself on man: pleasure when the Law is followed, pain
when the Law is opposed. If men did not at that early stage have every sort of
experience, how could they learn of the existence of the Law? How can
discrimination grow between right and wrong, unless there is the experience of
both good and evil? A universe can never come into existence except by the
pairs of opposites, and these at one stage appear in the consciousness as good
and evil. You cannot know light without darkness, motion without rest, pleasure
without pain; so you cannot know the good that is harmony with the Law with out
knowing the evil that is discord with the Law. Good and evil are a pair of
opposites in the later evolution of man, and man cannot become conscious of the
difference between them unless he has experience of both.
Now we come to a change. Man has developed a
certain power of discrimination. Left to himself utterly, he would come to know
in time that some things help him on, that some things strengthen him, that
some things increase his life; also that other things weaken him and diminish
his life. Experience would teach him all that. Left only to the teaching of
experience he would come to know right from wrong, would identify the pleasure-giving
that increased life with the right, and the pain-giving that diminished life
with the wrong, and would thus reach the conclusion that all happiness and
growth lay in obeying the Law. But it would take a very long time for this
dawning intelligence to compare together experiences of pleasure and pain, and
the confusing experiences in which that which at first gave pleasure became
painful by excess, and then to deduce from them the principle of law. It would
be a very long time before he could put innumerable experiences together, and
deduce from them the idea that this thing is right, and that thing is wrong.
But he is not left unaided to make that deduction. There come to him, from past
worlds, Intelligences more highly evolved than his own, Teachers who come to
help on his evolution, to train his growth, to tell him of the existence of a
law determining that which will bring about his more rapid evolution,
increasing his happiness, intelligence and strength. In fact, revelation from
the mouth of a Teacher quickens evolution, and instead of man being left to the
slow teaching of experience, the expression of the law from the mouth of a
superior is made to assist his growth.
The Teacher comes and says to this dawning
intelligence: "If you kill that man, you are doing an action that I forbid
on divine authority. That action is wrong. It will bring misery". The
Teacher says: "It is right to help the starving; that starving man is your
brother; feed him; do not let him starve; share with him what you have. That
action is right, and if you obey that law it will be well with you".
Rewards of actions are held out to attract the dawning intelligence towards
good, and punishments and threats to warn him from wrong. Earthly prosperity is
joined with obedience of law, earthly misery with disobedience to law. This
announcement of the law that misery follows on that which the law forbids, and
happiness on that which the law commands, stimulates the dawning intelligence.
He disregards the law, the penalty follows, and he suffers; and he says:
"The Teacher told me so". Memory of a command proved by experience
makes an impression on the consciousness far more quickly and more strongly
than does experience alone without the revealed law. By this declaration of
what the learned call the fundamental principles of morality, namely, that
certain classes of actions retard evolution and other classes of action quicken
evolution - by this declaration intelligence is immensely stimulated.
If a man will not obey the law declared, then
he is left to the hard teaching of experience. If he says: "I will have
that thing, though the law forbid it," then he is left to the stern
teaching of pain, and the whip of suffering teaches the lesson that he would
not learn from the lips of love.
How often that happens now. How often a young
man, argumentative and self-conceited, will not listen to law, will not listen
to the experienced, pays no regard to the training of the past. Desire conquers
intelligence. His father is heart-broken. "My son is plunged into
vice," says he; "my son is going into evil. I instructed him in right
conduct, and see, he has become a liar; my heart is broken for my son."
But Ishvara, the Father more loving than any earthly father, has patience. For
he is in the son as much as in the father. He is in him teaching him a lesson,
in the only way by which that soul is willing to learn. He would not learn by
authority or by example. At all hazards that desire for the evil thing which is
stopping his evolution must be rooted out of his nature. If he will not learn
by gentleness, let him then learn by pain. Let him learn by experience; let him
plunge into vice, and reap the bitter pang that comes from trampling on the
law. There is time; he will learn the lesson surely though painfully. God is in
him, and still He lets him go that way; nay, He even opens the way that he may
go along it; when he demands it, the answer of God is: "My child, if you
will not listen, take your own way and learn your lesson in the fire of your
agony and in the bitterness of your degradation. I am with you still, watching
over you and your actions, the Fulfiller of the law and the Father of your
life. You shall learn in the mire of degradation that cessation of desire which
you would not learn from wisdom and from love". That is why He says in the
Gitâ: "I am the gambling of the cheat". For He is always patiently
working for the glorious end, by rough ways if we will not walk in smooth. We,
unable to understand that infinite compassion, misread Him, but He works on
with the patience of eternity, in order that desire may be utterly uprooted,
and His son may be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect.
Let us go on the next stage. There are
certain great laws of growth that are general. We have learned to look upon
certain things as right and upon others as wrong. Every nation has its own
standard of morality. Only a few know how that standard was formed, and where
that standard fails. For ordinary affairs the standard is good enough. The experience
of the race has found out, under the guidance of law, that some actions hold
back evolution while others press it forward. The great law of the orderly
evolution that follows the earlier stages is the law of the four successive
steps in later human growth. This comes after a man has reached a certain
point, after the preliminary training is over. It is found in every nation at a
certain stage of evolution, but was proclaimed in ancient
What is the law of growth in that stage?
Obedience, devotion, fidelity. That is the law of growth for that stage.
Obedience, because the judgment is not developed. He whose Dharma is service
has to blindly obey the one to whom he renders service. His is not to challenge
the order of his superior, nor his to see that the commanded action is a wise
one. He has received an order to do a thing, and his Dharma is obedience, by
which alone he will be able to learn. People hesitate at that teaching, but it
is true. I will take an example, that will strike you most forcibly - that of
an army, of a private soldier under the command of his Captain. If every
private soldier were to use his own judgment as to the orders that came from
the General, and if he were to say: "This is not well, for in my judgment
that is the place where I shall be more serviceable", what would become of
the army? The private soldier is shot if he disobeys, for his duty is
obedience. When your judgment is feeble, when you are chiefly moved by impulses
from without, when you cannot be happy without noise and clatter and jangle
around you, then your Dharma is service, wherever you may be [39] born, and you
are happy if your karma leads you to a position where discipline will train
you.
So the man learns to prepare for the next
stage. And the duty of all those who are in positions of authority is to remember
that the Dharma of a Shudra is fulfilled when he is obedient and faithful to
his master, and they should not expect one in that grade of evolution to show
forth the higher virtues. To demand from him cheerfulness in suffering, purity
of thought, and the power to suffer hardships ungrudgingly, is to demand too
much; for when we ourselves often do not show these qualities, how can we
expect them from those whom we call the lower classes? The duty of the higher
is to show forth the higher virtues, but he has no right to demand them from
his inferiors. If the servant shows fidelity and obedience, the Dharma is
perfectly performed, and other faults should not be punished, but should be
gently pointed out by the master, for by so doing he is training that younger
soul; for a child soul should be gently led along the path, and its growth
should not be stunted by harsh treatment, as we generally stunt it.
Then the soul, having learned this lesson in
many births, by learning the lesson has obeyed the law of growth, and by
following his Dharma has approached the next stage, in which he is to learn the
first use of power by acquiring wealth. Then the Dharma of that soul is to
evolve all the qualities which are now ready for evolution, and are brought out
by leading the life which the inner nature demands, i.e. by taking up some
occupation which the next stage requires, the stage where it is a merit to
acquire wealth. For the Dharma of a Vaishya all over the world is to evolve
certain definite faculties. The faculty of justice, just dealing between man
and man, the not swerving aside at the mere prompting of sentiment, the working
out of the qualities of shrewdness, keenness, and holding a just balance
between contending duties, fair payment in fair exchange, acuteness of insight,
frugality, absence of waste and extravagance, the exaction from every servant
of the service that should be given, the payment of just wages, but only of
just wages - these are the characteristics which fit him for higher growth. It
is a merit in the Vaishya to be frugal, to refuse to pay more than he should,
to insist on a just and fair exchange. All these things bring out qualities
that are wanted and will conduce to future perfection. In their early stages
they are sometimes unlovely, but from the higher standpoint they are the Dharma
of that man, and if it be not fulfilled, there will be weakness in the
character, which will come out later and injure his evolution. Liberality is
indeed the law of his further growth, but not the liberality of carelessness or
of over-payment. He is to gather wealth by the exercise of frugality and
strictness, and then to spend that wealth on noble objects and on learned men,
to bestow it upon worthy and well considered schemes for the public good. To gather
with energy and shrewdness, and to spend with careful discrimination and
liberality, that is the Dharma of a Vaishya, the outcome of his nature, and the
law of his further growth.
This leads us to the next stage, that of the
rulers and warriors, of battles and struggles, where the inner nature is
combative, aggressive, quarrelsome, standing on its own ground and ready to
protect every one in the enjoyment of what is right. Courage, fearlessness,
splendid generosity, throwing away of life in the defense of the weak and in
the discharging of one's duties - that is the Dharma of the Kshattriya. His
duty is to protect what is given him in charge against all aggression from
without. It may cost him life, but never mind that. He must do his duty. To
protect, to guard, that is his work. His strength is to be a barrier between
the weak and the oppressive, between the helpless and those who would trample
them under foot. Right for him the following of war and the struggle in the
jungle with the wild beast. Because you do not understand what evolution is,
and what the law of growth, you stand aghast at the horrors of war. But the
great Rishis, who made this order, knew that a weak soul can never attain
perfection. You cannot get strength without courage, and firmness and courage
cannot be got without the facing of danger, and the readiness to throw away
life when duty demands the sacrifice.
Our sentimental, weak-kneed, pseudo-moralist shrinks
from that teaching. But he forgets that in every nation there are souls that
need that training, and whose further evolution depends upon their success in
attaining it. I appeal again to Bhishma, the incarnation of Dharma, and I
remember what he said, that it is the duty of the Kshattriya to slay thousands
of his enemies, if his duty in protection lies in that direction. War is
terrible, fighting is shocking, our hearts revolt from it, and we shrink before
the anguish of mutilated and mangled bodies. To a great extent this is because
we are utterly deluded by form. The one use of the body is to enable the life
within it to evolve. But the moment it has learned all that that body can give
it, let the body break away, and let the soul go free to take a new body that
will enable it to manifest higher powers. We cannot pierce the Mâyâ of the
Lord. These bodies of ours may perish, time after time, but every death is a
resurrection to higher life. This body itself is nothing more than a garment
which the soul puts on, and no wise men would like the body to be eternal. We
clothe our child in a small coat and change it when the child grows. But will
you make the coat of iron, and cramp the growth of the child? So this body is
our coat. Shall it be then of iron that it should never perish? Does not the
soul require a new body for its higher growth? Let then the body go. This is
the hard lesson the Kshattriya learns, and so he throws away his bodily life,
and, in this throwing away, his soul gains the power of self-sacrifice, he
learns endurance, fortitude, courage, resource, devotion to an ideal, loyalty
to a cause, and he pays his body gladly as the price for these, the immortal
soul rising triumphant and preparing for a nobler life.
Then there comes the last stage, the stage of
teaching. The Dharma of that stage is to teach. The soul must have assimilated
all lower experiences before he can teach. If he had not been through all those
previous stages, and obtained wisdom through obedience and exertion and combat,
how could he be a teacher? He has reached the stage of evolution where the
natural expansion of his inner nature is to teach his more ignorant brethren.
These qualities are not artificial. They are inborn qualities of nature and
they show themselves wherever they exist. A Brâhmana is not a Brâhmana if he is
not a teacher by his Dharma. He has gained knowledge and a favourable birth in
order to make him a teacher.
The law of his growth is knowledge, piety,
forgiveness, being the friend of every creature. How the Dharma is changed! But
he could not be the friend of every creature if he had not learned to throw his
life away when duty called, and the very battle trained the Kshattriya to
become at a later stage the friend of every creature. What is the law of a
Brâhmanas growth? He must never take offence. He must never lose self-control.
He must never be hasty. He must always be gentle: otherwise he falls from his
Dharma. He must be all purity. He must never lead an evil life. He must detach
himself from worldly things, if they have a hold upon him. Do I hold up an
impossible standard? I but speak the law as the Great Ones have spoken it, and
I but feebly re-echo their words. The law has laid down the standard, and who
shall dare to lower it? When Shri Krishna Himself proclaimed that as the Dharma
of the Brâhmana, that must be the law of his growth, and the end of his growth
is liberation. For him is liberation, but only if he shows out the qualities
that he ought to have reached, and follows the lofty ideal that is his Dharma.
These are the only justification for the name of Brâhmana.
This ideal is so beautiful that all earnest
and thoughtful men desire to reach it. But wisdom steps in and says: "Yes,
it shall be yours, but you must earn it. You must grow, you must labour; truly
it is yours, but it is not yours until you have paid the price". Important
is it for our own growth, and the growth of the nations, that this distinction
in Dharmas should be understood as depending upon the stage of evolution, and
that we should be able to discriminate our own Dharma by the characteristics
which we find in our nature. If we set before an unprepared soul an ideal so
lofty that it does not move him, we check his evolution. If you give to a
peasant the ideal of a Brâhmana you are placing before him an impossible ideal,
and the result is that he does nothing. When you tell a man a thing too high
for him, that man knows that you have been talking nonsense, for you have
commanded him to perform that which he has no power to perform; your folly has
placed before him motives which do not move him. But wise were the teachers of
old. They gave the children sugar-plums, and later the higher lessons. But we
are so clever that we appeal to the lowest sinner by motives which can stir
only the highest saint, and thus instead of furthering, we check his evolution.
Place your own ideal as high as you can set it. But do not impose your ideal
upon your brother, the law of whose growth may be entirely different from
yours. Learn the tolerance which helps each man to do in his place what it is
good for him to do, and what his nature impels him to do. Leaving him in his
place, help him. Learn that tolerance which is repelled by none, however
sinful, which sees in every man a divinity working, and stands beside him to
help him. Instead of standing off on some high peak of spirituality, and
preaching a doctrine of self-sacrifice which is utterly beyond his
comprehension, in teaching his young soul, use his higher selfishness to
destroy the lower. Do not tell the peasant that when he is not industrious he
is falling from the ideal; but tell that man: "There is your wife; you
love that woman; she is starving. Set to work and feed her". By that
motive, which is certainly selfish, you do more to raise that man than if you
preach to him about Brahman, the unconditioned and unmanifest. Learn what
Dharma means, and you will be of service to the world.
I do not wish to lower by one tiniest
fraction your own ideal; you cannot aim too high. The fact that you can
conceive it makes it yours, but does not make it that of your less developed
younger brother. Aim at the loftiest you are able to think and to love. But in
aiming, consider the means as well as the end, your powers as well as your
aspirations. Make your aspirations high. They are the germs of powers in your
next life. Through ever keeping the ideal high you will grow towards it, and
what you long for today you shall be in the days to come. But have the
tolerance of knowledge, and the patience which is divine. Each thing in its own
place is in its right place. As the higher nature develops you can appeal to
the qualities of self-sacrifice, purity and utter self-devotion, to the will
firmly fixed on God. That is the ideal for the highest to accomplish. Let us
climb towards it gradually, lest we fail to reach it at all.
RIGHT AND WRONG
DURING
the last two days of our study, we have been giving our attention and fixing
our thought on what I may call the theoretical side, to a very great extent, of
this complicated and difficult problem. We have tried to understand how the
differences of nature arise. We have tried to grasp the sublime idea, that this
world is intended to grow from the mere germ of life given out by God into the
image of Him who gave it forth. The perfection of that image, we have seen, can
only be gained by the multiplicity of finite objects, and perfection lies in
that multiplicity; but in that same multiplicity we see is implied necessarily
the limitation of each object. We then found that by the law of growth, we must
have existing in the universe, at one and the same time, every variety of inner
evolving nature. As these natures are all at different stages of evolution, we
cannot make on all of them the same demands, nor expect from all of them the
discharge of the same functions. Morality must be studied in relation to the
people who are to practice it. In judging the standard of right and wrong for a
particular individual, we must consider at what stage of growth that individual
has arrived. Absolute right existeth in Ishvara alone; [Page 48] our right and
wrong are relative and depend for each of us very much on the stage of
evolution that we have reached.
I am going to try this evening to apply this
theory to the conduct of life. We must see whether we have gained, by the line
of study that we have pursued, a rational and scientific idea of morality, so
that we may no longer have the same confusion that is seen today. For we see
that ideals are held up on one side as those which ought to be reproduced in
life, and on the other hand we find that there is an absolute failure even to
aim at these ideals; we behold a most unfortunate divergence between faith and
practice. Morality is not without its laws; like everything else in a universe
that is the expression of divine thought, morality has also its conditions and
limitations. In this way it may be possible to bring a cosmos out of the
present moral chaos, and to learn practical lessons in morality, which will
enable India to grow, to develop, to become again an example to the world,
reproducing her ancient grandeur, showing forth once more her ancient
spirituality.
There are three recognised schools of
morality existing among western people. We must remember that western thought
is very largely influencing India, and especially is it influencing the rising
generation, on which the hope of India rests. It is, therefore, necessary that
we should understand something of these schools of morality, differing in their
theories [Page 49] and teachings, that exist in the West, if it be only in
order to learn to avoid their limitations, and to take from them whatever of
good they may have to offer.
There is one school which says that
revelation from God is the basis of morality. The objection raised by opponents
to that statement is that in this world there are many religions, and every
religion has its own revelation. Looking at this variety of religious
scriptures, it is argued, it is difficult to say that one revelation is to be regarded
as based on supreme authority. That each religion will regard its own
revelation as supreme is natural, but in this conflict of tongues how shall a
decision be made by the student?
Then it is said again, that there is an
inherent defect in this theory, affecting all moral standards founded on a
revelation given once for all. In order that a scheme may be useful for the
time for which it is given, it must be of a nature suitable for the time. As a
nation evolves, and thousands upon thousands of years pass over the people, we
find that that which was suitable for the nation in its infancy, becomes
unsuitable for the nation in its manhood; many precepts once useful are no
longer useful today under the changed circumstances of the time. That difficulty
is recognised and met when we come to deal with the Hindu scriptures; for we
find there a vast variety of moral teachings, suitable for all grades of
evolving souls. There are [Page 50] precepts so simple, so clear, so definite,
and so imperative, that the youngest of souls may utilize them. But we find
also that the Rishis recognised that these precepts were not meant for the
training of a highly developed soul. We find in the Ancient Wisdom that
teachings were also given to a few advanced souls, teachings that at the time
were utterly unintelligible to the masses. Those teachings were restricted to
an inner circle of those who had reached the maturity of the human race.
Different schools of morality have always been recognised in Hinduism as
necessary for human growth. But whenever, in some great religion, that
recognition is not found, you get a certain theoretical morality, not suited to
the growing needs of the people, and, therefore, there is a sense of unreality,
a feeling that it is not reasonable to permit now what was permitted in the
infancy of humanity. On the other hand, you find here and there, in all
scriptures, precepts of the loftiest character which few can even strive to
obey. When a command, suitable to the almost savage, is made of universal
obligation and is given on the same authority and to the same people as the
command given to the saint, there creeps in the feeling of unreality, and
confusion of thought is the result.
Another school has arisen, which bases
morality on intuition - which says that God speaks to every man through the
voice of conscience. It alleges that revelation is made to nation after nation,
but that we are not bound by any single book; conscience is the [Page 51] final
arbiter. The objection made to this theory is that one man's conscience has the
same authority as another man's. If your conscience differs from that of
another, then who may decide between conscience and conscience, between the
conscience of the ignorant rustic and the conscience of the illuminated mystic?
If you say that you admit the principle of evolution, and that you should take
as your judge the highest conscience in the race, then intuition fails as a
solid basis of morality, and the very element of variety destroys the rock on
which you intended to build. The conscience is the voice of the inner man, who
remembers the experiences of his past, and out of that immemorial experience
judges a given line of conduct today. This so-called intuition is the result of
countless incarnations, and according to the number of incarnations, the mind
is evolved on which the quality of the conscience of the present individual
depends; such intuition, pure and simple, cannot be taken as sufficient guide
in morality. We want a commanding voice, not a jangle of tongues. We need the
authority of the teacher, and not the confused gabbling of the crowd.
The third school of morality is the school of
utilitarianism. That school's view is, as generally presented, neither
reasonable nor satisfactory. What is the maxim of this school? "That is
right which conduces to the greatest happiness of the greatest number." It
is a maxim which will not bear analysis. Notice the words "greatest
number".It is a maxim which will not bear analysis. Notice the words
"greatest happiness of the greatest number. Such a [Page 52] limitation
makes the maxim one which the illuminated intelligence must reject. There is no
question of majority, when we are dealing with mankind. One life is its root,
one God its goal; you cannot separate the happiness of one from that of
another. You cannot break up the solid unity, and, picking up the majority,
give happiness to them, and leave the minority disregarded. This theory does
not recognise the irrefragable unity of the human race, and consequently its
maxim fails as a basis of morality. It fails because, in consequence of this
unity, one man cannot be perfectly happy unless all men are perfectly happy.
His happiness fails in perfection so long as one unit is left out and is
unhappy. God does not make distinctions as to units and majorities, but gives
one life to humanity and to all creatures. The life of God is the only life in
the universe; and the perfect happiness of that life is the goal of the
universe.
Then again, there is a failure in this maxim
as an impelling motive because it appeals only to the developed intelligence,
that is, to the highly evolved soul. If you go to the ordinary man of the
world, to a selfish person, and if you say to that man: "You must lead a
life of self-sacrifice and virtue and perfect morality, even though the leading
it may cost you your life," what do you think would be his answer? Such a
man would say: "Why should I do this for the human race, for people in the
future whom I shall never see?" If you take this as [Page 53] the standard
of right and wrong, then the martyr becomes the greatest fool that humanity has
ever produced, for he throws away the possibility of happiness and gets nothing
in return. You cannot take this standard, save by limiting your view to the
cases in which you get a noble soul, highly developed, and, though not entirely
spiritual, with possibility of dawning spirituality. There are such as William
Kingdom Clifford, in whose hands the utilitarian doctrine has become inspired
with a sublime loftiness of tone. Clifford, in his essay on Ethics, appeals to
the highest ideals and gives the noblest teachings of self-sacrifice. He had no
belief in the immortality of the soul; approaching death, he could stand beside
his grave, believing that that ended all, and preach that the highest virtue is
the only thing that a true man can practice, since he owes it to a world which
has given him all. But very few will draw inspiration so noble from a prospect
so gloomy, and we need a view of right and wrong that shall inspire all, appeal
to all, and not merely to those who need its impulse least.
What has come out of all this quarrelling?
Confusion, and something worse. A lip-acceptance of revelation, with a practical
disregard of it. We have, in fact, a revelation modified by custom. That is the
standard which emerges from this confusion. Revelation is taken theoretically
as authority, but is disregarded in practice, because often found imperfect. So
that you have this [Page 54] unreasonable position, that that which is declared
as authority is rejected in the life, and a life of an illogical kind, a
happy-go-lucky life is led, without any logic or reason, without the basis of
any definite and rational system.
Can we find in this idea of Dharma a basis
more satisfactory, a basis on which the conduct of life may be intelligently
built? However low, or however high the stage of evolution occupied by the
individual, the idea of Dharma gives us the thought of an inner nature
unfolding itself in further growth, and we have found that the world is, as a
whole, evolving - evolving from the imperfect to the perfect, from the germ to
the divine man, stage by stage, in every grade of manifested life. That
evolution is by the divine will. God is the moving power, the guiding Spirit of
the whole. It is His way of building the world. It is the method that He has
adopted in order that the Spirits that are His children may reproduce the
likeness of their Parent. Does not that very statement hint at a law? That is
right, which works with the divine purpose in the evolution of the universe,
and forwards that evolution from the imperfect to the perfect. That is wrong,
which delays or frustrates that divine purpose, and tends to push the universe
back to the stage from which it is evolving. It is growing from the mineral to
the vegetable, from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to the
animal-man, and from the animal-man to the divine man. That is right, [Page 55]
which helps the evolution towards divinity; that is wrong, which drags it
backwards, or impedes its progress.
Now if we look for a moment at that idea,
perhaps we shall acquire a clear view of this law, and no longer feel uneasy
over this relative aspect of right and wrong. Place a ladder with its foot on
the platform and let it rise to some place beyond the roof. Suppose that one of
you had climbed five steps up, another two steps, while a third was standing on
the platform. For the man who had climbed up five steps to stand beside the man
who was on the second step would be to descend; but for the man on the platform
to stand beside the man on the second step would to be ascend. Suppose that
every rung of the ladder represents an action: each would be moral and immoral
at the same time, according to the point of view from which we look at it. That
action which is moral for a brute-man, would be immoral for a highly cultivated
man. For a man on the higher rung of the ladder to come down to the lower is to
go against evolution, and, therefore, for him such action is immoral; but for a
man to rise from the lower stage to stand on that same rung is moral, because
it is in the line of his evolution. So that two persons may well stand on the
same rung of the ladder, but the one, having gone upwards and the other having
come downwards to reach it, the action for the one is moral and for the other
is immoral. Realise that and we shall begin to find our law. [Page 56]
You have two boys: one of them is a clever
and intellectual boy, but is very fond of the gratifications of the body, very
fond of food and of anything that gives him sensuous pleasure. The other boy
shows some dawning spirituality, is bright, quick and intellectual. We will
take a third boy who shows the spiritual nature unfolded to a considerable
extent. Here are three boys. What motive shall we use to help on the evolution
of each? We go to the young man who is very fond of sensual pleasure. If I say
to him: "My son, your life should be a life of perfect unselfishness, you
should lead an ascetic life," he will shrug his shoulders and go away; and
I shall not have helped him up a single rung of the ladder. If I say to him:
"My lad, these pleasures of yours are pleasures which give you momentary
delight but they will ruin your body and shatter your health; look on that
prematurely old man, who has led a life of sensual indulgence; that will be
your fate if you go on thus; will it not be better to give a part of your time
to the cultivation of your mind, to learning something, so that you may be able
to write a book or compose a poem, or help on some of the world's work? You may
earn money and get health and fame, and by this attempt you will gratify your
ambition; give a rupee now and then to buy a book, instead of buying a
dinner". By so addressing him, I stir that youth with an idea of ambition;
selfish ambition I admit, but there is not there as yet the power to respond to
the appeal for self-sacrifice. [Page 57] The motive of ambition is selfish, but
it is selfishness of a higher kind than that sensual gratification, and as it
gives him something of the intellect, raises him out, of the brute, puts him on
the level of the man who is developing the intellect, and thus helps him to
rise higher in the scale of evolution, that is a wiser teaching for him than
the impracticable selflessness. It gives him not a perfect ideal, but an ideal
suited to his capacity.
But when I come to my intellectual youth with
dawning spirituality, I shall put before him the ideal of serving his country,
of serving India; I shall make this his object and aim, partly selfish and
partly unselfish, thus widening his ambition and helping on his evolution. And
when I come to the youth of spiritual nature, I will drop all lower motives, and
appeal, on the contrary, to the eternal law of self-sacrifice, to devotion to
the one Life, the worship of the great Ones and of God. I shall teach
Discrimination [Vivekah] and Dispassion [Vairagya], and thus help the spiritual
nature to unfold its infinite possibilities. Thus understanding morality as
relative, we are able to work effectively. If we fail to help every soul, in
its own place, it is because we are ill-trained teachers.
In every nation, there are certain definite
things which are marked as wrong, such as murder, theft, lying, vileness. All
these are recognised as crimes. That is the general view. But it is not wholly
borne out by facts. How far are these things recognised [Page 58] as moral and
how far as immoral in practice? Why are they recognised as wrong? Because the
masses of the nation have reached a certain stage of evolution. Because the
majority of the nation are at about the same level of growth, and at that level
they recognise these things as evil, as against progress. The result is that
the minority, being below this stage, is regarded as being made up of
"criminals". The majority has reached a higher stage of evolution,
and the majority makes the law; then those who cannot come up even to the
lowest level of the majority are dubbed criminals. Two types of criminals
present themselves to our view. One type upon which we cannot make any
impression by appealing to their sense of right and wrong. They are spoken of
by the ignorant public as hardened criminals. But this view is a mistaken one,
and leads to lamentable results. They are merely ignorant, ungrown souls,
child-souls, infants in the School of Life, and we do not help them to grow by
trampling them down and brutalizing them further, because they are scarcely a
grade removed from the brute. We should use all the means in our power, all
that our reason can suggest, to guide and teach these child-souls, to
discipline them into a better life; let us not treat them as hardened criminals
because they are mere babies in the nursery.
The other type of criminals is made up of
those who feel a certain amount of remorse and repentance after the commission
of a crime, who know that they [Page 59] have done wrong. They stand on a
higher level, and can he helped to resist evil in future by the very suffering
imposed on them by human law. I spoke of the necessity of all experience, in
order that the soul might learn to discern between right and wrong. We need
experience of good and evil, until we can discriminate the good from the evil,
but no further. The moment the two lines of actions are distinct before you,
and you know that the one is right and the other is wrong, then if you choose
the wrong road you are committing sin, you are going against a law that you
know and admit. A man at this stage commits sin, because his desires are
strong, prompting him to choose the path which is wrong. He suffers, and it is
well that he should suffer, if he follows these desires. The moment the
knowledge of wrong is present, there at the moment also there is deliberate
degradation in yielding to the impulse. Experience of the wrong is only needed
before the wrong is recognised as wrong, and in order that it may come to he so
recognised. When two courses are before a man, neither of which appears to him
to be morally different from the other, then he may take either of those
courses and commit no wrong. But the moment a thing is known to be wrong, it is
a treason to ourselves to allow the brute in us to overpower the God in us.
That is what is really sin; that is what is the condition of most, but not all,
wrong-doers today.
Let us pass front that and look at some
particular faults a little more closely. Take murder: we find [Page 60] that
the common sense of the community makes a distinction between killing and
killing. If a man takes up a knife in anger and stabs his enemy, the law calls
him a murderer and hangs him. If a thousand men take up knives and stab a
thousand men, then the killing is called war. Glory and not punishment is
awarded to him who thus kills. The same crowd who hoot the murderer of one
enemy, cheer the men who have killed ten thousand enemies. What is this strange
anomaly? How can we explain it? Is there anything to justify the verdict of the
community? Is there any distinction between the two acts, which justifies the
difference of treatment? There is. War is a thing against which the public
conscience more and more protests, and in a moment we shall have to look at
this fact of the growth of the public conscience. But while we should do all we
can to prevent war, should try to spread peace and to educate our children in
the love of peace, there is none the less a real distinction in the conduct of
one who kills through private malice, and the killing which takes place in war;
this difference is so far-reaching, that I shall dilate upon it a little. In
the one case, a personal grudge is satisfied, and personal satisfaction is
found. In the other case, one man in killing the other man is not gratifying a
personal feeling, is serving no personal object, is seeking no personal gain.
The men are killing each other as an act of obedience to a command laid on them
by their superiors, whose is the responsibility [Page 61] for the righteousness
of the war. All my life I have preached peace, and I have striven to show the
evils of war. But, none the less, I recognise that there is much in the mere
discipline of the military force, which is of vital importance to those who are
subjected to that training. What does the soldier learn? He learns obedience to
order, cleanliness, quickness, accuracy, promptness in action, and willingness
to undergo physical hardship without complaint or murmur. He learns to risk his
life, and to give it for an ideal cause. Is not that a training which has its
place in the evolution of the soul? Does not the soul profit by this training?
When the ideal of the country fires the heart, when life is sacrificed for it
gladly by rough, common and uneducated men, they may be rude, violent, drunken,
but they are passing through a training which, in lives to come, will make them
better and nobler men.
Then take a phrase used by an Englishman of
somewhat strange genius, Rudyard Kipling, who makes soldiers say that they will
fight "for the widow at Windsor". That may sound a little rough, but
it is well for the man who starves, who suffers mutilation on the battlefield,
if he sees before him his Queen-Empress, mother of millions of people, and
offers up his life to her, learning for the first time the beauty of fidelity,
of courage and devotion. There is the distinction which, very dimly grasped by
the public, marks the distinction between private killing and war. For the
interest of the one is personal; [Page 62] that of the other belongs to a wider
self - the self of the nation.
In dealing with this question of morality, we
fall often practically below that view. There are many cases of theft, of
lying, of killing, that the law of man does not punish, but that the law of
karma notes and brings back to the doer. Many an act of theft is disguised as
commerce; many an act of cheating is disguised as trade; many a fine
arrangement of lies is classified as diplomacy. Crime reappears under startling
forms, disguised and hidden, and men have to learn self-purification in life
after life. Then comes in another consideration, before we come to the essence
of sin - one which I cannot entirely overpass - thought and action. There are
some actions which a man commits, which are inevitable. You do not understand
what you are doing, when you allow yourself to think along a line of wrong. You
covet in thought another man's gold; you are grasping with your mind's hands,
at every moment, what is not yours. You are building the Dharma of the thief.
The inner nature, the interior nature, is Dharma, and if you build that inner
nature by thoughts that are evil, you will be born with the Dharma that will
carry you to deeds of vice. Those deeds will then be done without thought. Have
you any idea how many thoughts in you have already gone towards the making of
an action? You may dam up water, and prevent it from flowing along a channel,
but the moment a hole is made in the dam, [Page 63] the pent-up water will flow
through the hole and sweep the dam away: so is it with thought and action.
Thought accumulates slowly behind the dam of absence of opportunity. As you
think and think, the stream of thought grows fuller and fuller behind the
breastwork of circumstances. In another life that breastwork of circumstances
gives way, and the action is committed before any new thought has occurred.
Those are the inevitable crimes, which sometimes blast a great career, when the
thought of the past finds its fruitage in the present, when the karma of
accumulated thought comes forth as action. If the opportunity comes to you, and
you have time to pause, time to say: "Shall I do it?" then that
action is not inevitable for you. The pause for thought means that you can put
the thought on the other side and so strengthen the barrier. There is no excuse
for doing an action which you have thought of as wrong. Those actions only are
inevitable which are done without thinking, where the thought belongs to the
past and the action to the present.
We come now to the great question of
separateness: there lies in every deed the essence of wrong. In the past,
separateness was right. The great course of the divine life-stream was dividing
itself into multiplicity; it was needed to build up individual centers of
consciousness. So long as a centre needs strengthening, separateness is on the
side of progress. Souls at one period need to be selfish; they cannot do
without selfishness in the early stages of growth. [Page 64] But now the law of
progressing life for the more advanced is the outgrowing of separateness, and
the seeking to realise unity. We are now on the path towards unity; we are
approaching nearer and nearer to each other. We must now unite, in order to
grow further. The purpose is the same, though the method has changed in the
evolution through the ages. The public conscience is beginning to recognise
that not in separateness but in unity, there lies the true growth of a nation.
We are trying to substitute arbitration for war, co-operation for competition,
protection of the weak for trampling them under foot, and all this, because the
line of evolution now goes towards unity and not towards separateness.
Separation is the mark of descent into matter, and unification is the mark of
the ascent to Spirit. The world is on the upward trend, although thousands of
souls may lag behind. The ideal now is peace, co-operation, protection,
brotherhood and helpfulness. The essence of sin now lies in separateness.
But that thought leads us on to another test
of conduct. Is the action we are doing one which seeks our own gain, or which
helps on the general good? Is our life a self-seeking, useless life, or does it
help humanity? If it is selfish, then it is wrong, it is evil, it is against
the growth of the world. If you be among those who have seen the beauty of the
ideal of unity, and have recognised the perfection of the divine manhood that
we seek, then you should kill out this heresy of separateness in yourself.
[Page 65]
When we look at much of the teaching of the
past and see the conduct of the Sages, certain questions in morality arise,
which some find it rather hard to answer. I raise this question here, because I
may suggest to you the line of thought by which you may defend the Shâstras
from carping critics and which may enable you to profit by their teachings,
without becoming confused. A great Sage is not always, in his conduct, an
example that an ordinary man should endeavour to follow. When I speak now of a
great Sage, I mean one in whom all personal desire is dead, who is not
attracted to any object in the world, whose only life is in obedience to the
divine will, who gives himself as one of the channels of divine force for the
helping of the world. He performs the functions of a God, and the functions of
the Gods differ much from the functions of men. The earth is full of all kinds
of catastrophes - wars, earthquakes, famine, pestilences, plagues. Who is their
cause? There is no cause in God's universe save God Himself, and these things
which seem so terrible, so shocking, so painful, are His ways of teaching us
when we are going wrong. A plague sweeps off thousands of the men of a nation.
A mighty war scatters its thousands of dead on the field of carnage. Why?
Because that nation had disregarded the divine law of its growth, and must
learn its lesson by suffering, if it will not learn it by reason. Plague is the
result of disregarding the laws of health and of clean living. God is too
merciful to permit a law to be disregarded by [Page 66] the whims and fancies
and feelings of slowly evolving man, without calling attention to the
disregarded. These catastrophes are worked by the Gods, by the agents of
Ishvara, who, invisible throughout the world, administer the divine law, as a
magistrate administers the civil laws. Just because they are administrators of
the law and are acting impersonally, their actions are no more examples for us
to follow, than the action of the judge in imprisoning a criminal is an example
to show that an ordinary man may take revenge on his enemy. Look, for instance,
at the great Sage Nârada. We find him stirring up war, when two nations have
reached a point where the higher good of each can only be gained by the
struggles of war, and by the conquest of one by the other. Bodies are killed,
and it is the best help to the men thus slain that their bodies should be
struck away, and that, in new bodies, they may have greater possibility of
growth. Gods bring about the battle in which thousands of men are slain. It
would be wicked for us to imitate them, because to stir up war for the sake of
conquest or gain, or ambition, or for some object where personality comes in,
is sinful. But in the case of Nârada it is not so, because Devarshis such as he
is are helping the world along the path of evolution by striking away the
obstacles. You will understand something of the wonders and mysteries of the
Universe, when you know that things that seem evil from the side of form are
good from the [Page 67] side of life; all that happens is working for the best.
"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may."
Religion is right when it says that the Gods rule over the world and guide
nations, and lead and even scourge them into the right path when they go
astray.
A man, full of personality and attracted by
the objects of desire, whose whole self is Kâma, such a man, committing an
action instigated by Kama, often commits a crime; but the very same action
committed by a liberated soul, free from all desire, in carrying out the divine
order, would be rightly done. In the utter disbelief that men have fallen into
as to the working of thy Gods, such words may seem strange, but there is no
energy in nature, which is not the physical manifestation of a God carrying out
the will of the Supreme. That is the true view of nature. We see the side of
form, and, blinded by Mâyâ, call it evil; but the Gods, as they break up forms,
are clearing away every obstacle that obstructs the way of evolution.
We may here understand one or two of those
other questions that are often thrown in our faces by those who take a superficial
view of things. Supposing a man, who is longing to commit a sin, is prevented
from committing it solely by the pressure of circumstances; suppose that the
longing is growing stronger and stronger; what is the best thing for him? To
have an opportunity to put his longing into action. To commit a crime? Yes,
even a crime is [Page 68] less injurious to the soul than a continued brooding
over it in the mind, the growing of a cancer at the heart of life. An action
once done is dead, and the suffering that follows it teaches the needed lesson,
but thought is generative and living.[ This does not mean that a man should
commit a sin rather than struggle against it. So long as he struggles, it is
well with him, and he is gaining strength. The case referred to is where there
is no struggle, but where the man is longing to do the action and only lacks
opportunity. In such case, the sooner the opportunity comes, the better for the
man; the pent-up longing breaks forth, the realized wish brings suffering, the man
learns a necessary lesson, and is purged of an ever-increasing moral
poison] Do you understand that? If you
do, then you will also understand why you find in the scriptures a God putting
in the way of a man an opportunity of committing the sin that man is longing to
commit, and in fact has committed in his heart. He will suffer, no doubt, for
his sin, but he will learn by the suffering that falls on the wrong-doer. Had
that evil thought been left to grow in the heart, it would have grown stronger
and stronger, and would have gradually wrecked the whole moral nature of the
man. For it is like a cancer which, if not speedily removed, will poison the
whole body. Far more merciful it is, that such a man should sin and suffer
pain, than that he should long to sin and be held back by lack of opportunity
merely, and thus make inevitable degradation for lives to come.
So also if a man is making rapid progress,
and there is a hidden weakness in him, or some past Karma not exhausted, or
evil deed not expiated, [Page 69] that man cannot be liberated while that Karma
remains unexhausted, while there is a debt still unpaid. What is the most
merciful thing to do? To help that man to pay his debt in anguish and
degradation, so that the misery following on the fault may exhaust the Karma of
the past. It means that there is swept out of his way an obstacle that prevents
his liberation, and God puts that temptation in his way to break the last
barrier down. I have not time to work out the details of this most pregnant line
of thought, but I ask you to follow it for yourselves and see what it means,
and how it illuminates the dark problems of growth, the falls of the saints.
If, when you have assimilated it, you then
read such a book as the Mahabharata, you will understand the workings of the
Gods in the affairs of men; you will see the Gods working in storm and
sunshine, in peace and in war, and you will know that it is well with the man
and with the nation, whatever may occur to them; for the noblest wisdom and the
tenderest love are guiding them to their appointed goal.
I come now to the last word - a word I will
dare to speak to you, who have been listening to me patiently on a subject so
difficult and abstruse. There is a yet higher note: know that there is a supreme
goal, and the last steps on the path to it are not the steps where Dharma can
any longer guide us. Let us take some wonderful words from the great Teacher,
Shri Krishna, and let us see how in His final instruction, He speaks of
something loftier than anything on [Page 70] which we have dared to touch. Here
is His message of peace: "Listen thou again to My supreme word, most
secret of all; beloved art thou of Me, and steadfast of heart, therefore will I
speak for thy benefit. Merge the Manas in Me, be my devotee, sacrifice to Me,
prostrate thyself before Me, thou shalt come even to Me. Abandoning all
Dharmas, come unto Me alone for shelter; sorrow not, I will liberate thee from
all sins" (Bhagavad-Gita, xviii, 64-66.).
My last words are addressed only to those who
lead here a life of supreme longing to sacrifice themselves to Him; they have a
right to these last words of hope and peace. Then the end of Dharma is reached.
Then the man desires no longer anything save the Lord. When the soul has
reached that stage of evolution, where it asks nothing of the world, but gives
itself wholly to God, when it has outgrown all the promptings of desire, when
the heart has gained freedom by love, when the whole being throws itself
forward at the feet of the Lord - then abandon you all Dharmas; they are no
longer for you; no longer for you the law of growth, no longer for you that
balancing of duty, no longer for you that scrutiny of conduct. You have given
yourself to the Lord. There is nothing left in you that is not divine. What
Dharma can any longer remain for you, for, united to Him, you are no longer a
separated self. Your life is hid in Him, His life is yours; you may be living
in the world, you are but His instrument. You are His wholly. Your life is
Ishvara's, and [Page 71] Dharma has no longer any claim on you. Your devotion
has liberated you, for your life is hid in God. That is the word of the
Teacher. That is the last thought I would leave with you.
And now, my brothers, farewell. Our work
together is done. After this imperfect presentation of a mighty subject, may I
say to you: listen to the thought in the message, and not to the speaker who is
the messenger; open your hearts to the thought, and forget the imperfection of
the lips that have spoken it. Remember that, as we climb to God, we must needs
try, however feebly, to pass on to our brothers some touch of that life we
reach after. Forget therefore the speaker, but remember the teaching. Forget
the imperfections which are in the messenger, not in the message. Worship the
God whose teaching we have been studying, and pardon in your charity the faults
of the servant who has given it utterance.
PEACE TO
ALL BEINGS.
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Nature is infinite in space and
time -- boundless and eternal, unfathomable and ineffable. The all-pervading
essence of infinite nature can be called space, consciousness, life, substance,
force, energy, divinity -- all of which are fundamentally one.
2) The finite and the infinite
Nature is a unity in
diversity, one in essence, manifold in form. The infinite whole is composed of
an infinite number of finite wholes -- the relatively stable and autonomous
things (natural systems or artefacts) that we observe around us. Every natural
system is not only a conscious, living, substantial entity, but is
consciousness-life-substance, of a particular range of density and form.
Infinite nature is an abstraction, not an entity; it therefore does not act or
change and has no attributes. The finite, concrete systems of which it is
composed, on the other hand, move and change, act and interact, and possess
attributes. They are composite, inhomogeneous, and ultimately transient.
3)
Vibration/worlds within worlds
The one essence manifests not
only in infinitely varied forms, and on infinitely varied scales, but also in
infinitely varying degrees of spirituality and substantiality, comprising an
infinite spectrum of vibration or density. There is therefore an endless series
of interpenetrating, interacting worlds within worlds, systems within systems.
The energy-substances of
higher planes or subplanes (a plane being a particular range of vibration) are
relatively more homogeneous and less differentiated than those of lower planes
or subplanes.
Just as boundless space is
comprised of endless finite units of space, so eternal duration is comprised of
endless finite units of time. Space is the infinite totality of worlds within
worlds, but appears predominantly empty because only a tiny fraction of the
energy-substances composing it are perceptible and tangible to an entity at any
particular moment. Time is a concept we use to quantify the rate at which
events occur; it is a function of
change and motion, and
presupposes a succession of cause and effect. Every entity is extended in space
and changes 'in time'.
All change (of position,
substance, or form) is the result of causes; there is no such thing as absolute
chance. Nothing can happen for no reason at all for nothing exists in
isolation; everything is part of an intricate web of causal interconnections and
interactions. The keynote of nature is harmony: every action is automatically
followed by an equal and opposite reaction, which sooner or later rebounds upon
the originator of the initial act. Thus, all our thoughts and deeds will
eventually bring us 'fortune' or 'misfortune' according to the degree to which
they were harmonious or disharmonious. In the long term, perfect justice
prevails in nature.
Because nature is
fundamentally one, and the same basic habits and structural, geometric, and
evolutionary principles apply throughout, there are correspondences between
microcosm and macrocosm. The principle of analogy -- as above, so below -- is a
vital tool in our efforts to understand reality.
All finite systems and their
attributes are relative. For any entity, energy-substances vibrating within the
same range of frequencies as its outer body are 'physical' matter, and finer
grades of substance are what we call energy, force, thought, desire, mind,
spirit, consciousness, but these are just as material to entities on the
corresponding planes as our physical world is to us. Distance and time units
are also relative: an atom is a solar system on its own scale, reembodying perhaps
millions of times in what for us is one second, and our whole galaxy may be a
molecule in some supercosmic entity, for which a million of our years is just a
second. The range of scale is infinite: matter-consciousness is both infinitely
divisible and infinitely aggregative.
All natural systems consist
of smaller systems and form part of larger systems. Hierarchies extend both
'horizontally' (on the same plane) and 'vertically' or inwardly (to higher and
lower planes). On the horizontal level, subatomic particles form atoms, which
combine into molecules, which arrange themselves into cells, which form tissues
and organs, which form part of organisms, which form part of ecosystems, which
form part of planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. The constitution of worlds
and of the organisms that inhabit them form 'vertical' hierarchies, and can be
divided into several interpenetrating layers or elements, from physical-astral
to psychomental to spiritual-divine, each of which can be further divided.
The human constitution can be
divided up in several different ways: e.g. into a trinity of body, soul, and
spirit; or into 7 'principles' -- a lower quaternary consisting of physical
body, astral model-body, life-energy, and lower thoughts and desires, and an
upper triad consisting of higher mind (reincarnating ego), spiritual intuition,
and inner god. A planet or star can be regarded as a 'chain' of 12 globes, existing
on 7 planes, each globe comprising several subplanes.
The highest part of every
multilevelled organism or hierarchy is its spiritual summit or 'absolute',
meaning a collective entity or 'deity' which is relatively perfected in
relation to the hierarchy in question. But the most 'spiritual' pole of one
hierarchy is the most 'material' pole of the next, superior hierarchy, just as
the lowest pole of one hierarchy is the highest pole of the one below.
Each level of a hierarchical
system exercises a formative and organizing influence on the lower levels
(through the patterns and prototypes stored up from past cycles of activity),
while the lower levels in turn react upon the higher. A system is therefore
formed and organized mainly from within outwards, from the inner levels of its
constitution, which are relatively more enduring and developed than the outer
levels. This inner guidance is sometimes active and selfconscious, as in our
acts of free will (constrained, however, by karmic tendencies from the past),
and sometimes it is automatic and passive, giving rise to our own automatic
bodily functions and habitual and instinctual behavior, and to the orderly,
lawlike operations of nature in general. The 'laws' of nature are therefore the
habits of the various grades of conscious entities that compose reality,
ranging from higher intelligences (collectively
forming the universal mind) to elemental nature-forces.
10) Consciousness and its vehicles
The core of every entity --
whether atom, human, planet, or star -- is a monad, a unit of consciousness-life-substance,
which acts through a series of more material vehicles or bodies. The monad or
self in which the consciousness of a particular organism is focused is animated
by higher monads and expresses itself through a series of lesser monads, each
of which is the nucleus of one of the lower vehicles of the entity in question.
The following monads can be distinguished: the divine or galactic monad, the
spiritual or solar monad, the higher human or planetary-chain monad, the lower
human or globe monad, and the animal, vital-astral, and physical monads. At our
present stage of evolution, we are essentially the lower human monad, and our
task is to raise our consciousness from the animal-human to the spiritual-human
level of it.
Evolution means the
unfolding, the bringing into active manifestation, of latent powers and
faculties 'involved' in a previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of
ever fitter vehicles for the expression of the mental and spiritual powers of
the monad. The more sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater
their ability to express the powers locked up in the higher levels of its
constitution. Thus all things are alive and conscious, but the degree of
manifest life and consciousness is extremely varied.
Evolution results from the
interplay of inner impulses and environmental stimuli. Ever building on and
modifying the patterns of the past, nature is infinitely creative.
12) Cyclic evolution/re-embodiment
Cyclic evolution is a
fundamental habit of nature. A period of evolutionary activity is followed by a
period of rest. All natural systems evolve through re-embodiment. Entities are
born from a seed or nucleus remaining from the previous evolutionary cycle of
the monad, develop to maturity, grow old, and pass away, only to re-embody in a
new form after a period of rest. Each new embodiment is the product of past
karma and present choices.
Nothing comes from nothing:
matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed.
Everything evolves from preexisting material. The growth of the body of an
organism is initiated on inner planes, and involves the transformation of higher
energy-substances into lower, more material ones, together with the attraction
of matter from the environment.
When an organism has
exhausted the store of vital energy with which it is born, the coordinating
force of the indwelling monad is withdrawn, and the organism 'dies', i.e. falls
apart as a unit, and its constituent components go their separate ways. The
lower vehicles decompose on their respective subplanes, while, in the case of
humans, the reincarnating ego enters a dreamlike state of rest and assimilates
the experiences of the previous incarnation. When the time comes for the next
embodiment, the reincarnating ego clothes itself in many of the same atoms of
different grades that it had used previously, bearing the appropriate karmic
impress. The same basic processes of birth, death,
and rebirth apply to all entities, from atoms to humans to stars.
14)
Evolution and involution of worlds
Worlds or spheres, such as
planets and stars, are composed of, and provide the field for the evolution of,
10 kingdoms -- 3 elemental kingdoms, mineral, plant, animal, and human
kingdoms, and 3 spiritual kingdoms. The impulse for a new manifestation of a
world issues from its spiritual summit or hierarch, from which emanate a series
of steadily denser globes or planes; the One expands into the many. During the
first half of the evolutionary cycle (the arc of descent) the energy-substances
of each plane materialize or condense, while during the second half (the arc of
ascent) the trend is towards dematerialization or etherealization, as globes
and entities are reabsorbed into the spiritual hierarch for a period of nirvanic
rest. The descending arc is characterized by the evolution of matter and
involution of spirit, while the ascending arc is characterized by the evolution
of spirit and involution of matter.
In each grand cycle of
evolution, comprising many planetary embodiments, a monad begins as an
unselfconsciousness god-spark, embodies in every kingdom of nature for the
purpose of gaining experience and unfolding its inherent faculties, and ends
the cycle as a self conscious god. Elementals ('baby monads') have no free
choice, but automatically act in harmony with one another and the rest of
nature. In each successive kingdom differentiation and individuality increase,
and reach their peak in the human kingdom with the attainment of
selfconsciousness and a large measure of free will.
In the human kingdom in
particular, self-directed evolution comes into its own. There is no superior
power granting privileges or handing out favours; we evolve according to our
karmic merits and demerits. As we progress through the spiritual kingdoms we
become increasingly at one again with nature, and willingly 'sacrifice' our
circumscribed selfconscious freedoms (especially the freedom to 'do our own
thing') in order to work in peace and harmony with the greater whole of which
we form an integral part. The highest gods of one hierarchy or world-system
begin as elementals in the next. The matter of any plane is composed of
aggregated, crystallized monads in their nirvanic sleep, and the spiritual and
divine entities embodied as planets and stars are the electrons and atomic
nuclei -- the material building blocks -- of worlds on even larger scales.
Evolution is without beginning and without end, an endless adventure through
the fields of infinitude, in which there are always new worlds of experience in
which to become selfconscious masters of life.
There is no absolute
separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same
spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy.
It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the
spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote
of our lives.
Hey Look! Theosophy in
Cardiff
Cardiff Theosophical Society
in Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL
_________________
Wales Picture Gallery
Anglesey Abbey
Bangor
Town Clock
Colwyn
Bay Centre
The
Great Orme
Llandudno
Promenade
Great
Orme Tramway
New
Radnor
Blaenavon
Ironworks
Llandrindod
Wells
Cardiff Theosophical Society
in Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL
Presteign
Railway
Caerwent Roman Ruins
Colwyn
Bay Postcard
Ferndale
in the
Denbigh
National
Museum of
Nefyn
Penisarwaen
Cardiff Theosophical Society
in Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL