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diff --git a/23136.txt b/23136.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7851111 --- /dev/null +++ b/23136.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4471 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Creative Unity, by Rabindranath Tagore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Creative Unity + +Author: Rabindranath Tagore + +Release Date: October 21, 2007 [EBook #23136] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CREATIVE UNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Irma Špehar and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + CREATIVE UNITY + + BY + + RABINDRANATH TAGORE + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + 1922 + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + + LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS + MELBOURNE + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + + NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO + DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO + + THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. + + TORONTO + + COPYRIGHT + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + + + + TO + DR. EDWIN H. LEWIS + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +It costs me nothing to feel that I am; it is no burden to me. And yet +if the mental, physical, chemical, and other innumerable facts +concerning all branches of knowledge which have united in myself could +be broken up, they would prove endless. It is some untold mystery of +unity in me, that has the simplicity of the infinite and reduces the +immense mass of multitude to a single point. + +This One in me knows the universe of the many. But, in whatever it +knows, it knows the One in different aspects. It knows this room only +because this room is One to it, in spite of the seeming contradiction +of the endless facts contained in the single fact of the room. Its +knowledge of a tree is the knowledge of a unity, which appears in the +aspect of a tree. + +This One in me is creative. Its creations are a pastime, through which +it gives expression to an ideal of unity in its endless show of +variety. Such are its pictures, poems, music, in which it finds joy +only because they reveal the perfect forms of an inherent unity. + +This One in me not only seeks unity in knowledge for its understanding +and creates images of unity for its delight; it also seeks union in +love for its fulfilment. It seeks itself in others. This is a fact, +which would be absurd had there been no great medium of truth to give +it reality. In love we find a joy which is ultimate because it is the +ultimate truth. Therefore it is said in the Upanishads that the +_advaitam_ is _anantam_,--"the One is Infinite"; that the _advaitam_ +is _anandam_,--"the One is Love." + +To give perfect expression to the One, the Infinite, through the +harmony of the many; to the One, the Love, through the sacrifice of +self, is the object alike of our individual life and our society. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION v + +THE POET'S RELIGION 3 + +THE CREATIVE IDEAL 31 + +THE RELIGION OF THE FOREST 45 + +AN INDIAN FOLK RELIGION 69 + +EAST AND WEST 93 + +THE MODERN AGE 115 + +THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM 133 + +THE NATION 143 + +WOMAN AND HOME 157 + +AN EASTERN UNIVERSITY 169 + + + + + THE POET'S RELIGION + + I + + +Civility is beauty of behaviour. It requires for its perfection +patience, self-control, and an environment of leisure. For genuine +courtesy is a creation, like pictures, like music. It is a harmonious +blending of voice, gesture and movement, words and action, in which +generosity of conduct is expressed. It reveals the man himself and has +no ulterior purpose. + +Our needs are always in a hurry. They rush and hustle, they are rude +and unceremonious; they have no surplus of leisure, no patience for +anything else but fulfilment of purpose. We frequently see in our +country at the present day men utilising empty kerosene cans for +carrying water. These cans are emblems of discourtesy; they are curt +and abrupt, they have not the least shame for their unmannerliness, +they do not care to be ever so slightly more than useful. + +The instruments of our necessity assert that we must have food, +shelter, clothes, comforts and convenience. And yet men spend an +immense amount of their time and resources in contradicting this +assertion, to prove that they are not a mere living catalogue of +endless wants; that there is in them an ideal of perfection, a sense +of unity, which is a harmony between parts and a harmony with +surroundings. + +The quality of the infinite is not the magnitude of extension, it is +in the _Advaitam_, the mystery of Unity. Facts occupy endless time and +space; but the truth comprehending them all has no dimension; it is +One. Wherever our heart touches the One, in the small or the big, it +finds the touch of the infinite. + +I was speaking to some one of the joy we have in our personality. I +said it was because we were made conscious by it of a spirit of unity +within ourselves. He answered that he had no such feeling of joy about +himself, but I was sure he exaggerated. In all probability he had been +suffering from some break of harmony between his surroundings and the +spirit of unity within him, proving all the more strongly its truth. +The meaning of health comes home to us with painful force when disease +disturbs it; since health expresses the unity of the vital functions +and is accordingly joyful. Life's tragedies occur, not to demonstrate +their own reality, but to reveal that eternal principle of joy in +life, to which they gave a rude shaking. It is the object of this +Oneness in us to realise its infinity by perfect union of love with +others. All obstacles to this union create misery, giving rise to the +baser passions that are expressions of finitude, of that separateness +which is negative and therefore _maya_. + +The joy of unity within ourselves, seeking expression, becomes +creative; whereas our desire for the fulfilment of our needs is +constructive. The water vessel, taken as a vessel only, raises the +question, "Why does it exist at all?" Through its fitness of +construction, it offers the apology for its existence. But where it is +a work of beauty it has no question to answer; it has nothing to do, +but to be. It reveals in its form a unity to which all that seems +various in it is so related that, in a mysterious manner, it strikes +sympathetic chords to the music of unity in our own being. + +What is the truth of this world? It is not in the masses of substance, +not in the number of things, but in their relatedness, which neither +can be counted, nor measured, nor abstracted. It is not in the +materials which are many, but in the expression which is one. All our +knowledge of things is knowing them in their relation to the Universe, +in that relation which is truth. A drop of water is not a particular +assortment of elements; it is the miracle of a harmonious mutuality, +in which the two reveal the One. No amount of analysis can reveal to +us this mystery of unity. Matter is an abstraction; we shall never be +able to realise what it is, for our world of reality does not +acknowledge it. Even the giant forces of the world, centripetal and +centrifugal, are kept out of our recognition. They are the +day-labourers not admitted into the audience-hall of creation. But +light and sound come to us in their gay dresses as troubadours singing +serenades before the windows of the senses. What is constantly before +us, claiming our attention, is not the kitchen, but the feast; not the +anatomy of the world, but its countenance. There is the dancing ring +of seasons; the elusive play of lights and shadows, of wind and water; +the many-coloured wings of erratic life flitting between birth and +death. The importance of these does not lie in their existence as mere +facts, but in their language of harmony, the mother-tongue of our own +soul, through which they are communicated to us. + +We grow out of touch with this great truth, we forget to accept its +invitation and its hospitality, when in quest of external success our +works become unspiritual and unexpressive. This is what Wordsworth +complained of when he said: + + The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. + Little we see in Nature that is ours. + +But it is not because the world has grown too familiar to us; on the +contrary, it is because we do not see it in its aspect of unity, +because we are driven to distraction by our pursuit of the +fragmentary. + +Materials as materials are savage; they are solitary; they are ready +to hurt one another. They are like our individual impulses seeking the +unlimited freedom of wilfulness. Left to themselves they are +destructive. But directly an ideal of unity raises its banner in their +centre, it brings these rebellious forces under its sway and creation +is revealed--the creation which is peace, which is the unity of +perfect relationship. Our greed for eating is in itself ugly and +selfish, it has no sense of decorum; but when brought under the ideal +of social fellowship, it is regulated and made ornamental; it is +changed into a daily festivity of life. In human nature sexual passion +is fiercely individual and destructive, but dominated by the ideal of +love, it has been made to flower into a perfection of beauty, becoming +in its best expression symbolical of the spiritual truth in man which +is his kinship of love with the Infinite. Thus we find it is the One +which expresses itself in creation; and the Many, by giving up +opposition, make the revelation of unity perfect. + + + II + +I remember, when I was a child, that a row of cocoanut trees by our +garden wall, with their branches beckoning the rising sun on the +horizon, gave me a companionship as living as I was myself. I know it +was my imagination which transmuted the world around me into my own +world--the imagination which seeks unity, which deals with it. But we +have to consider that this companionship was true; that the universe +in which I was born had in it an element profoundly akin to my own +imaginative mind, one which wakens in all children's natures the +Creator, whose pleasure is in interweaving the web of creation with +His own patterns of many-coloured strands. It is something akin to us, +and therefore harmonious to our imagination. When we find some strings +vibrating in unison with others, we know that this sympathy carries in +it an eternal reality. The fact that the world stirs our imagination +in sympathy tells us that this creative imagination is a common truth +both in us and in the heart of existence. Wordsworth says: + + I'd rather be + A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; + Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, + Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. + +In this passage the poet says we are less forlorn in a world which we +meet with our imagination. That can only be possible if through our +imagination is revealed, behind all appearances, the reality which +gives the touch of companionship, that is to say, something which has +an affinity to us. An immense amount of our activity is engaged in +making images, not for serving any useful purpose or formulating +rational propositions, but for giving varied responses to the varied +touches of this reality. In this image-making the child creates his +own world in answer to the world in which he finds himself. The child +in us finds glimpses of his eternal playmate from behind the veil of +things, as Proteus rising from the sea, or Triton blowing his wreathed +horn. And the playmate is the Reality, that makes it possible for the +child to find delight in activities which do not inform or bring +assistance but merely express. There is an image-making joy in the +infinite, which inspires in us our joy in imagining. The rhythm of +cosmic motion produces in our mind the emotion which is creative. + +A poet has said about his destiny as a dreamer, about the +worthlessness of his dreams and yet their permanence: + + I hang 'mid men my heedless head, + And my fruit is dreams, as theirs is bread: + The goodly men and the sun-hazed sleeper, + Time shall reap; but after the reaper + The world shall glean to me, me the sleeper. + +The dream persists; it is more real than even bread which has +substance and use. The painted canvas is durable and substantial; it +has for its production and transport to market a whole array of +machines and factories. But the picture which no factory can produce +is a dream, a _maya_, and yet it, not the canvas, has the meaning of +ultimate reality. + +A poet describes Autumn: + + I saw old Autumn in the misty morn + Stand shadowless like Silence, listening + To silence, for no lonely bird would sing + Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn. + +Of April another poet sings: + + April, April, + Laugh thy girlish laughter; + Then the moment after + Weep thy girlish tears! + April, that mine ears + Like a lover greetest, + If I tell thee, sweetest, + All my hopes and fears. + + April, April, + Laugh thy golden laughter. + But the moment after + Weep thy golden tears! + +This Autumn, this April,--are they nothing but phantasy? + +Let us suppose that the Man from the Moon comes to the earth and +listens to some music in a gramophone. He seeks for the origin of the +delight produced in his mind. The facts before him are a cabinet made +of wood and a revolving disc producing sound; but the one thing which +is neither seen nor can be explained is the truth of the music, which +his personality must immediately acknowledge as a personal message. It +is neither in the wood, nor in the disc, nor in the sound of the +notes. If the Man from the Moon be a poet, as can reasonably be +supposed, he will write about a fairy imprisoned in that box, who sits +spinning fabrics of songs expressing her cry for a far-away magic +casement opening on the foam of some perilous sea, in a fairyland +forlorn. It will not be literally, but essentially true. The facts of +the gramophone make us aware of the laws of sound, but the music gives +us personal companionship. The bare facts about April are alternate +sunshine and showers; but the subtle blending of shadows and lights, +of murmurs and movements, in April, gives us not mere shocks of +sensation, but unity of joy as does music. Therefore when a poet sees +the vision of a girl in April, even a downright materialist is in +sympathy with him. But we know that the same individual would be +menacingly angry if the law of heredity or a geometrical problem were +described as a girl or a rose--or even as a cat or a camel. For these +intellectual abstractions have no magical touch for our lute-strings +of imagination. They are no dreams, as are the harmony of bird-songs, +rain-washed leaves glistening in the sun, and pale clouds floating in +the blue. + +The ultimate truth of our personality is that we are no mere +biologists or geometricians; "we are the dreamers of dreams, we are +the music-makers." This dreaming or music-making is not a function of +the lotus-eaters, it is the creative impulse which makes songs not +only with words and tunes, lines and colours, but with stones and +metals, with ideas and men: + + With wonderful deathless ditties + We build up the world's great cities, + And out of a fabulous story + We fashion an empire's glory. + +I have been told by a scholar friend of mine that by constant practice +in logic he has weakened his natural instinct of faith. The reason is, +faith is the spectator in us which finds the meaning of the drama from +the unity of the performance; but logic lures us into the greenroom +where there is stagecraft but no drama at all; and then this logic +nods its head and wearily talks about disillusionment. But the +greenroom, dealing with its fragments, looks foolish when questioned, +or wears the sneering smile of Mephistopheles; for it does not have +the secret of unity, which is somewhere else. It is for faith to +answer, "Unity comes to us from the One, and the One in ourselves +opens the door and receives it with joy." The function of poetry and +the arts is to remind us that the greenroom is the greyest of +illusions, and the reality is the drama presented before us, all its +paint and tinsel, masks and pageantry, made one in art. The ropes and +wheels perish, the stage is changed; but the dream which is drama +remains true, for there remains the eternal Dreamer. + + + III + +Poetry and the arts cherish in them the profound faith of man in the +unity of his being with all existence, the final truth of which is the +truth of personality. It is a religion directly apprehended, and not a +system of metaphysics to be analysed and argued. We know in our +personal experience what our creations are and we instinctively know +through it what creation around us means. + +When Keats said in his "Ode to a Grecian Urn": + + Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought, + As doth eternity,... + +he felt the ineffable which is in all forms of perfection, the mystery +of the One, which takes us beyond all thought into the immediate +touch of the Infinite. This is the mystery which is for a poet to +realise and to reveal. It comes out in Keats' poems with struggling +gleams through consciousness of suffering and despair: + + Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth + Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, + Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darken'd ways + Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, + Some shape of beauty moves away the pall + From our dark spirits. + +In this there is a suggestion that truth reveals itself in beauty. For +if beauty were mere accident, a rent in the eternal fabric of things, +then it would hurt, would be defeated by the antagonism of facts. +Beauty is no phantasy, it has the everlasting meaning of reality. The +facts that cause despondence and gloom are mere mist, and when through +the mist beauty breaks out in momentary gleams, we realise that Peace +is true and not conflict, Love is true and not hatred; and Truth is +the One, not the disjointed multitude. We realise that Creation is the +perpetual harmony between the infinite ideal of perfection and the +eternal continuity of its realisation; that so long as there is no +absolute separation between the positive ideal and the material +obstacle to its attainment, we need not be afraid of suffering and +loss. This is the poet's religion. + +Those who are habituated to the rigid framework of sectarian creeds +will find such a religion as this too indefinite and elastic. No doubt +it is so, but only because its ambition is not to shackle the Infinite +and tame it for domestic use; but rather to help our consciousness to +emancipate itself from materialism. It is as indefinite as the +morning, and yet as luminous; it calls our thoughts, feelings, and +actions into freedom, and feeds them with light. In the poet's +religion we find no doctrine or injunction, but rather the attitude of +our entire being towards a truth which is ever to be revealed in its +own endless creation. + +In dogmatic religion all questions are definitely answered, all doubts +are finally laid to rest. But the poet's religion is fluid, like the +atmosphere round the earth where lights and shadows play +hide-and-seek, and the wind like a shepherd boy plays upon its reeds +among flocks of clouds. It never undertakes to lead anybody anywhere +to any solid conclusion; yet it reveals endless spheres of light, +because it has no walls round itself. It acknowledges the facts of +evil; it openly admits "the weariness, the fever and the fret" in the +world "where men sit and hear each other groan"; yet it remembers that +in spite of all there is the song of the nightingale, and "haply the +Queen Moon is on her throne," and there is: + + White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine, + Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves; + And mid-day's eldest child, + The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, + The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. + +But all this has not the definiteness of an answer; it has only the +music that teases us out of thought as it fills our being. + +Let me read a translation from an Eastern poet to show how this idea +comes out in a poem in Bengali: + + In the morning I awoke at the flutter of thy boat-sails, + Lady of my Voyage, and I left the shore to follow the beckoning waves. + I asked thee, "Does the dream-harvest ripen in the + island beyond the blue?" + The silence of thy smile fell on my question like + the silence of sunlight on waves. + The day passed on through storm and through calm, + The perplexed winds changed their course, time after time, + and the sea moaned. + I asked thee, "Does thy sleep-tower stand somewhere beyond the + dying embers of the day's funeral pyre?" + No answer came from thee, only thine eyes smiled like + the edge of a sunset cloud. + It is night. Thy figure grows dim in the dark. + Thy wind-blown hair flits on my cheek and thrills my + sadness with its scent. + My hands grope to touch the hem of thy robe, and + I ask thee--"Is there thy garden of death beyond the stars, + Lady of my Voyage, where thy silence blossoms into songs?" + Thy smile shines in the heart of the hush like the + star-mist of midnight. + + + IV + +In Shelley we clearly see the growth of his religion through periods +of vagueness and doubt, struggle and searching. But he did at length +come to a positive utterance of his faith, though he died young. Its +final expression is in his "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty." By the title +of the poem the poet evidently means a beauty that is not merely a +passive quality of particular things, but a spirit that manifests +itself through the apparent antagonism of the unintellectual life. +This hymn rang out of his heart when he came to the end of his +pilgrimage and stood face to face with the Divinity, glimpses of which +had already filled his soul with restlessness. All his experiences of +beauty had ever teased him with the question as to what was its truth. +Somewhere he sings of a nosegay which he makes of violets, daisies, +tender bluebells and-- + + That tall flower that wets, + Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth, + Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears. + +He ends by saying: + + And then, elate and gay, + I hastened to the spot whence I had come, + That I might there present it!--Oh! to whom? + +This question, even though not answered, carries a significance. A +creation of beauty suggests a fulfilment, which is the fulfilment of +love. We have heard some poets scoff at it in bitterness and despair; +but it is like a sick child beating its own mother--it is a sickness +of faith, which hurts truth, but proves it by its very pain and anger. +And the faith itself is this, that beauty is the self-offering of the +One to the other One. + +In the first part of his "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" Shelley dwells +on the inconstancy and evanescence of the manifestation of beauty, +which imparts to it an appearance of frailty and unreality: + + Like hues and harmonies of evening, + Like clouds in starlight widely spread, + Like memory of music fled. + +This, he says, rouses in our mind the question: + + Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, + Why fear and dream and death and birth + Cast on the daylight of this earth + Such gloom,--why man has such a scope + For love and hate, despondency and hope? + +The poet's own answer to this question is: + + Man were immortal, and omnipotent, + Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art, + Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. + +This very elusiveness of beauty suggests the vision of immortality and +of omnipotence, and stimulates the effort in man to realise it in some +idea of permanence. The highest reality has actively to be achieved. +The gain of truth is not in the end; it reveals itself through the +endless length of achievement. But what is there to guide us in our +voyage of realisation? Men have ever been struggling for direction: + + Therefore the names of Demon, Ghost, and Heaven + Remain the records of their vain endeavour, + Frail spells,--whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, + From all we hear and all we see, + Doubt, chance and mutability. + +The prevalent rites and practices of piety, according to this poet, +are like magic spells--they only prove men's desperate endeavour and +not their success. He knows that the end we seek has its own direct +call to us, its own light to guide us to itself. And truth's call is +the call of beauty. Of this he says: + + Thy light alone,--like mist o'er mountain driven, + Or music by the night wind sent, + Thro' strings of some still instrument, + Or moonlight on a midnight stream + Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. + +About this revelation of truth which calls us on, and yet which is +everywhere, a village singer of Bengal sings: + + My master's flute sounds in everything, + drawing me out of my house to everywhere. + While I listen to it I know that every step I take + is in my master's house. + For he is the sea, he is the river that leads to the sea, + and he is the landing place. + +Religion, in Shelley, grew with his life; it was not given to him in +fixed and ready-made doctrines; he rebelled against them. He had the +creative mind which could only approach Truth through its joy in +creative effort. For true creation is realisation of truth through the +translation of it into our own symbols. + + + V + +For man, the best opportunity for such a realisation has been in men's +Society. It is a collective creation of his, through which his social +being tries to find itself in its truth and beauty. Had that Society +merely manifested its usefulness, it would be inarticulate like a dark +star. But, unless it degenerates, it ever suggests in its concerted +movements a living truth as its soul, which has personality. In this +large life of social communion man feels the mystery of Unity, as he +does in music. From the sense of that Unity, men came to the sense of +their God. And therefore every religion began with its tribal God. + +The one question before all others that has to be answered by our +civilisations is not what they have and in what quantity, but what +they express and how. In a society, the production and circulation of +materials, the amassing and spending of money, may go on, as in the +interminable prolonging of a straight line, if its people forget to +follow some spiritual design of life which curbs them and transforms +them into an organic whole. For growth is not that enlargement which +is merely adding to the dimensions of incompleteness. Growth is the +movement of a whole towards a yet fuller wholeness. Living things +start with this wholeness from the beginning of their career. A child +has its own perfection as a child; it would be ugly if it appeared as +an unfinished man. Life is a continual process of synthesis, and not +of additions. Our activities of production and enjoyment of wealth +attain that spirit of wholeness when they are blended with a creative +ideal. Otherwise they have the insane aspect of the eternally +unfinished; they become like locomotive engines which have railway +lines but no stations; which rush on towards a collision of +uncontrolled forces or to a sudden breakdown of the overstrained +machinery. + +Through creation man expresses his truth; through that expression he +gains back his truth in its fulness. Human society is for the best +expression of man, and that expression, according to its perfection, +leads him to the full realisation of the divine in humanity. When that +expression is obscure, then his faith in the Infinite that is within +him becomes weak; then his aspiration cannot go beyond the idea of +success. His faith in the Infinite is creative; his desire for success +is constructive; one is his home, and the other is his office. With +the overwhelming growth of necessity, civilisation becomes a gigantic +office to which the home is a mere appendix. The predominance of the +pursuit of success gives to society the character of what we call +_Shudra_ in India. In fighting a battle, the _Kshatriya_, the noble +knight, followed his honour for his ideal, which was greater than +victory itself; but the mercenary _Shudra_ has success for his object. +The name Shudra symbolises a man who has no margin round him beyond +his bare utility. The word denotes a classification which includes all +naked machines that have lost their completeness of humanity, be their +work manual or intellectual. They are like walking stomachs or brains, +and we feel, in pity, urged to call on God and cry, "Cover them up for +mercy's sake with some veil of beauty and life!" + +When Shelley in his view of the world realised the Spirit of Beauty, +which is the vision of the Infinite, he thus uttered his faith: + + Never joy illumed my brow + Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free + This world from its dark slavery; + That thou,--O awful Loveliness,-- + Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express. + +This was his faith in the Infinite. It led his aspiration towards the +region of freedom and perfection which was beyond the immediate and +above the successful. This faith in God, this faith in the reality of +the ideal of perfection, has built up all that is great in the human +world. To keep indefinitely walking on, along a zigzag course of +change, is negative and barren. A mere procession of notes does not +make music; it is only when we have in the heart of the march of +sounds some musical idea that it creates song. Our faith in the +infinite reality of Perfection is that musical idea, and there is that +one great creative force in our civilisation. When it wakens not, then +our faith in money, in material power, takes its place; it fights and +destroys, and in a brilliant fireworks of star-mimicry suddenly +exhausts itself and dies in ashes and smoke. + + + VI + +Men of great faith have always called us to wake up to great +expectations, and the prudent have always laughed at them and said +that these did not belong to reality. But the poet in man knows that +reality is a creation, and human reality has to be called forth from +its obscure depth by man's faith which is creative. There was a day +when the human reality was the brutal reality. That was the only +capital we had with which to begin our career. But age after age +there has come to us the call of faith, which said against all the +evidence of fact: "You are more than you appear to be, more than your +circumstances seem to warrant. You are to attain the impossible, you +are immortal." The unbelievers had laughed and tried to kill the +faith. But faith grew stronger with the strength of martyrdom and at +her bidding higher realities have been created over the strata of the +lower. Has not a new age come to-day, borne by thunder-clouds, ushered +in by a universal agony of suffering? Are we not waiting to-day for a +great call of faith, which will say to us: "Come out of your present +limitations. You are to attain the impossible, you are immortal"? The +nations who are not prepared to accept it, who have all their trust in +their present machines of system, and have no thought or space to +spare to welcome the sudden guest who comes as the messenger of +emancipation, are bound to court defeat whatever may be their present +wealth and power. + +This great world, where it is a creation, an expression of the +infinite--where its morning sings of joy to the newly awakened life, +and its evening stars sing to the traveller, weary and worn, of the +triumph of life in a new birth across death,--has its call for us. +The call has ever roused the creator in man, and urged him to reveal +the truth, to reveal the Infinite in himself. It is ever claiming from +us, in our own creations, co-operation with God, reminding us of our +divine nature, which finds itself in freedom of spirit. Our society +exists to remind us, through its various voices, that the ultimate +truth in man is not in his intellect or his possessions; it is in his +illumination of mind, in his extension of sympathy across all barriers +of caste and colour; in his recognition of the world, not merely as a +storehouse of power, but as a habitation of man's spirit, with its +eternal music of beauty and its inner light of the divine +presence. + + + + + THE CREATIVE IDEAL + + +In an old Sanskrit book there is a verse which describes the essential +elements of a picture. The first in order is _Vrupa-bhedah_--"separateness +of forms." Forms are many, forms are different, each of them having +its limits. But if this were absolute, if all forms remained +obstinately separate, then there would be a fearful loneliness of +multitude. But the varied forms, in their very separateness, must +carry something which indicates the paradox of their ultimate unity, +otherwise there would be no creation. + +So in the same verse, after the enumeration of separateness comes that +of _Pram[=a]n[=a]ni_--proportions. Proportions indicate relationship, +the principle of mutual accommodation. A leg dismembered from the body +has the fullest licence to make a caricature of itself. But, as a +member of the body, it has its responsibility to the living unity +which rules the body; it must behave properly, it must keep its +proportion. If, by some monstrous chance of physiological +profiteering, it could outgrow by yards its fellow-stalker, then we +know what a picture it would offer to the spectator and what +embarrassment to the body itself. Any attempt to overcome the law of +proportion altogether and to assert absolute separateness is +rebellion; it means either running the gauntlet of the rest, or +remaining segregated. + +The same Sanskrit word _Pram[=a]n[=a]ni_, which in a book of aesthetics +means proportions, in a book of logic means the proofs by which the +truth of a proposition is ascertained. All proofs of truth are +credentials of relationship. Individual facts have to produce such +passports to show that they are not expatriated, that they are not a +break in the unity of the whole. The logical relationship present in +an intellectual proposition, and the aesthetic relationship indicated +in the proportions of a work of art, both agree in one thing. They +affirm that truth consists, not in facts, but in harmony of facts. Of +this fundamental note of reality it is that the poet has said, "Beauty +is truth, truth beauty." + +Proportions, which prove relativity, form the outward language of +creative ideals. A crowd of men is desultory, but in a march of +soldiers every man keeps his proportion of time and space and relative +movement, which makes him one with the whole vast army. But this is +not all. The creation of an army has, for its inner principle, one +single idea of the General. According to the nature of that ruling +idea, a production is either a work of art or a mere construction. All +the materials and regulations of a joint-stock company have the unity +of an inner motive. But the expression of this unity itself is not the +end; it ever indicates an ulterior purpose. On the other hand, the +revelation of a work of art is a fulfilment in itself. + +The consciousness of personality, which is the consciousness of unity +in ourselves, becomes prominently distinct when coloured by joy or +sorrow, or some other emotion. It is like the sky, which is visible +because it is blue, and which takes different aspect with the change +of colours. In the creation of art, therefore, the energy of an +emotional ideal is necessary; as its unity is not like that of a +crystal, passive and inert, but actively expressive. Take, for +example, the following verse: + + Oh, fly not Pleasure, pleasant-hearted Pleasure, + Fold me thy wings, I prithee, yet and stay. + For my heart no measure + Knows, nor other treasure + To buy a garland for my love to-day. + + And thou too, Sorrow, tender-hearted Sorrow, + Thou grey-eyed mourner, fly not yet away. + For I fain would borrow + Thy sad weeds to-morrow, + To make a mourning for love's yesterday. + +The words in this quotation, merely showing the metre, would have no +appeal to us; with all its perfection and its proportion, rhyme and +cadence, it would only be a construction. But when it is the outer +body of an inner idea it assumes a personality. The idea flows through +the rhythm, permeates the words and throbs in their rise and fall. On +the other hand, the mere idea of the above-quoted poem, stated in +unrhythmic prose, would represent only a fact, inertly static, which +would not bear repetition. But the emotional idea, incarnated in a +rhythmic form, acquires the dynamic quality needed for those things +which take part in the world's eternal pageantry. + +Take the following doggerel: + + Thirty days hath September, + April, June, and November. + +The metre is there, and it simulates the movement of life. But it +finds no synchronous response in the metre of our heart-beats; it has +not in its centre the living idea which creates for itself an +indivisible unity. It is like a bag which is convenient, and not like +a body which is inevitable. + +This truth, implicit in our own works of art, gives us the clue to the +mystery of creation. We find that the endless rhythms of the world are +not merely constructive; they strike our own heart-strings and produce +music. + +Therefore it is we feel that this world is a creation; that in its +centre there is a living idea which reveals itself in an eternal +symphony, played on innumerable instruments, all keeping perfect time. +We know that this great world-verse, that runs from sky to sky, is not +made for the mere enumeration of facts--it is not "Thirty days hath +September"--it has its direct revelation in our delight. That delight +gives us the key to the truth of existence; it is personality acting +upon personalities through incessant manifestations. The solicitor +does not sing to his client, but the bridegroom sings to his bride. +And when our soul is stirred by the song, we know it claims no fees +from us; but it brings the tribute of love and a call from the +bridegroom. + +It may be said that in pictorial and other arts there are some designs +that are purely decorative and apparently have no living and inner +ideal to express. But this cannot be true. These decorations carry the +emotional motive of the artist, which says: "I find joy in my +creation; it is good." All the language of joy is beauty. It is +necessary to note, however, that joy is not pleasure, and beauty not +mere prettiness. Joy is the outcome of detachment from self and lives +in freedom of spirit. Beauty is that profound expression of reality +which satisfies our hearts without any other allurements but its own +ultimate value. When in some pure moments of ecstasy we realise this +in the world around us, we see the world, not as merely existing, but +as decorated in its forms, sounds, colours and lines; we feel in our +hearts that there is One who through all things proclaims: "I have joy +in my creation." + +That is why the Sanskrit verse has given us for the essential elements +of a picture, not only the manifoldness of forms and the unity of +their proportions, but also _bhavah_, the emotional idea. + +It is needless to say that upon a mere expression of emotion--even the +best expression of it--no criterion of art can rest. The following +poem is described by the poet as "An earnest Suit to his unkind +Mistress": + + And wilt thou leave me thus? + Say nay, say nay, for shame! + To save thee from the blame + Of all my grief and grame. + And wilt thou leave me thus? + Say nay! say nay! + +I am sure the poet would not be offended if I expressed my doubts +about the earnestness of his appeal, or the truth of his avowed +necessity. He is responsible for the lyric and not for the sentiment, +which is mere material. The fire assumes different colours according +to the fuel used; but we do not discuss the fuel, only the flames. A +lyric is indefinably more than the sentiment expressed in it, as a +rose is more than its substance. Let us take a poem in which the +earnestness of sentiment is truer and deeper than the one I have +quoted above: + + The sun, + Closing his benediction, + Sinks, and the darkening air + Thrills with the sense of the triumphing night,-- + Night with her train of stars + And her great gift of sleep. + So be my passing! + + My task accomplished and the long day done, + My wages taken, and in my heart + Some late lark singing, + Let me be gathered to the quiet West, + The sundown splendid and serene, + Death. + +The sentiment expressed in this poem is a subject for a psychologist. +But for a poem the subject is completely merged in its poetry, like +carbon in a living plant which the lover of plants ignores, leaving it +for a charcoal-burner to seek. + +This is why, when some storm of feeling sweeps across the country, art +is under a disadvantage. In such an atmosphere the boisterous passion +breaks through the cordon of harmony and thrusts itself forward as the +subject, which with its bulk and pressure dethrones the unity of +creation. For a similar reason most of the hymns used in churches +suffer from lack of poetry. For in them the deliberate subject, +assuming the first importance, benumbs or kills the poem. Most +patriotic poems have the same deficiency. They are like hill streams +born of sudden showers, which are more proud of their rocky beds than +of their water currents; in them the athletic and arrogant subject +takes it for granted that the poem is there to give it occasion to +display its powers. The subject is the material wealth for the sake of +which poetry should never be tempted to barter her soul, even though +the temptation should come in the name and shape of public good or +some usefulness. Between the artist and his art must be that perfect +detachment which is the pure medium of love. He must never make use of +this love except for its own perfect expression. + +In everyday life our personality moves in a narrow circle of immediate +self-interest. And therefore our feelings and events, within that +short range, become prominent subjects for ourselves. In their +vehement self-assertion they ignore their unity with the All. They +rise up like obstructions and obscure their own background. But art +gives our personality the disinterested freedom of the eternal, there +to find it in its true perspective. To see our own home in flames is +not to see fire in its verity. But the fire in the stars is the fire +in the heart of the Infinite; there, it is the script of creation. + +Matthew Arnold, in his poem addressed to a nightingale, sings: + + Hark! ah, the nightingale-- + The tawny-throated! + Hark, from that moonlit cedar what a burst! + What triumph! hark!--what pain! + +But pain, when met within the boundaries of limited reality, repels +and hurts; it is discordant with the narrow scope of life. But the +pain of some great martyrdom has the detachment of eternity. It +appears in all its majesty, harmonious in the context of everlasting +life; like the thunder-flash in the stormy sky, not on the laboratory +wire. Pain on that scale has its harmony in great love; for by hurting +love it reveals the infinity of love in all its truth and beauty. On +the other hand, the pain involved in business insolvency is +discordant; it kills and consumes till nothing remains but ashes. + +The poet sings again: + + How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves! + Eternal Passion! + Eternal Pain! + +And the truth of pain in eternity has been sung by those Vedic poets +who had said, "From joy has come forth all creation." They say: + + Sa tapas tapatva sarvam asrajata Yadidam kincha. + + (God from the heat of his pain created all that there is.) + +The sacrifice, which is in the heart of creation, is both joy and pain +at the same moment. Of this sings a village mystic in Bengal: + + My eyes drown in the darkness of joy, + My heart, like a lotus, closes its petals in the rapture of the + dark night. + +That song speaks of a joy which is deep like the blue sea, endless +like the blue sky; which has the magnificence of the night, and in its +limitless darkness enfolds the radiant worlds in the awfulness of +peace; it is the unfathomed joy in which all sufferings are made one. + +A poet of mediaeval India tells us about his source of inspiration in a +poem containing a question and an answer: + + Where were your songs, my bird, when you spent your nights in the nest? + Was not all your pleasure stored therein? + What makes you lose your heart to the sky, the sky that is limitless? + +The bird answers: + + I had my pleasure while I rested within bounds. + When I soared into the limitless, I found my songs! + +To detach the individual idea from its confinement of everyday facts +and to give its soaring wings the freedom of the universal: this is +the function of poetry. The ambition of Macbeth, the jealousy of +Othello, would be at best sensational in police court proceedings; but +in Shakespeare's dramas they are carried among the flaming +constellations where creation throbs with Eternal Passion, Eternal +Pain. + + + + + THE RELIGION OF THE FOREST + + I + + +We stand before this great world. The truth of our life depends upon +our attitude of mind towards it--an attitude which is formed by our +habit of dealing with it according to the special circumstance of our +surroundings and our temperaments. It guides our attempts to establish +relations with the universe either by conquest or by union, either +through the cultivation of power or through that of sympathy. And +thus, in our realisation of the truth of existence, we put our +emphasis either upon the principle of dualism or upon the principle of +unity. + +The Indian sages have held in the Upanishads that the emancipation of +our soul lies in its realising the ultimate truth of unity. They said: + + Ishavasyam idam sarvam yat kinch jagatyam jagat. + Yena tyaktena bhunjitha ma graha kasyasvit dhanam. + + (Know all that moves in this moving world as enveloped by + God; and find enjoyment through renunciation, not through + greed of possession.) + +The meaning of this is, that, when we know the multiplicity of things +as the final truth, we try to augment ourselves by the external +possession of them; but, when we know the Infinite Soul as the final +truth, then through our union with it we realise the joy of our soul. +Therefore it has been said of those who have attained their +fulfilment,--"sarvam eva vishanti" (they enter into all things). Their +perfect relation with this world is the relation of union. + +This ideal of perfection preached by the forest-dwellers of ancient +India runs through the heart of our classical literature and still +dominates our mind. The legends related in our epics cluster under the +forest shade bearing all through their narrative the message of the +forest-dwellers. Our two greatest classical dramas find their +background in scenes of the forest hermitage, which are permeated by +the association of these sages. + +The history of the Northmen of Europe is resonant with the music of +the sea. That sea is not merely topographical in its significance, but +represents certain ideals of life which still guide the history and +inspire the creations of that race. In the sea, nature presented +herself to those men in her aspect of a danger, a barrier which +seemed to be at constant war with the land and its children. The sea +was the challenge of untamed nature to the indomitable human soul. And +man did not flinch; he fought and won, and the spirit of fight +continued in him. This fight he still maintains; it is the fight +against disease and poverty, tyranny of matter and of man. + +This refers to a people who live by the sea, and ride on it as on a +wild, champing horse, catching it by its mane and making it render +service from shore to shore. They find delight in turning by force the +antagonism of circumstances into obedience. Truth appears to them in +her aspect of dualism, the perpetual conflict of good and evil, which +has no reconciliation, which can only end in victory or defeat. + +But in the level tracts of Northern India men found no barrier between +their lives and the grand life that permeates the universe. The forest +entered into a close living relationship with their work and leisure, +with their daily necessities and contemplations. They could not think +of other surroundings as separate or inimical. So the view of the +truth, which these men found, did not make manifest the difference, +but rather the unity of all things. They uttered their faith in these +words: "Yadidam kinch sarvam prana ejati nihsratam" (All that is +vibrates with life, having come out from life). When we know this +world as alien to us, then its mechanical aspect takes prominence in +our mind; and then we set up our machines and our methods to deal with +it and make as much profit as our knowledge of its mechanism allows us +to do. This view of things does not play us false, for the machine has +its place in this world. And not only this material universe, but +human beings also, may be used as machines and made to yield powerful +results. This aspect of truth cannot be ignored; it has to be known +and mastered. Europe has done so and has reaped a rich harvest. + +The view of this world which India has taken is summed up in one +compound Sanskrit word, Sachid[=a]nanda. The meaning is that Reality, +which is essentially one, has three phases. The first is Sat; it is +the simple fact that things are, the fact which relates us to all +things through the relationship of common existence. The second is +Chit; it is the fact that we know, which relates us to all things +through the relationship of knowledge. The third is Ananda: it is the +fact that we enjoy, which unites us with all things through the +relationship of love. + +According to the true Indian view, our consciousness of the world, +merely as the sum total of things that exist, and as governed by laws, +is imperfect. But it is perfect when our consciousness realises all +things as spiritually one with it, and therefore capable of giving us +joy. For us the highest purpose of this world is not merely living in +it, knowing it and making use of it, but realising our own selves in +it through expansion of sympathy; not alienating ourselves from it and +dominating it, but comprehending and uniting it with ourselves in +perfect union. + + + II + +When Vikramaditya became king, Ujjayini a great capital, and Kalidasa +its poet, the age of India's forest retreats had passed. Then we had +taken our stand in the midst of the great concourse of humanity. The +Chinese and the Hun, the Scythian and the Persian, the Greek and the +Roman, had crowded round us. But, even in that age of pomp and +prosperity, the love and reverence with which its poet sang about the +hermitage shows what was the dominant ideal that occupied the mind of +India; what was the one current of memory that continually flowed +through her life. + +In Kalidasa's drama, _Shakuntala_, the hermitage, which dominates the +play, overshadowing the king's palace, has the same idea running +through it--the recognition of the kinship of man with conscious and +unconscious creation alike. + +A poet of a later age, while describing a hermitage in his Kadambari, +tells us of the posture of salutation in the flowering lianas as they +bow to the wind; of the sacrifice offered by the trees scattering +their blossoms; of the grove resounding with the lessons chanted by +the neophytes, and the verses repeated by the parrots, learnt by constantly +hearing them; of the wild-fowl enjoying "vaishva-deva-bali-pinda" +(the food offered to the divinity which is in all creatures); of the +ducks coming up from the lake for their portion of the grass seed +spread in the cottage yards to dry; and of the deer caressing with +their tongues the young hermit boys. It is again the same story. The +hermitage shines out, in all our ancient literature, as the place +where the chasm between man and the rest of creation has been bridged. + +In the Western dramas, human characters drown our attention in the +vortex of their passions. Nature occasionally peeps out, but she is +almost always a trespasser, who has to offer excuses, or bow +apologetically and depart. But in all our dramas which still retain +their fame, such as _Mrit-Shakatika_, _Shakuntala_, _Uttara-Ramacharita_, +Nature stands on her own right, proving that she has her great +function, to impart the peace of the eternal to human emotions. + +The fury of passion in two of Shakespeare's youthful poems is +exhibited in conspicuous isolation. It is snatched away, naked, from +the context of the All; it has not the green earth or the blue sky +around it; it is there ready to bring to our view the raging fever +which is in man's desires, and not the balm of health and repose which +encircles it in the universe. + +_Ritusamhara_ is clearly a work of Kalidasa's immaturity. The youthful +love-song in it does not reach the sublime reticence which is in +_Shakuntala_ and _Kumara-Sambhava_. But the tune of these voluptuous +outbreaks is set to the varied harmony of Nature's symphony. The +moonbeams of the summer evening, resonant with the flow of fountains, +acknowledge it as a part of its own melody. In its rhythm sways the +Kadamba forest, glistening in the first cool rain of the season; and +the south breezes, carrying the scent of the mango blossoms, temper it +with their murmur. + +In the third canto of _Kumara-Sambhava_, Madana, the God Eros, enters +the forest sanctuary to set free a sudden flood of desire amid the +serenity of the ascetics' meditation. But the boisterous outbreak of +passion so caused was shown against a background of universal life. +The divine love-thrills of Sati and Shiva found their response in the +world-wide immensity of youth, in which animals and trees have their +life-throbs. + +Not only its third canto but the whole of the Kumara-Sambhava poem is +painted upon a limitless canvas. It tells of the eternal wedding of +love, its wooing and sacrifice, and its fulfilment, for which the gods +wait in suspense. Its inner idea is deep and of all time. It answers +the one question that humanity asks through all its endeavours: "How +is the birth of the hero to be brought about, the brave one who can +defy and vanquish the evil demon laying waste heaven's own kingdom?" + +It becomes evident that such a problem had become acute in Kalidasa's +time, when the old simplicity of Hindu life had broken up. The Hindu +kings, forgetful of their duties, had become self-seeking epicureans, +and India was being repeatedly devastated by the Scythians. What +answer, then, does the poem give to the question it raises? Its +message is that the cause of weakness lies in the inner life of the +soul. It is in some break of harmony with the Good, some dissociation +from the True. In the commencement of the poem we find that the God +Shiva, the Good, had remained for long lost in the self-centred +solitude of his asceticism, detached from the world of reality. And +then Paradise was lost. But _Kumara-Sambhava_ is the poem of Paradise +Regained. How was it regained? When Sati, the Spirit of Reality, +through humiliation, suffering, and penance, won the Heart of Shiva, +the Spirit of Goodness. And thus, from the union of the freedom of the +real with the restraint of the Good, was born the heroism that +released Paradise from the demon of Lawlessness. + +Viewed from without, India, in the time of Kalidasa, appeared to have +reached the zenith of civilisation, excelling as she did in luxury, +literature and the arts. But from the poems of Kalidasa it is evident +that this very magnificence of wealth and enjoyment worked against the +ideal that sprang and flowed forth from the sacred solitude of the +forest. These poems contain the voice of warnings against the +gorgeous unreality of that age, which, like a Himalayan avalanche, was +slowly gliding down to an abyss of catastrophe. And from his seat +beside all the glories of Vikramaditya's throne the poet's heart +yearns for the purity and simplicity of India's past age of spiritual +striving. And it was this yearning which impelled him to go back to +the annals of the ancient Kings of Raghu's line for the narrative +poem, in which he traced the history of the rise and fall of the ideal +that should guide the rulers of men. + +King Dilipa, with Queen Sudakshina, has entered upon the life of the +forest. The great monarch is busy tending the cattle of the hermitage. +Thus the poem opens, amid scenes of simplicity and self-denial. But it +ends in the palace of magnificence, in the extravagance of +self-enjoyment. With a calm restraint of language the poet tells us of +the kingly glory crowned with purity. He begins his poem as the day +begins, in the serenity of sunrise. But lavish are the colours in +which he describes the end, as of the evening, eloquent for a time +with the sumptuous splendour of sunset, but overtaken at last by the +devouring darkness which sweeps away all its brilliance into night. + +In this beginning and this ending of his poem there lies hidden that +message of the forest which found its voice in the poet's words. There +runs through the narrative the idea that the future glowed gloriously +ahead only when there was in the atmosphere the calm of self-control, +of purity and renunciation. When downfall had become imminent, the +hungry fires of desire, aflame at a hundred different points, dazzled +the eyes of all beholders. + +Kalidasa in almost all his works represented the unbounded +impetuousness of kingly splendour on the one side and the serene +strength of regulated desires on the other. Even in the minor drama of +_Malavikagnimitra_ we find the same thing in a different manner. It +must never be thought that, in this play, the poet's deliberate object +was to pander to his royal patron by inviting him to a literary orgy +of lust and passion. The very introductory verse indicates the object +towards which this play is directed. The poet begins the drama with +the prayer, "Sanmargalokayan vyapanayatu sa nastamasi vritimishah" +(Let God, to illumine for us the path of truth, sweep away our +passions, bred of darkness). This is the God Shiva, in whose nature +Parvati, the eternal Woman, is ever commingled in an ascetic purity of +love. The unified being of Shiva and Parvati is the perfect symbol of +the eternal in the wedded love of man and woman. When the poet opens +his drama with an invocation of this Spirit of the Divine Union it is +evident that it contains in it the message with which he greets his +kingly audience. The whole drama goes to show the ugliness of the +treachery and cruelty inherent in unchecked self-indulgence. In the +play the conflict of ideals is between the King and the Queen, between +Agnimitra and Dharini, and the significance of the contrast lies +hidden in the very names of the hero and the heroine. Though the name +Agnimitra is historical, yet it symbolises in the poet's mind the +destructive force of uncontrolled desire--just as did the name +Agnivarna in _Raghuvamsha_. Agnimitra, "the friend of the fire," the +reckless person, who in his love-making is playing with fire, not +knowing that all the time it is scorching him black. And what a great +name is Dharini, signifying the fortitude and forbearance that comes +from majesty of soul! What an association it carries of the infinite +dignity of love, purified by a self-abnegation that rises far above +all insult and baseness of betrayal! + +In _Shakuntala_ this conflict of ideals has been shown, all through +the drama, by the contrast of the pompous heartlessness of the king's +court and the natural purity of the forest hermitage. The drama opens +with a hunting scene, where the king is in pursuit of an antelope. The +cruelty of the chase appears like a menace symbolising the spirit of +the king's life clashing against the spirit of the forest retreat, +which is "sharanyam sarva-bhutanam" (where all creatures find their +protection of love). And the pleading of the forest-dwellers with the +king to spare the life of the deer, helplessly innocent and beautiful, +is the pleading that rises from the heart of the whole drama. "Never, +oh, never is the arrow meant to pierce the tender body of a deer, even +as the fire is not for the burning of flowers." + +In the _Ramayana_, Rama and his companions, in their banishment, had +to traverse forest after forest; they had to live in leaf-thatched +huts, to sleep on the bare ground. But as their hearts felt their +kinship with woodland, hill, and stream, they were not in exile amidst +these. Poets, brought up in an atmosphere of different ideals, would +have taken this opportunity of depicting in dismal colours the +hardship of the forest-life in order to bring out the martyrdom of +Ramachandra with all the emphasis of a strong contrast. But, in the +_Ramayana_, we are led to realise the greatness of the hero, not in a +fierce struggle with Nature, but in sympathy with it. Sita, the +daughter-in-law of a great kingly house, goes along the forest paths. +We read: + +"She asks Rama about the flowering trees, and shrubs and creepers +which she has not seen before. At her request Lakshmana gathers and +brings her plants of all kinds, exuberant with flowers, and it +delights her heart to see the forest rivers, variegated with their +streams and sandy banks, resounding with the call of heron and duck. + +"When Rama first took his abode in the Chitrakuta peak, that +delightful Chitrakuta, by the Malyavati river, with its easy slopes +for landing, he forgot all the pain of leaving his home in the capital +at the sight of those woodlands, alive with beast and bird." + +Having lived on that hill for long, Rama, who was "giri-vana-priya" +(lover of the mountain and the forest), said one day to Sita: + +"When I look upon the beauties of this hill, the loss of my kingdom +troubles me no longer, nor does the separation from my friends cause +me any pang." + +Thus passed Ramachandra's exile, now in woodland, now in hermitage. +The love which Rama and Sita bore to each other united them, not only +to each other, but to the universe of life. That is why, when Sita was +taken away, the loss seemed to be so great to the forest itself. + + + III + +Strangely enough, in Shakespeare's dramas, like those of Kalidasa, we +find a secret vein of complaint against the artificial life of the +king's court--the life of ungrateful treachery and falsehood. And +almost everywhere, in his dramas, foreign scenes have been introduced +in connection with some working of the life of unscrupulous ambition. +It is perfectly obvious in _Timon of Athens_--but there Nature offers +no message or balm to the injured soul of man. In _Cymbeline_ the +mountainous forest and the cave appear in their aspect of obstruction +to life's opportunities. These only seem tolerable in comparison with +the vicissitudes of fortune in the artificial court life. In _As You +Like It_ the forest of Arden is didactic in its lessons. It does not +bring peace, but preaches, when it says: + + Hath not old custom made this life more sweet + Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods + More free from peril than the envious court? + +In the _Tempest_, through Prospero's treatment of Ariel and Caliban we +realise man's struggle with Nature and his longing to sever connection +with her. In _Macbeth_, as a prelude to a bloody crime of treachery +and treason, we are introduced to a scene of barren heath where the +three witches appear as personifications of Nature's malignant forces; +and in _King Lear_ it is the fury of a father's love turned into +curses by the ingratitude born of the unnatural life of the court that +finds its symbol in the storm on the heath. The tragic intensity of +_Hamlet_ and _Othello_ is unrelieved by any touch of Nature's +eternity. Except in a passing glimpse of a moonlight night in the love +scene in the _Merchant of Venice_, Nature has not been allowed in +other dramas of this series, including _Romeo and Juliet_ and _Antony +and Cleopatra_, to contribute her own music to the music of man's +love. In _The Winter's Tale_ the cruelty of a king's suspicion stands +bare in its relentlessness, and Nature cowers before it, offering no +consolation. + +I hope it is needless for me to say that these observations are not +intended to minimise Shakespeare's great power as a dramatic poet, but +to show in his works the gulf between Nature and human nature owing to +the tradition of his race and time. It cannot be said that beauty of +nature is ignored in his writings; only he fails to recognise in them +the truth of the inter-penetration of human life with the cosmic life +of the world. We observe a completely different attitude of mind in +the later English poets like Wordsworth and Shelley, which can be +attributed in the main to the great mental change in Europe, at that +particular period, through the influence of the newly discovered +philosophy of India which stirred the soul of Germany and aroused the +attention of other Western countries. + +In Milton's _Paradise Lost_, the very subject--Man dwelling in the +garden of Paradise--seems to afford a special opportunity for bringing +out the true greatness of man's relationship with Nature. But though +the poet has described to us the beauties of the garden, though he has +shown to us the animals living there in amity and peace among +themselves, there is no reality of kinship between them and man. They +were created for man's enjoyment; man was their lord and master. We +find no trace of the love between the first man and woman gradually +surpassing themselves and overflowing the rest of creation, such as we +find in the love scenes in _Kumara-Sambhava_ and _Shakuntala_. In the +seclusion of the bower, where the first man and woman rested in the +garden of Paradise-- + + Bird, beast, insect or worm + Durst enter none, such was their awe of man. + +Not that India denied the superiority of man, but the test of that +superiority lay, according to her, in the comprehensiveness of +sympathy, not in the aloofness of absolute distinction. + + + IV + +India holds sacred, and counts as places of pilgrimage, all spots +which display a special beauty or splendour of nature. These had no +original attraction on account of any special fitness for cultivation +or settlement. Here, man is free, not to look upon Nature as a source +of supply of his necessities, but to realise his soul beyond himself. +The Himalayas of India are sacred and the Vindhya Hills. Her majestic +rivers are sacred. Lake Manasa and the confluence of the Ganges and +the Jamuna are sacred. India has saturated with her love and worship +the great Nature with which her children are surrounded, whose light +fills their eyes with gladness, and whose water cleanses them, whose +food gives them life, and from whose majestic mystery comes forth the +constant revelation of the infinite in music, scent, and colour, which +brings its awakening to the soul of man. India gains the world through +worship, through spiritual communion; and the idea of freedom to which +she aspired was based upon the realisation of her spiritual unity. + +When, in my recent voyage to Europe, our ship left Aden and sailed +along the sea which lay between the two continents, we passed by the +red and barren rocks of Arabia on our right side and the gleaming +sands of Egypt on our left. They seemed to me like two giant brothers +exchanging with each other burning glances of hatred, kept apart by +the tearful entreaty of the sea from whose womb they had their birth. + +There was an immense stretch of silence on the left shore as well as +on the right, but the two shores spoke to me of the two different +historical dramas enacted. The civilisation which found its growth in +Egypt was continued across long centuries, elaborately rich with +sentiments and expressions of life, with pictures, sculptures, +temples, and ceremonials. This was a country whose guardian-spirit was +a noble river, which spread the festivities of life on its banks +across the heart of the land. There man never raised the barrier of +alienation between himself and the rest of the world. + +On the opposite shore of the Red Sea the civilisation which grew up in +the inhospitable soil of Arabia had a contrary character to that of +Egypt. There man felt himself isolated in his hostile and bare +surroundings. His idea of God became that of a jealous God. His mind +naturally dwelt upon the principle of separateness. It roused in him +the spirit of fight, and this spirit was a force that drove him far +and wide. These two civilisations represented two fundamental +divisions of human nature. The one contained in it the spirit of +conquest and the other the spirit of harmony. And both of these have +their truth and purpose in human existence. + +The characters of two eminent sages have been described in our +mythology. One was Vashishtha and another Vishvamitra. Both of them +were great, but they represented two different types of wisdom; and +there was conflict between them. Vishvamitra sought to achieve power +and was proud of it; Vashishtha was rudely smitten by that power. But +his hurt and his loss could not touch the illumination of his soul; +for he rose above them and could forgive. Ramachandra, the great hero +of our epic, had his initiation to the spiritual life from Vashishtha, +the life of inner peace and perfection. But he had his initiation to +war from Vishvamitra, who called him to kill the demons and gave him +weapons that were irresistible. + +Those two sages symbolise in themselves the two guiding spirits of +civilisation. Can it be true that they shall never be reconciled? If +so, can ever the age of peace and co-operation dawn upon the human +world? Creation is the harmony of contrary forces--the forces of +attraction and repulsion. When they join hands, all the fire and fight +are changed into the smile of flowers and the songs of birds. When +there is only one of them triumphant and the other defeated, then +either there is the death of cold rigidity or that of suicidal +explosion. + +Humanity, for ages, has been busy with the one great creation of +spiritual life. Its best wisdom, its discipline, its literature and +art, all the teachings and self-sacrifice of its noblest teachers, +have been for this. But the harmony of contrary forces, which give +their rhythm to all creation, has not yet been perfected by man in his +civilisation, and the Creator in him is baffled over and over again. +He comes back to his work, however, and makes himself busy, building +his world in the midst of desolation and ruins. His history is the +history of his aspiration interrupted and renewed. And one truth of +which he must be reminded, therefore, is that the power which +accomplishes the miracle of creation, by bringing conflicting forces +into the harmony of the One, is no passion, but a love which accepts +the bonds of self-control from the joy of its own immensity--a love +whose sacrifice is the manifestation of its endless wealth within +itself. + + + + + AN INDIAN FOLK RELIGION + + I + + +In historical time the Buddha comes first of those who declared +salvation to all men, without distinction, as by right man's own. What +was the special force which startled men's minds and, almost within +the master's lifetime, spread his teachings over India? It was the +unique significance of the event, when a man came to men and said to +them, "I am here to emancipate you from the miseries of the thraldom +of self." This wisdom came, neither in texts of Scripture, nor in +symbols of deities, nor in religious practices sanctified by ages, but +through the voice of a living man and the love that flowed from a +human heart. + +And I believe this was the first occasion in the history of the world +when the idea of the Avatar found its place in religion. Western +scholars are never tired of insisting that Buddhism is of the nature +of a moral code, coldly leading to the path of extinction. They forget +that it was held to be a religion that roused in its devotees an +inextinguishable fire of enthusiasm and carried them to lifelong exile +across the mountain and desert barriers. To say that a philosophy of +suicide can keep kindled in human hearts for centuries such fervour of +self-sacrifice is to go against all the laws of sane psychology. The +religious enthusiasm which cannot be bound within any daily ritual, +but overflows into adventures of love and beneficence, must have in +its centre that element of personality which rouses the whole soul. In +answer, it may possibly be said that this was due to the personality +of Buddha himself. But that also is not quite true. The personality +which stirs the human heart to its immense depths, leading it to +impossible deeds of heroism, must in that process itself reveal to men +the infinite which is in all humanity. And that is what happened in +Buddhism, making it a religion in the complete sense of the word. + +Like the religion of the Upanishads, Buddhism also generated two +divergent currents; the one impersonal, preaching the abnegation of +self through discipline, and the other personal, preaching the +cultivation of sympathy for all creatures, and devotion to the +infinite truth of love; the other, which is called the Mahayana, had +its origin in the positive element contained in Buddha's teachings, +which is immeasurable love. It could never, by any logic, find its +reality in the emptiness of the truthless abyss. And the object of +Buddha's meditation and his teachings was to free humanity from +sufferings. But what was the path that he revealed to us? Was it some +negative way of evading pain and seeking security against it? On the +contrary, his path was the path of sacrifice--the utmost sacrifice of +love. The meaning of such sacrifice is to reach some ultimate truth, +some positive ideal, which in its greatness can accept suffering and +transmute it into the profound peace of self-renunciation. True +emancipation from suffering, which is the inalienable condition of the +limited life of the self, can never be attained by fleeing from it, +but rather by changing its value in the realm of truth--the truth of +the higher life of love. + +We have learnt that, by calculations made in accordance with the law +of gravitation, some planets were discovered exactly in the place +where they should be. Such a law of gravitation there is also in the +moral world. And when we find men's minds disturbed, as they were by +the preaching of the Buddha, we can be sure, even without any +corroborative evidence, that there must have been some great luminous +body of attraction, positive and powerful, and not a mere unfathomable +vacancy. It is exactly this which we discover in the heart of the +Mahayana system; and we have no hesitation in saying that the truth of +Buddhism is there. The oil has to be burnt, not for the purpose of +diminishing it, but for the purpose of giving light to the lamp. And +when the Buddha said that the self must go, he said at the same moment +that love must be realised. Thus originated the doctrine of the +Dharma-kaya, the Infinite Wisdom and Love manifested in the Buddha. It +was the first instance, as I have said, when men felt that the +Universal and the Eternal Spirit was revealed in a human individual +whom they had known and touched. The joy was too great for them, since +the very idea itself came to them as a freedom--a freedom from the +sense of their measureless insignificance. It was the first time, I +repeat, when the individual, as a man, felt in himself the Infinite +made concrete. + +What was more, those men who felt the love welling forth from the +heart of Buddhism, as one with the current of the Eternal Love itself, +were struck with the idea that such an effluence could never have been +due to a single cataclysm of history--unnatural and therefore untrue. +They felt instead that it was in the eternal nature of truth, that the +event must belong to a series of manifestations; there must have been +numberless other revelations in the past and endless others to follow. + +The idea grew and widened until men began to feel that this Infinite +Being was already in every one of them, and that it rested with +themselves to remove the sensual obstructions and reveal him in their +own lives. In every individual there was, they realised, the +potentiality of Buddha--that is to say, the Infinite made manifest. + +We have to keep in mind the great fact that the preaching of the +Buddha in India was not followed by stagnation of life--as would +surely have happened if humanity was without any positive goal and his +teaching was without any permanent value in itself. On the contrary, +we find the arts and sciences springing up in its wake, institutions +started for alleviating the misery of all creatures, human and +non-human, and great centres of education founded. Some mighty power +was suddenly roused from its obscurity, which worked for long +centuries and changed the history of man in a large part of the world. +And that power came into its full activity only by the individual +being made conscious of his infinite worth. It was like the sudden +discovery of a great mine of living wealth. + +During the period of Buddhism the doctrine of deliverance flourished, +which reached all mankind and released man's inner resources from +neglect and self-insult. Even to-day we see in our own country human +nature, from its despised corner of indignity, slowly and painfully +finding its way to assert the inborn majesty of man. It is like the +imprisoned tree finding a rift in the wall, and sending out its eager +branches into freedom, to prove that darkness is not its birthright, +that its love is for the sunshine. In the time of the Buddha the +individual discovered his own immensity of worth, first by witnessing +a man who united his heart in sympathy with all creatures, in all +worlds, through the power of a love that knew no bounds; and then by +learning that the same light of perfection lay confined within +himself behind the clouds of selfish desire, and that the +Bodhi-hridaya--"the heart of the Eternal Enlightenment"--every moment +claimed its unveiling in his own heart. Nagarjuna speaks of this +Bodhi-hridaya (another of whose names is Bodhi-Citta) as follows: + + One who understands the nature of the Bodhi-hridaya, sees + everything with a loving heart; for love is the essence of + Bodhi-hridaya.[1] + + [Footnote 1: _Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism_, by Dr. D. T. + Suzuki.] + +My object in writing this paper is to show, by the further help of +illustration from a popular religious sect of Bengal, that the +religious instinct of man urges him towards a truth, by which he can +transcend the finite nature of the individual self. Man would never +feel the indignity of his limitations if these were inevitable. Within +him he has glimpses of the Infinite, which give him assurance that +this truth is not in his limitations, but that this truth can be +attained by love. For love is the positive quality of the Infinite, +and love's sacrifice accordingly does not lead to emptiness, but to +fulfilment, to Bodhi-hridaya, "the heart of enlightenment." + +The members of the religious sect I have mentioned call themselves +"Bauel." They live outside social recognition, and their very obscurity +helps them in their seeking, from a direct source, the enlightenment +which the soul longs for, the eternal light of love. + +It would be absurd to say that there is little difference between +Buddhism and the religion of these simple people, who have no system +of metaphysics to support their faith. But my object in bringing close +together these two religions, which seem to belong to opposite poles, +is to point out the fundamental unity in them. Both of them believe in +a fulfilment which is reached by love's emancipating us from the +dominance of self. In both these religions we find man's yearning to +attain the infinite worth of his individuality, not through any +conventional valuation of society, but through his perfect +relationship with Truth. They agree in holding that the realisation of +our ultimate object is waiting for us in ourselves. The Bauel likens +this fulfilment to the blossoming of a bud, and sings: + + Make way, O bud, make way, + Burst open thy heart and make way. + The opening spirit has overtaken thee, + Canst thou remain a bud any longer? + + + II + +One day, in a small village in Bengal, an ascetic woman from the +neighbourhood came to see me. She had the name "Sarva-khepi" given to +her by the village people, the meaning of which is "the woman who is +mad about all things." She fixed her star-like eyes upon my face and +startled me with the question, "When are you coming to meet me +underneath the trees?" Evidently she pitied me who lived (according to +her) prisoned behind walls, banished away from the great meeting-place +of the All, where she had her dwelling. Just at that moment my +gardener came with his basket, and when the woman understood that the +flowers in the vase on my table were going to be thrown away, to make +place for the fresh ones, she looked pained and said to me, "You are +always engaged reading and writing; you do not see." Then she took the +discarded flowers in her palms, kissed them and touched them with her +forehead, and reverently murmured to herself, "Beloved of my heart." I +felt that this woman, in her direct vision of the infinite personality +in the heart of all things, truly represented the spirit of India. + +In the same village I came into touch with some Bauel singers. I had +known them by their names, occasionally seen them singing and begging +in the street, and so passed them by, vaguely classifying them in my +mind under the general name of Vairagis, or ascetics. + +The time came when I had occasion to meet with some members of the +same body and talk to them about spiritual matters. The first Bauel +song, which I chanced to hear with any attention, profoundly stirred +my mind. Its words are so simple that it makes me hesitate to render +them in a foreign tongue, and set them forward for critical +observation. Besides, the best part of a song is missed when the tune +is absent; for thereby its movement and its colour are lost, and it +becomes like a butterfly whose wings have been plucked. + +The first line may be translated thus: "Where shall I meet him, the +Man of my Heart?" This phrase, "the Man of my Heart," is not peculiar +to this song, but is usual with the Bauel sect. It means that, for me, +the supreme truth of all existence is in the revelation of the +Infinite in my own humanity. + +"The Man of my Heart," to the Bauel, is like a divine instrument +perfectly tuned. He gives expression to infinite truth in the music +of life. And the longing for the truth which is in us, which we have +not yet realised, breaks out in the following Bauel song: + + Where shall I meet him, the Man of my Heart? + He is lost to me and I seek him wandering from land to land. + + I am listless for that moonrise of beauty, + which is to light my life, + which I long to see in the fulness of vision, in gladness of heart. + +The name of the poet who wrote this song was Gagan. He was almost +illiterate; and the ideas he received from his Bauel teacher found no +distraction from the self-consciousness of the modern age. He was a +village postman, earning about ten shillings a month, and he died +before he had completed his teens. The sentiment, to which he gave +such intensity of expression, is common to most of the songs of his +sect. And it is a sect, almost exclusively confined to that lower +floor of society, where the light of modern education hardly finds an +entrance, while wealth and respectability shun its utter indigence. + +In the song I have translated above, the longing of the singer to +realise the infinite in his own personality is expressed. This has to +be done daily by its perfect expression in life, in love. For the +personal expression of life, in its perfection, is love; just as the +personal expression of truth in its perfection is beauty. + +In the political life of the modern age the idea of democracy has +given mankind faith in the individual. It gives each man trust in his +own possibilities, and pride in his humanity. Something of the same +idea, we find, has been working in the popular mind of India, with +regard to its religious consciousness. Over and over again it tries to +assert, not only that God is _for_ each of us, but also that God is +_in_ each of us. These people have no special incarnations in their +simple theology, because they know that God is special to each +individual. They say that to be born a man is the greatest privilege +that can fall to a creature in all the world. They assert that gods in +Paradise envy human beings. Why? Because God's will, in giving his +love, finds its completeness in man's will returning that love. +Therefore Humanity is a necessary factor in the perfecting of the +divine truth. The Infinite, for its self-expression, comes down into +the manifoldness of the Finite; and the Finite, for its +self-realisation, must rise into the unity of the Infinite. Then only +is the Cycle of Truth complete. + +The dignity of man, in his eternal right of Truth, finds expression in +the following song, composed, not by a theologian or a man of letters, +but by one who belongs to that ninety per cent of the population of +British India whose education has been far less than elementary, in +fact almost below zero: + + My longing is to meet you in play of love, my Lover; + But this longing is not only mine, but also yours. + For your lips can have their smile, and your flute + its music, only in your delight in my love; + and therefore you are importunate, even as I am. + +If the world were a mere expression of formative forces, then this +song would be pathetic in its presumption. But why is there beauty at +all in creation--the beauty whose only meaning is in a call that +claims disinterestedness as a response? The poet proudly says: "Your +flute could not have its music of beauty if your delight were not in +my love. Your power is great--and there I am not equal to you--but it +lies even in me to make you smile, and if you and I never meet, then +this play of love remains incomplete." + +If this were not true, then it would be an utter humiliation to exist +at all in this world. If it were solely _our_ business to seek the +Lover, and _his_ to keep himself passively aloof in the infinity of +his glory, or actively masterful only in imposing his commands upon +us, then we should dare to defy him, and refuse to accept the +everlasting insult latent in the one-sided importunity of a slave. And +this is what the Bauel says--he who, in the world of men, goes about +singing for alms from door to door, with his one-stringed instrument +and long robe of patched-up rags on his back: + + I stop and sit here on the road. Do not ask me to walk farther. + If your love can be complete without mine, let me turn back + from seeing you. + I have been travelling to seek you, my friend, for long; + Yet I refuse to beg a sight of you, if you do not feel my need. + I am blind with market dust and midday glare, + and so wait, my heart's lover, in hopes that your own love + will send you to find me out. + +The poet is fully conscious that his value in the world's market is +pitifully small; that he is neither wealthy nor learned. Yet he has +his great compensation, for he has come close to his Lover's heart. In +Bengal the women bathing in the river often use their overturned water +jars to keep themselves floating when they swim, and the poet uses +this incident for his simile: + + It is lucky that I am an empty vessel, + For when you swim, I keep floating by your side. + Your full vessels are left on the empty shore, they are for use; + But I am carried to the river in your arms, and I dance + to the rhythm of your heart-throbs and heaving of the waves. + +The great distinguished people of the world do not know that these +beggars--deprived of education, honour, and wealth--can, in the pride +of their souls, look down upon them as the unfortunate ones, who are +left on the shore for their worldly uses, but whose life ever misses +the touch of the Lover's arms. + +The feeling that man is not a mere casual visitor at the palace-gate +of the world, but the invited guest whose presence is needed to give +the royal banquet its sole meaning, is not confined to any particular +sect in India. Let me quote here some poems from a mediaeval poet of +Western India--Jnandas--whose works are nearly forgotten, and have +become scarce from the very exquisiteness of their excellence. In the +following poem he is addressing God's messenger, who comes to us in +the morning light of our childhood, in the dusk of our day's end, and +in the night's darkness: + + Messenger, morning brought you, habited in gold. + After sunset, your song wore a tune of ascetic grey, + and then came night. + Your message was written in bright letters across the black. + Why is such splendour about you, to lure the heart of one + who is nothing? + +This is the answer of the messenger: + + Great is the festival hall where you are to be the only guest. + Therefore the letter to you is written from sky to sky, + And I, the proud servant, bring the invitation with all ceremony. + +And thus the poet knows that the silent rows of stars carry God's own +invitation to the individual soul. + +The same poet sings: + + What hast thou come to beg from the beggar, O King of Kings? + My Kingdom is poor for want of him, my dear one, and I + wait for him in sorrow. + + How long will you keep him waiting, O wretch, + who has waited for you for ages in silence and stillness? + Open your gate, and make this very moment fit for the union. + +It is the song of man's pride in the value given to him by Supreme +Love and realised by his own love. + +The Vaishnava religion, which has become the popular religion of +India, carries the same message: God's love finding its finality in +man's love. According to it, the lover, man, is the complement of the +Lover, God, in the internal love drama of existence; and God's call +is ever wafted in man's heart in the world-music, drawing him towards +the union. This idea has been expressed in rich elaboration of symbols +verging upon realism. But for these Bauels this idea is direct and +simple, full of the dignified beauty of truth, which shuns all tinsels +of ornament. + +The Bauel poet, when asked why he had no sect mark on his forehead, +answered in his song that the true colour decoration appears on the +skin of the fruit when its inner core is filled with ripe, sweet +juice; but by artificially smearing it with colour from outside you do +not make it ripe. And he says of his Guru, his teacher, that he is +puzzled to find in which direction he must make salutation. For his +teacher is not one, but many, who, moving on, form a procession of +wayfarers. + +Bauels have no temple or image for their worship, and this utter +simplicity is needful for men whose one subject is to realise the +innermost nearness of God. The Bauel poet expressly says that if we try +to approach God through the senses we miss him: + + Bring him not into your house as the guest of your eyes; + but let him come at your heart's invitation. + Opening your doors to that which is seen only, is to lose it. + +Yet, being a poet, he also knows that the objects of sense can reveal +their spiritual meaning only when they are not seen through mere +physical eyes: + + Eyes can see only dust and earth, + But feel it with your heart, it is pure joy. + The flowers of delight blossom on all sides, in every form, + but where is your heart's thread to weave them in a garland? + +These Bauels have a philosophy, which they call the philosophy of the +body; but they keep its secret; it is only for the initiated. +Evidently the underlying idea is that the individual's body is itself +the temple, in whose inner mystic shrine the Divine appears before the +soul, and the key to it has to be found from those who know. But as +the key is not for us outsiders, I leave it with the observation that +this mystic philosophy of the body is the outcome of the attempt to +get rid of all the outward shelters which are too costly for people +like themselves. But this human body of ours is made by God's own +hand, from his own love, and even if some men, in the pride of their +superiority, may despise it, God finds his joy in dwelling in others +of yet lower birth. It is a truth easier of discovery by these people +of humble origin than by men of proud estate. + +The pride of the Bauel beggar is not in his worldly distinction, but in +the distinction that God himself has given to him. He feels himself +like a flute through which God's own breath of love has been breathed: + + My heart is like a flute he has played on. + If ever it fall into other hands,-- + let him fling it away. + My lover's flute is dear to him. + Therefore, if to-day alien breath have entered it and + sounded strange notes, + Let him break it to pieces and strew the dust with them. + +So we find that this man also has his disgust of defilement. While the +ambitious world of wealth and power despises him, he in his turn +thinks that the world's touch desecrates him who has been made sacred +by the touch of his Lover. He does not envy us our life of ambition +and achievements, but he knows how precious his own life has been: + + I am poured forth in living notes of joy and sorrow by your breath. + Morning and evening, in summer and in rains, I am fashioned to music. + Yet should I be wholly spent in some flight of song, + I shall not grieve, the tune is so precious to me. + +Our joys and sorrows are contradictory when self separates them in +opposition. But for the heart in which self merges in God's love, +they lose their absoluteness. So the Bauel's prayer is to feel in all +situations--in danger, or pain, or sorrow--that he is in God's hands. +He solves the problem of emancipation from sufferings by accepting and +setting them in a higher context: + + I am the boat, you are the sea, and also the boatman. + Though you never make the shore, though you let me sink, + why should I be foolish and afraid? + Is the reaching the shore a greater prize than losing myself + with you? + If you are only the haven, as they say, then what is the sea? + Let it surge and toss me on its waves, I shall be content. + I live in you, whatever and however you appear. + Save me or kill me as you wish, only never leave me in + others' hands. + + + III + +It is needless to say, before I conclude, that I had neither the +training nor the opportunity to study this mendicant religious sect in +Bengal from an ethnological standpoint. I was attracted to find out +how the living currents of religious movements work in the heart of +the people, saving them from degradation imposed by the society of the +learned, of the rich, or of the high-born; how the spirit of man, by +making use even of its obstacles, reaches fulfilment, led thither, not +by the learned authorities in the scriptures, or by the mechanical +impulse of the dogma-driven crowd, but by the unsophisticated +aspiration of the loving soul. On the inaccessible mountain peaks of +theology the snows of creed remain eternally rigid, cold, and pure. +But God's manifest shower falls direct on the plain of humble hearts, +flowing there in various channels, even getting mixed with some mud in +its course, as it is soaked into the underground currents, invisible, +but ever-moving. + +I can think of nothing better than to conclude my paper with a poem of +Jnandas, in which the aspiration of all simple spirits has found a +devout expression: + + I had travelled all day and was tired; then I bowed my head + towards thy kingly court still far away. + The night deepened, a longing burned in my heart. + Whatever the words I sang, pain cried through them--for + even my songs thirsted-- + O my Lover, my Beloved, my Best in all the world. + + When time seemed lost in darkness, + thy hand dropped its sceptre to take up the lute and + strike the uttermost chords; + And my heart sang out, + O my Lover, my Beloved, my Best in all the world. + + Ah, who is this whose arms enfold me? + Whatever I have to leave, let me leave; and whatever I + have to bear, let me bear. + Only let me walk with thee, + O my Lover, my Beloved, my Best in all the world. + Descend at whiles from thy high audience hall, come down + amid joys and sorrows. + Hide in all forms and delights, in love, + And in my heart sing thy songs,-- + O my Lover, my Beloved, my Best in all the world. + + + + + EAST AND WEST + + I + + +It is not always a profound interest in man that carries travellers +nowadays to distant lands. More often it is the facility for rapid +movement. For lack of time and for the sake of convenience we +generalise and crush our human facts into the packages within the +steel trunks that hold our travellers' reports. + +Our knowledge of our own countrymen and our feelings about them have +slowly and unconsciously grown out of innumerable facts which are full +of contradictions and subject to incessant change. They have the +elusive mystery and fluidity of life. We cannot define to ourselves +what we are as a whole, because we know too much; because our +knowledge is more than knowledge. It is an immediate consciousness of +personality, any evaluation of which carries some emotion, joy or +sorrow, shame or exaltation. But in a foreign land we try to find our +compensation for the meagreness of our data by the compactness of the +generalisation which our imperfect sympathy itself helps us to form. +When a stranger from the West travels in the Eastern world he takes +the facts that displease him and readily makes use of them for his +rigid conclusions, fixed upon the unchallengeable authority of his +personal experience. It is like a man who has his own boat for +crossing his village stream, but, on being compelled to wade across +some strange watercourse, draws angry comparisons as he goes from +every patch of mud and every pebble which his feet encounter. + +Our mind has faculties which are universal, but its habits are +insular. There are men who become impatient and angry at the least +discomfort when their habits are incommoded. In their idea of the next +world they probably conjure up the ghosts of their slippers and +dressing-gowns, and expect the latchkey that opens their lodging-house +door on earth to fit their front door in the other world. As +travellers they are a failure; for they have grown too accustomed to +their mental easy-chairs, and in their intellectual nature love home +comforts, which are of local make, more than the realities of life, +which, like earth itself, are full of ups and downs, yet are one in +their rounded completeness. + +The modern age has brought the geography of the earth near to us, but +made it difficult for us to come into touch with man. We go to strange +lands and observe; we do not live there. We hardly meet men: but only +specimens of knowledge. We are in haste to seek for general types and +overlook individuals. + +When we fall into the habit of neglecting to use the understanding +that comes of sympathy in our travels, our knowledge of foreign people +grows insensitive, and therefore easily becomes both unjust and cruel +in its character, and also selfish and contemptuous in its +application. Such has, too often, been the case with regard to the +meeting of Western people in our days with others for whom they do not +recognise any obligation of kinship. + +It has been admitted that the dealings between different races of men +are not merely between individuals; that our mutual understanding is +either aided, or else obstructed, by the general emanations forming +the social atmosphere. These emanations are our collective ideas and +collective feelings, generated according to special historical +circumstances. + +For instance, the caste-idea is a collective idea in India. When we +approach an Indian who is under the influence of this collective idea, +he is no longer a pure individual with his conscience fully awake to +the judging of the value of a human being. He is more or less a +passive medium for giving expression to the sentiment of a whole +community. + +It is evident that the caste-idea is not creative; it is merely +institutional. It adjusts human beings according to some mechanical +arrangement. It emphasises the negative side of the individual--his +separateness. It hurts the complete truth in man. + +In the West, also, the people have a certain collective idea that +obscures their humanity. Let me try to explain what I feel about it. + + + II + +Lately I went to visit some battlefields of France which had been +devastated by war. The awful calm of desolation, which still bore +wrinkles of pain--death-struggles stiffened into ugly ridges--brought +before my mind the vision of a huge demon, which had no shape, no +meaning, yet had two arms that could strike and break and tear, a +gaping mouth that could devour, and bulging brains that could conspire +and plan. It was a purpose, which had a living body, but no complete +humanity to temper it. Because it was passion--belonging to life, and +yet not having the wholeness of life--it was the most terrible of +life's enemies. + +Something of the same sense of oppression in a different degree, the +same desolation in a different aspect, is produced in my mind when I +realise the effect of the West upon Eastern life--the West which, in +its relation to us, is all plan and purpose incarnate, without any +superfluous humanity. + +I feel the contrast very strongly in Japan. In that country the old +world presents itself with some ideal of perfection, in which man has +his varied opportunities of self-revelation in art, in ceremonial, in +religious faith, and in customs expressing the poetry of social +relationship. There one feels that deep delight of hospitality which +life offers to life. And side by side, in the same soil, stands the +modern world, which is stupendously big and powerful, but +inhospitable. It has no simple-hearted welcome for man. It is living; +yet the incompleteness of life's ideal within it cannot but hurt +humanity. + +The wriggling tentacles of a cold-blooded utilitarianism, with which +the West has grasped all the easily yielding succulent portions of the +East, are causing pain and indignation throughout the Eastern +countries. The West comes to us, not with the imagination and sympathy +that create and unite, but with a shock of passion--passion for power +and wealth. This passion is a mere force, which has in it the +principle of separation, of conflict. + +I have been fortunate in coming into close touch with individual men +and women of the Western countries, and have felt with them their +sorrows and shared their aspirations. I have known that they seek the +same God, who is my God--even those who deny Him. I feel certain that, +if the great light of culture be extinct in Europe, our horizon in the +East will mourn in darkness. It does not hurt my pride to acknowledge +that, in the present age, Western humanity has received its mission to +be the teacher of the world; that her science, through the mastery of +laws of nature, is to liberate human souls from the dark dungeon of +matter. For this very reason I have realised all the more strongly, +on the other hand, that the dominant collective idea in the Western +countries is not creative. It is ready to enslave or kill individuals, +to drug a great people with soul-killing poison, darkening their whole +future with the black mist of stupefaction, and emasculating entire +races of men to the utmost degree of helplessness. It is wholly +wanting in spiritual power to blend and harmonise; it lacks the sense +of the great personality of man. + +The most significant fact of modern days is this, that the West has +met the East. Such a momentous meeting of humanity, in order to be +fruitful, must have in its heart some great emotional idea, generous +and creative. There can be no doubt that God's choice has fallen upon +the knights-errant of the West for the service of the present age; +arms and armour have been given to them; but have they yet realised in +their hearts the single-minded loyalty to their cause which can resist +all temptations of bribery from the devil? The world to-day is offered +to the West. She will destroy it, if she does not use it for a great +creation of man. The materials for such a creation are in the hands of +science; but the creative genius is in Man's spiritual ideal. + + + III + +When I was young a stranger from Europe came to Bengal. He chose his +lodging among the people of the country, shared with them their frugal +diet, and freely offered them his service. He found employment in the +houses of the rich, teaching them French and German, and the money +thus earned he spent to help poor students in buying books. This meant +for him hours of walking in the mid-day heat of a tropical summer; +for, intent upon exercising the utmost economy, he refused to hire +conveyances. He was pitiless in his exaction from himself of his +resources, in money, time, and strength, to the point of privation; +and all this for the sake of a people who were obscure, to whom he was +not born, yet whom he dearly loved. He did not come to us with a +professional mission of teaching sectarian creeds; he had not in his +nature the least trace of that self-sufficiency of goodness, which +humiliates by gifts the victims of its insolent benevolence. Though he +did not know our language, he took every occasion to frequent our +meetings and ceremonies; yet he was always afraid of intrusion, and +tenderly anxious lest he might offend us by his ignorance of our +customs. At last, under the continual strain of work in an alien +climate and surroundings, his health broke down. He died, and was +cremated at our burning-ground, according to his express desire. + +The attitude of his mind, the manner of his living, the object of his +life, his modesty, his unstinted self-sacrifice for a people who had +not even the power to give publicity to any benefaction bestowed upon +them, were so utterly unlike anything we were accustomed to associate +with the Europeans in India, that it gave rise in our mind to a +feeling of love bordering upon awe. + +We all have a realm, a private paradise, in our mind, where dwell +deathless memories of persons who brought some divine light to our +life's experience, who may not be known to others, and whose names +have no place in the pages of history. Let me confess to you that this +man lives as one of those immortals in the paradise of my individual +life. + +He came from Sweden, his name was Hammargren. What was most remarkable +in the event of his coming to us in Bengal was the fact that in his +own country he had chanced to read some works of my great countryman, +Ram Mohan Roy, and felt an immense veneration for his genius and his +character. Ram Mohan Roy lived in the beginning of the last century, +and it is no exaggeration when I describe him as one of the immortal +personalities of modern time. This young Swede had the unusual gift of +a far-sighted intellect and sympathy, which enabled him even from his +distance of space and time, and in spite of racial differences, to +realise the greatness of Ram Mohan Roy. It moved him so deeply that he +resolved to go to the country which produced this great man, and offer +her his service. He was poor, and he had to wait some time in England +before he could earn his passage money to India. There he came at +last, and in reckless generosity of love utterly spent himself to the +last breath of his life, away from home and kindred and all the +inheritances of his motherland. His stay among us was too short to +produce any outward result. He failed even to achieve during his life +what he had in his mind, which was to found by the help of his scanty +earnings a library as a memorial to Ram Mohan Roy, and thus to leave +behind him a visible symbol of his devotion. But what I prize most in +this European youth, who left no record of his life behind him, is not +the memory of any service of goodwill, but the precious gift of +respect which he offered to a people who are fallen upon evil times, +and whom it is so easy to ignore or to humiliate. For the first time +in the modern days this obscure individual from Sweden brought to our +country the chivalrous courtesy of the West, a greeting of human +fellowship. + +The coincidence came to me with a great and delightful surprise when +the Nobel Prize was offered to me from Sweden. As a recognition of +individual merit it was of great value to me, no doubt; but it was the +acknowledgment of the East as a collaborator with the Western +continents, in contributing its riches to the common stock of +civilisation, which had the chief significance for the present age. It +meant joining hands in comradeship by the two great hemispheres of the +human world across the sea. + + + IV + +To-day the real East remains unexplored. The blindness of contempt is +more hopeless than the blindness of ignorance; for contempt kills the +light which ignorance merely leaves unignited. The East is waiting to +be understood by the Western races, in order not only to be able to +give what is true in her, but also to be confident of her own mission. + +In Indian history, the meeting of the Mussulman and the Hindu produced +Akbar, the object of whose dream was the unification of hearts and +ideals. It had all the glowing enthusiasm of a religion, and it +produced an immediate and a vast result even in his own lifetime. + +But the fact still remains that the Western mind, after centuries of +contact with the East, has not evolved the enthusiasm of a chivalrous +ideal which can bring this age to its fulfilment. It is everywhere +raising thorny hedges of exclusion and offering human sacrifices to +national self-seeking. It has intensified the mutual feelings of envy +among Western races themselves, as they fight over their spoils and +display a carnivorous pride in their snarling rows of teeth. + +We must again guard our minds from any encroaching distrust of the +individuals of a nation. The active love of humanity and the spirit of +martyrdom for the cause of justice and truth which I have met with in +the Western countries have been a great lesson and inspiration to me. +I have no doubt in my mind that the West owes its true greatness, not +so much to its marvellous training of intellect, as to its spirit of +service devoted to the welfare of man. Therefore I speak with a +personal feeling of pain and sadness about the collective power which +is guiding the helm of Western civilisation. It is a passion, not an +ideal. The more success it has brought to Europe, the more costly it +will prove to her at last, when the accounts have to be rendered. And +the signs are unmistakable, that the accounts have been called for. +The time has come when Europe must know that the forcible parasitism +which she has been practising upon the two large Continents of the +world--the two most unwieldy whales of humanity--must be causing to +her moral nature a gradual atrophy and degeneration. + +As an example, let me quote the following extract from the concluding +chapter of _From the Cape to Cairo_, by Messrs. Grogan and Sharp, two +writers who have the power to inculcate their doctrines by precept and +example. In their reference to the African they are candid, as when +they say, "We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs." +These two sentences, carefully articulated, with a smack of +enjoyment, have been more clearly explained in the following +statement, where some sense of that decency which is the attenuated +ghost of a buried conscience, prompts the writers to use the phrase +"compulsory labour" in place of the honest word "slavery"; just as the +modern politician adroitly avoids the word "injunction" and uses the +word "mandate." "Compulsory labour in some form," they say, "is the +corollary of our occupation of the country." And they add: "It is +pathetic, but it is history," implying thereby that moral sentiments +have no serious effect in the history of human beings. + +Elsewhere they write: "Either we must give up the country +commercially, or we must make the African work. And mere abuse of +those who point out the impasse cannot change the facts. We must +decide, and soon. Or rather the white man of South Africa will +decide." The authors also confess that they have seen too much of the +world "to have any lingering belief that Western civilisation benefits +native races." + +The logic is simple--the logic of egoism. But the argument is +simplified by lopping off the greater part of the premise. For these +writers seem to hold that the only important question for the white +men of South Africa is, how indefinitely to grow fat on ostrich +feathers and diamond mines, and dance jazz dances over the misery and +degradation of a whole race of fellow-beings of a different colour +from their own. Possibly they believe that moral laws have a special +domesticated breed of comfortable concessions for the service of the +people in power. Possibly they ignore the fact that commercial and +political cannibalism, profitably practised upon foreign races, creeps +back nearer home; that the cultivation of unwholesome appetites has +its final reckoning with the stomach which has been made to serve it. +For, after all, man is a spiritual being, and not a mere living +money-bag jumping from profit to profit, and breaking the backbone of +human races in its financial leapfrog. + +Such, however, has been the condition of things for more than a +century; and to-day, trying to read the future by the light of the +European conflagration, we are asking ourselves everywhere in the +East: "Is this frightfully overgrown power really great? It can bruise +us from without, but can it add to our wealth of spirit? It can sign +peace treaties, but can it give peace?" + +It was about two thousand years ago that all-powerful Rome in one of +its eastern provinces executed on a cross a simple teacher of an +obscure tribe of fishermen. On that day the Roman governor felt no +falling off of his appetite or sleep. On that day there was, on the +one hand, the agony, the humiliation, the death; on the other, the +pomp of pride and festivity in the Governor's palace. + +And to-day? To whom, then, shall we bow the head? + + Kasmai devaya havisha vidhema? + + (To which God shall we offer oblation?) + +We know of an instance in our own history of India, when a great +personality, both in his life and voice, struck the keynote of the +solemn music of the soul--love for all creatures. And that music +crossed seas, mountains, and deserts. Races belonging to different +climates, habits, and languages were drawn together, not in the clash +of arms, not in the conflict of exploitation, but in harmony of life, +in amity and peace. That was creation. + +When we think of it, we see at once what the confusion of thought was +to which the Western poet, dwelling upon the difference between East +and West, referred when he said, "Never the twain shall meet." It is +true that they are not yet showing any real sign of meeting. But the +reason is because the West has not sent out its humanity to meet the +man in the East, but only its machine. Therefore the poet's line has +to be changed into something like this: + + Man is man, machine is machine, + And never the twain shall wed. + +You must know that red tape can never be a common human bond; that +official sealing-wax can never provide means of mutual attachment; +that it is a painful ordeal for human beings to have to receive +favours from animated pigeonholes, and condescensions from printed +circulars that give notice but never speak. The presence of the +Western people in the East is a human fact. If we are to gain anything +from them, it must not be a mere sum-total of legal codes and systems +of civil and military services. Man is a great deal more to man than +that. We have our human birthright to claim direct help from the man +of the West, if he has anything great to give us. It must come to us, +not through mere facts in a juxtaposition, but through the +spontaneous sacrifice made by those who have the gift, and therefore +the responsibility. + +Earnestly I ask the poet of the Western world to realise and sing to +you with all the great power of music which he has, that the East and +the West are ever in search of each other, and that they must meet not +merely in the fulness of physical strength, but in fulness of truth; +that the right hand, which wields the sword, has the need of the left, +which holds the shield of safety. + +The East has its seat in the vast plains watched over by the +snow-peaked mountains and fertilised by rivers carrying mighty volumes +of water to the sea. There, under the blaze of a tropical sun, the +physical life has bedimmed the light of its vigour and lessened its +claims. There man has had the repose of mind which has ever tried to +set itself in harmony with the inner notes of existence. In the +silence of sunrise and sunset, and on star-crowded nights, he has sat +face to face with the Infinite, waiting for the revelation that opens +up the heart of all that there is. He has said, in a rapture of +realisation: + +"Hearken to me, ye children of the Immortal, who dwell in the Kingdom +of Heaven. I have known, from beyond darkness, the Supreme Person, +shining with the radiance of the sun." + +The man from the East, with his faith in the eternal, who in his soul +had met the touch of the Supreme Person--did he never come to you in +the West and speak to you of the Kingdom of Heaven? Did he not unite +the East and the West in truth, in the unity of one spiritual bond +between all children of the Immortal, in the realisation of one great +Personality in all human persons? + +Yes, the East did once meet the West profoundly in the growth of her +life. Such union became possible, because the East came to the West +with the ideal that is creative, and not with the passion that +destroys moral bonds. The mystic consciousness of the Infinite, which +she brought with her, was greatly needed by the man of the West to +give him his balance. + +On the other hand, the East must find her own balance in Science--the +magnificent gift that the West can bring to her. Truth has its nest as +well as its sky. That nest is definite in structure, accurate in law +of construction; and though it has to be changed and rebuilt over and +over again, the need of it is never-ending and its laws are eternal. +For some centuries the East has neglected the nest-building of truth. +She has not been attentive to learn its secret. Trying to cross the +trackless infinite, the East has relied solely upon her wings. She has +spurned the earth, till, buffeted by storms, her wings are hurt and +she is tired, sorely needing help. But has she then to be told that +the messenger of the sky and the builder of the nest shall never +meet? + + + + + THE MODERN AGE + + I + + +Wherever man meets man in a living relationship, the meeting finds its +natural expression in works of art, the signatures of beauty, in which +the mingling of the personal touch leaves its memorial. + +On the other hand, a relationship of pure utility humiliates man--it +ignores the rights and needs of his deeper nature; it feels no +compunction in maltreating and killing things of beauty that can never +be restored. + +Some years ago, when I set out from Calcutta on my voyage to Japan, +the first thing that shocked me, with a sense of personal injury, was +the ruthless intrusion of the factories for making gunny-bags on both +banks of the Ganges. The blow it gave to me was owing to the precious +memory of the days of my boyhood, when the scenery of this river was +the only great thing near my birthplace reminding me of the existence +of a world which had its direct communication with our innermost +spirit. + +Calcutta is an upstart town with no depth of sentiment in her face and +in her manners. It may truly be said about her genesis:--In the +beginning there was the spirit of the Shop, which uttered through its +megaphone, "Let there be the Office!" and there was Calcutta. She +brought with her no dower of distinction, no majesty of noble or +romantic origin; she never gathered around her any great historical +associations, any annals of brave sufferings, or memory of mighty +deeds. The only thing which gave her the sacred baptism of beauty was +the river. I was fortunate enough to be born before the smoke-belching +iron dragon had devoured the greater part of the life of its banks; +when the landing-stairs descending into its waters, caressed by its +tides, appeared to me like the loving arms of the villages clinging to +it; when Calcutta, with her up-tilted nose and stony stare, had not +completely disowned her foster-mother, rural Bengal, and had not +surrendered body and soul to her wealthy paramour, the spirit of the +ledger, bound in dead leather. + +But as an instance of the contrast of the different ideal of a +different age, incarnated in the form of a town, the memory of my last +visit to Benares comes to my mind. What impressed me most deeply, +while I was there, was the mother-call of the river Ganges, ever +filling the atmosphere with an "unheard melody," attracting the whole +population to its bosom every hour of the day. I am proud of the fact +that India has felt a most profound love for this river, which +nourishes civilisation on its banks, guiding its course from the +silence of the hills to the sea with its myriad voices of solitude. +The love of this river, which has become one with the love of the best +in man, has given rise to this town as an expression of reverence. +This is to show that there are sentiments in us which are creative, +which do not clamour for gain, but overflow in gifts, in spontaneous +generosity of self-sacrifice. + +But our minds will nevermore cease to be haunted by the perturbed +spirit of the question, "What about gunny-bags?" I admit they are +indispensable, and am willing to allow them a place in society, if my +opponent will only admit that even gunny-bags should have their +limits, and will acknowledge the importance of leisure to man, with +space for joy and worship, and a home of wholesale privacy, with +associations of chaste love and mutual service. If this concession to +humanity be denied or curtailed, and if profit and production are +allowed to run amuck, they will play havoc with our love of beauty, of +truth, of justice, and also with our love for our fellow-beings. So it +comes about that the peasant cultivators of jute, who live on the +brink of everlasting famine, are combined against, and driven to lower +the price of their labours to the point of blank despair, by those who +earn more than cent per cent profit and wallow in the infamy of their +wealth. The facts that man is brave and kind, that he is social and +generous and self-sacrificing, have some aspect of the complete in +them; but the fact that he is a manufacturer of gunny-bags is too +ridiculously small to claim the right of reducing his higher nature to +insignificance. The fragmentariness of utility should never forget its +subordinate position in human affairs. It must not be permitted to +occupy more than its legitimate place and power in society, nor to +have the liberty to desecrate the poetry of life, to deaden our +sensitiveness to ideals, bragging of its own coarseness as a sign of +virility. The pity is that when in the centre of our activities we +acknowledge, by some proud name, the supremacy of wanton +destructiveness, or production not less wanton, we shut out all the +lights of our souls, and in that darkness our conscience and our +consciousness of shame are hidden, and our love of freedom is killed. + +I do not for a moment mean to imply that in any particular period of +history men were free from the disturbance of their lower passions. +Selfishness ever had its share in government and trade. Yet there was +a struggle to maintain a balance of forces in society; and our +passions cherished no delusions about their own rank and value. They +contrived no clever devices to hoodwink our moral nature. For in those +days our intellect was not tempted to put its weight into the balance +on the side of over-greed. + +But in recent centuries a devastating change has come over our +mentality with regard to the acquisition of money. Whereas in former +ages men treated it with condescension, even with disrespect, now they +bend their knees to it. That it should be allowed a sufficiently large +place in society, there can be no question; but it becomes an outrage +when it occupies those seats which are specially reserved for the +immortals, by bribing us, tampering with our moral pride, recruiting +the best strength of society in a traitor's campaign against human +ideals, thus disguising, with the help of pomp and pageantry, its true +insignificance. Such a state of things has come to pass because, with +the help of science, the possibilities of profit have suddenly become +immoderate. The whole of the human world, throughout its length and +breadth, has felt the gravitational pull of a giant planet of greed, +with concentric rings of innumerable satellites, causing in our +society a marked deviation from the moral orbit. In former times the +intellectual and spiritual powers of this earth upheld their dignity +of independence and were not giddily rocked on the tides of the money +market. But, as in the last fatal stages of disease, this fatal +influence of money has got into our brain and affected our heart. Like +a usurper, it has occupied the throne of high social ideals, using +every means, by menace and threat, to seize upon the right, and, +tempted by opportunity, presuming to judge it. It has not only science +for its ally, but other forces also that have some semblance of +religion, such as nation-worship and the idealising of organised +selfishness. Its methods are far-reaching and sure. Like the claws of +a tiger's paw, they are softly sheathed. Its massacres are invisible, +because they are fundamental, attacking the very roots of life. Its +plunder is ruthless behind a scientific system of screens, which have +the formal appearance of being open and responsible to inquiries. By +whitewashing its stains it keeps its respectability unblemished. It +makes a liberal use of falsehood in diplomacy, only feeling +embarrassed when its evidence is disclosed by others of the trade. An +unscrupulous system of propaganda paves the way for widespread +misrepresentation. It works up the crowd psychology through regulated +hypnotic doses at repeated intervals, administered in bottles with +moral labels upon them of soothing colours. In fact, man has been able +to make his pursuit of power easier to-day by his art of mitigating +the obstructive forces that come from the higher region of his +humanity. With his cult of power and his idolatry of money he has, in +a great measure, reverted to his primitive barbarism, a barbarism +whose path is lit up by the lurid light of intellect. For barbarism is +the simplicity of a superficial life. It may be bewildering in its +surface adornments and complexities, but it lacks the ideal to impart +to it the depth of moral responsibility. + + + II + +Society suffers from a profound feeling of unhappiness, not so much +when it is in material poverty as when its members are deprived of a +large part of their humanity. This unhappiness goes on smouldering in +the subconscious mind of the community till its life is reduced to +ashes or a sudden combustion is produced. The repressed personality of +man generates an inflammable moral gas deadly in its explosive force. + +We have seen in the late war, and also in some of the still more +recent events of history, how human individuals freed from moral and +spiritual bonds find a boisterous joy in a debauchery of destruction. +There is generated a disinterested passion of ravage. Through such +catastrophe we can realise what formidable forces of annihilation are +kept in check in our communities by bonds of social ideas; nay, made +into multitudinous manifestations of beauty and fruitfulness. Thus we +know that evils are, like meteors, stray fragments of life, which need +the attraction of some great ideal in order to be assimilated with the +wholesomeness of creation. The evil forces are literally outlaws; +they only need the control and cadence of spiritual laws to change +them into good. The true goodness is not the negation of badness, it +is in the mastery of it. Goodness is the miracle which turns the +tumult of chaos into a dance of beauty. + +In modern society the ideal of wholeness has lost its force. Therefore +its different sections have become detached and resolved into their +elemental character of forces. Labour is a force; so also is Capital; +so are the Government and the People; so are Man and Woman. It is said +that when the forces lying latent in even a handful of dust are +liberated from their bond of unity, they can lift the buildings of a +whole neighbourhood to the height of a mountain. Such disfranchised +forces, irresponsible free-booters, may be useful to us for certain +purposes, but human habitations standing secure on their foundations +are better for us. To own the secret of utilising these forces is a +proud fact for us, but the power of self-control and the +self-dedication of love are truer subjects for the exultation of +mankind. The genii of the Arabian Nights may have in their magic their +lure and fascination for us. But the consciousness of God is of +another order, infinitely more precious in imparting to our minds +ideas of the spiritual power of creation. Yet these genii are abroad +everywhere; and even now, after the late war, their devotees are +getting ready to play further tricks upon humanity by suddenly +spiriting it away to some hill-top of desolation. + + + III + +We know that when, at first, any large body of people in their history +became aware of their unity, they expressed it in some popular symbol +of divinity. For they felt that their combination was not an +arithmetical one; its truth was deeper than the truth of number. They +felt that their community was not a mere agglutination but a creation, +having upon it the living touch of the infinite Person. The +realisation of this truth having been an end in itself, a fulfilment, +it gave meaning to self-sacrifice, to the acceptance even of death. + +But our modern education is producing a habit of mind which is ever +weakening in us the spiritual apprehension of truth--the truth of a +person as the ultimate reality of existence. Science has its proper +sphere in analysing this world as a construction, just as grammar has +its legitimate office in analysing the syntax of a poem. But the +world, as a creation, is not a mere construction; it too is more than +a syntax. It is a poem, which we are apt to forget when grammar takes +exclusive hold of our minds. + +Upon the loss of this sense of a universal personality, which is +religion, the reign of the machine and of method has been firmly +established, and man, humanly speaking, has been made a homeless +tramp. As nomads, ravenous and restless, the men from the West have +come to us. They have exploited our Eastern humanity for sheer gain of +power. This modern meeting of men has not yet received the blessing of +God. For it has kept us apart, though railway lines are laid far and +wide, and ships are plying from shore to shore to bring us together. + +It has been said in the Upanishads: + + Yastu sarvani bhutani atmanyevanupashyati + Sarva bhuteshu chatmanam na tato vijugupsate. + + (He who sees all things in _atma_, in the infinite spirit, + and the infinite spirit in all beings, remains no longer + unrevealed.) + +In the modern civilisation, for which an enormous number of men are +used as materials, and human relationships have in a large measure +become utilitarian, man is imperfectly revealed. For man's revelation +does not lie in the fact that he is a power, but that he is a spirit. +The prevalence of the theory which realises the power of the machine +in the universe, and organises men into machines, is like the eruption +of Etna, tremendous in its force, in its outburst of fire and fume; +but its creeping lava covers up human shelters made by the ages, and +its ashes smother life. + + + IV + +The terribly efficient method of repressing personality in the +individuals and the races who have failed to resist it has, in the +present scientific age, spread all over the world; and in consequence +there have appeared signs of a universal disruption which seems not +far off. Faced with the possibility of such a disaster, which is sure +to affect the successful peoples of the world in their intemperate +prosperity, the great Powers of the West are seeking peace, not by +curbing their greed, or by giving up the exclusive advantages which +they have unjustly acquired, but by concentrating their forces for +mutual security. + +But can powers find their equilibrium in themselves? Power has to be +made secure not only against power, but also against weakness; for +there lies the peril of its losing balance. The weak are as great a +danger for the strong as quicksands for an elephant. They do not +assist progress because they do not resist; they only drag down. The +people who grow accustomed to wield absolute power over others are apt +to forget that by so doing they generate an unseen force which some +day rends that power into pieces. The dumb fury of the downtrodden +finds its awful support from the universal law of moral balance. The +air which is so thin and unsubstantial gives birth to storms that +nothing can resist. This has been proved in history over and over +again, and stormy forces arising from the revolt of insulted humanity +are openly gathering in the air at the present time. + +Yet in the psychology of the strong the lesson is despised and no +count taken of the terribleness of the weak. This is the latent +ignorance that, like an unsuspected worm, burrows under the bulk of +the prosperous. Have we never read of the castle of power, securely +buttressed on all sides, in a moment dissolving in air at the +explosion caused by the weak and outraged besiegers? Politicians +calculate upon the number of mailed hands that are kept on the +sword-hilts: they do not possess the third eye to see the great +invisible hand that clasps in silence the hand of the helpless and +waits its time. The strong form their league by a combination of +powers, driving the weak to form their own league alone with their +God. I know I am crying in the wilderness when I raise the voice of +warning; and while the West is busy with its organisation of a +machine-made peace, it will still continue to nourish by its +iniquities the underground forces of earthquake in the Eastern +Continent. The West seems unconscious that Science, by providing it +with more and more power, is tempting it to suicide and encouraging it +to accept the challenge of the disarmed; it does not know that the +challenge comes from a higher source. + +Two prophecies about the world's salvation are cherished in the hearts +of the two great religions of the world. They represent the highest +expectation of man, thereby indicating his faith in a truth which he +instinctively considers as ultimate--the truth of love. These +prophecies have not for their vision the fettering of the world and +reducing it to tameness by means of a close-linked power forged in the +factory of a political steel trust. One of the religions has for its +meditation the image of the Buddha who is to come, Maitreya, the +Buddha of love; and he is to bring peace. The other religion waits for +the coming of Christ. For Christ preached peace when he preached love, +when he preached the oneness of the Father with the brothers who are +many. And this was the truth of peace. Christ never held that peace +was the best policy. For policy is not truth. The calculation of +self-interest can never successfully fight the irrational force of +passion--the passion which is perversion of love, and which can only +be set right by the truth of love. So long as the powers build a +league on the foundation of their desire for safety, secure enjoyment +of gains, consolidation of past injustice, and putting off the +reparation of wrongs, while their fingers still wriggle for greed and +reek of blood, rifts will appear in their union; and in future their +conflicts will take greater force and magnitude. It is political and +commercial egoism which is the evil harbinger of war. By different +combinations it changes its shape and dimensions, but not its nature. +This egoism is still held sacred, and made a religion; and such a +religion, by a mere change of temple, and by new committees of +priests, will never save mankind. We must know that, as, through +science and commerce, the realisation of the unity of the material +world gives us power, so the realisation of the great spiritual Unity +of Man alone can give us peace. + + + + + THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM + + (A LETTER FROM NEW YORK TO THE AUTHOR'S OWN COUNTRYMEN) + + +When freedom is not an inner idea which imparts strength to our +activities and breadth to our creations, when it is merely a thing of +external circumstance, it is like an open space to one who is +blindfolded. + +In my recent travels in the West I have felt that out there freedom as +an idea has become feeble and ineffectual. Consequently a spirit of +repression and coercion is fast spreading in the politics and social +relationships of the people. + +In the age of monarchy the king lived surrounded by a miasma of +intrigue. At court there was an endless whispering of lies and +calumny, and much plotting and planning among the conspiring courtiers +to manipulate the king as the instrument of their own purposes. + +In the present age intrigue plays a wider part, and affects the whole +country. The people are drugged with the hashish of false hopes and +urged to deeds of frightfulness by the goadings of manufactured +panics; their higher feelings are exploited by devious channels of +unctuous hypocrisy, their pockets picked under anaesthetics of +flattery, their very psychology affected by a conspiracy of money and +unscrupulous diplomacy. + +In the old order the king was given to understand that he was the +freest individual in the world. A greater semblance of external +freedom, no doubt, he had than other individuals. But they built for +him a gorgeous prison of unreality. + +The same thing is happening now with the people of the West. They are +flattered into believing that they are free, and they have the +sovereign power in their hands. But this power is robbed by hosts of +self-seekers, and the horse is captured and stabled because of his +gift of freedom over space. The mob-mind is allowed the enjoyment of +an apparent liberty, while its true freedom is curtailed on every +side. Its thoughts are fashioned according to the plans of organised +interest; in its choosing of ideas and forming of opinions it is +hindered either by some punitive force or by the constant insinuation +of untruths; it is made to dwell in an artificial world of hypnotic +phrases. In fact, the people have become the storehouse of a power +that attracts round it a swarm of adventurers who are secretly +investing its walls to exploit it for their own devices. + +Thus it has become more and more evident to me that the ideal of +freedom has grown tenuous in the atmosphere of the West. The mentality +is that of a slave-owning community, with a mutilated multitude of men +tied to its commercial and political treadmill. It is the mentality of +mutual distrust and fear. The appalling scenes of inhumanity and +injustice, which are growing familiar to us, are the outcome of a +psychology that deals with terror. No cruelty can be uglier in its +ferocity than the cruelty of the coward. The people who have +sacrificed their souls to the passion of profit-making and the +drunkenness of power are constantly pursued by phantoms of panic and +suspicion, and therefore they are ruthless even where they are least +afraid of mischances. They become morally incapable of allowing +freedom to others, and in their eagerness to curry favour with the +powerful they not only connive at the injustice done by their own +partners in political gambling, but participate in it. A perpetual +anxiety for the protection of their gains at any cost strikes at the +love of freedom and justice, until at length they are ready to forgo +liberty for themselves and for others. + +My experience in the West, where I have realised the immense power of +money and of organised propaganda,--working everywhere behind screens +of camouflage, creating an atmosphere of distrust, timidity, and +antipathy,--has impressed me deeply with the truth that real freedom +is of the mind and spirit; it can never come to us from outside. He +only has freedom who ideally loves freedom himself and is glad to +extend it to others. He who cares to have slaves must chain himself to +them; he who builds walls to create exclusion for others builds walls +across his own freedom; he who distrusts freedom in others loses his +moral right to it. Sooner or later he is lured into the meshes of +physical and moral servility. + +Therefore I would urge my own countrymen to ask themselves if the +freedom to which they aspire is one of external conditions. Is it +merely a transferable commodity? Have they acquired a true love of +freedom? Have they faith in it? Are they ready to make space in their +society for the minds of their children to grow up in the ideal of +human dignity, unhindered by restrictions that are unjust and +irrational? + +Have we not made elaborately permanent the walls of our social +compartments? We are tenaciously proud of their exclusiveness. We +boast that, in this world, no other society but our own has come to +finality in the classifying of its living members. Yet in our +political agitations we conveniently forget that any unnaturalness in +the relationship of governors and governed which humiliates us, +becomes an outrage when it is artificially fixed under the threat of +military persecution. + +When India gave voice to immortal thoughts, in the time of fullest +vigour of vitality, her children had the fearless spirit of the +seekers of truth. The great epic of the soul of our people--the +_Mahabharata_--gives us a wonderful vision of an overflowing life, +full of the freedom of inquiry and experiment. When the age of the +Buddha came, humanity was stirred in our country to its uttermost +depth. The freedom of mind which it produced expressed itself in a +wealth of creation, spreading everywhere in its richness over the +continent of Asia. But with the ebb of life in India the spirit of +creation died away. It hardened into an age of inert construction. The +organic unity of a varied and elastic society gave way to a +conventional order which proved its artificial character by its +inexorable law of exclusion. + +Life has its inequalities, I admit, but they are natural and are in +harmony with our vital functions. The head keeps its place apart from +the feet, not through some external arrangement or any conspiracy of +coercion. If the body is compelled to turn somersaults for an +indefinite period, the head never exchanges its relative function for +that of the feet. But have our social divisions the same +inevitableness of organic law? If we have the hardihood to say "yes" +to that question, then how can we blame an alien people for subjecting +us to a political order which they are tempted to believe eternal? + +By squeezing human beings in the grip of an inelastic system and +forcibly holding them fixed, we have ignored the laws of life and +growth. We have forced living souls into a permanent passivity, making +them incapable of moulding circumstance to their own intrinsic design, +and of mastering their own destiny. Borrowing our ideal of life from a +dark period of our degeneracy, we have covered up our sensitiveness +of soul under the immovable weight of a remote past. We have set up an +elaborate ceremonial of cage-worship, and plucked all the feathers +from the wings of the living spirit of our people. And for us,--with +our centuries of degradation and insult, with the amorphousness of our +national unity, with our helplessness before the attack of disasters +from without and our unreasoning self-obstructions from within,--the +punishment has been terrible. Our stupefaction has become so absolute +that we do not even realise that this persistent misfortune, dogging +our steps for ages, cannot be a mere accident of history, removable +only by another accident from outside. + +Unless we have true faith in freedom, knowing it to be creative, +manfully taking all its risks, not only do we lose the right to claim +freedom in politics, but we also lack the power to maintain it with +all our strength. For that would be like assigning the service of God +to a confirmed atheist. And men, who contemptuously treat their own +brothers and sisters as eternal babies, never to be trusted in the +most trivial details of their personal life,--coercing them at every +step by the cruel threat of persecution into following a blind lane +leading to nowhere, driving a number of them into hypocrisy and into +moral inertia,--will fail over and over again to rise to the height of +their true and severe responsibility. They will be incapable of +holding a just freedom in politics, and of fighting in freedom's +cause. + +The civilisation of the West has in it the spirit of the machine which +must move; and to that blind movement human lives are offered as fuel, +keeping up the steam-power. It represents the active aspect of inertia +which has the appearance of freedom, but not its truth, and therefore +gives rise to slavery both within its boundaries and outside. The +present civilisation of India has the constraining power of the mould. +It squeezes living man in the grip of rigid regulations, and its +repression of individual freedom makes it only too easy for men to be +forced into submission of all kinds and degrees. In both of these +traditions life is offered up to something which is not life; it is a +sacrifice, which has no God for its worship, and is therefore utterly +in vain. The West is continually producing mechanical power in excess +of its spiritual control, and India has produced a system of +mechanical control in excess of its vitality. + + + + + THE NATION + + +The peoples are living beings. They have their distinct personalities. +But nations are organisations of power, and therefore their inner +aspects and outward expressions are everywhere monotonously the same. +Their differences are merely differences in degree of efficiency. + +In the modern world the fight is going on between the living spirit of +the people and the methods of nation-organising. It is like the +struggle that began in Central Asia between cultivated areas of man's +habitation and the continually encroaching desert sands, till the +human region of life and beauty was choked out of existence. When the +spread of higher ideals of humanity is not held to be important, the +hardening method of national efficiency gains a certain strength; and +for some limited period of time, at least, it proudly asserts itself +as the fittest to survive. But it is the survival of that part of man +which is the least living. And this is the reason why dead monotony is +the sign of the spread of the Nation. The modern towns, which present +the physiognomy due to this dominance of the Nation, are everywhere +the same, from San Francisco to London, from London to Tokyo. They +show no faces, but merely masks. + +The peoples, being living personalities, must have their +self-expression, and this leads to their distinctive creations. These +creations are literature, art, social symbols and ceremonials. They +are like different dishes at one common feast. They add richness to +our enjoyment and understanding of truth. They are making the world of +man fertile of life and variedly beautiful. + +But the nations do not create, they merely produce and destroy. +Organisations for production are necessary. Even organisations for +destruction may be so. But when, actuated by greed and hatred, they +crowd away into a corner the living man who creates, then the harmony +is lost, and the people's history runs at a break-neck speed towards +some fatal catastrophe. + +Humanity, where it is living, is guided by inner ideals; but where it +is a dead organisation it becomes impervious to them. Its building +process is only an external process, and in its response to the moral +guidance it has to pass through obstacles that are gross and +non-plastic. + +Man as a person has his individuality, which is the field where his +spirit has its freedom to express itself and to grow. The professional +man carries a rigid crust around him which has very little variation +and hardly any elasticity. This professionalism is the region where +men specialise their knowledge and organise their power, mercilessly +elbowing each other in their struggle to come to the front. +Professionalism is necessary, without doubt; but it must not be +allowed to exceed its healthy limits, to assume complete mastery over +the personal man, making him narrow and hard, exclusively intent upon +pursuit of success at the cost of his faith in ideals. + +In ancient India professions were kept within limits by social +regulation. They were considered primarily as social necessities, and +in the second place as the means of livelihood for individuals. Thus +man, being free from the constant urging of unbounded competition, +could have leisure to cultivate his nature in its completeness. + +The Cult of the Nation is the professionalism of the people. This cult +is becoming their greatest danger, because it is bringing them +enormous success, making them impatient of the claims of higher +ideals. The greater the amount of success, the stronger are the +conflicts of interest and jealousy and hatred which are aroused in +men's minds, thereby making it more and more necessary for other +peoples, who are still living, to stiffen into nations. With the +growth of nationalism, man has become the greatest menace to man. +Therefore the continual presence of panic goads that very nationalism +into ever-increasing menace. + +Crowd psychology is a blind force. Like steam and other physical +forces, it can be utilised for creating a tremendous amount of power. +And therefore rulers of men, who, out of greed and fear, are bent upon +turning their peoples into machines of power, try to train this crowd +psychology for their special purposes. They hold it to be their duty +to foster in the popular mind universal panic, unreasoning pride in +their own race, and hatred of others. Newspapers, school-books, and +even religious services are made use of for this object; and those +who have the courage to express their disapprobation of this blind and +impious cult are either punished in the law-courts, or are socially +ostracised. The individual thinks, even when he feels; but the same +individual, when he feels with the crowd, does not reason at all. His +moral sense becomes blurred. This suppression of higher humanity in +crowd minds is productive of enormous strength. For the crowd mind is +essentially primitive; its forces are elemental. Therefore the Nation +is for ever watching to take advantage of this enormous power of +darkness. + +The people's instinct of self-preservation has been made dominant at +particular times of crisis. Then, for the time being, the +consciousness of its solidarity becomes aggressively wide-awake. But +in the Nation this hyper-consciousness is kept alive for all time by +artificial means. A man has to act the part of a policeman when he +finds his house invaded by burglars. But if that remains his normal +condition, then his consciousness of his household becomes acute and +over-wrought, making him fly at every stranger passing near his house. +This intensity of self-consciousness is nothing of which a man should +feel proud; certainly it is not healthful. In like manner, incessant +self-consciousness in a nation is highly injurious for the people. It +serves its immediate purpose, but at the cost of the eternal in man. + +When a whole body of men train themselves for a particular narrow +purpose, it becomes a common interest with them to keep up that +purpose and preach absolute loyalty to it. Nationalism is the training +of a whole people for a narrow ideal; and when it gets hold of their +minds it is sure to lead them to moral degeneracy and intellectual +blindness. We cannot but hold firm the faith that this Age of +Nationalism, of gigantic vanity and selfishness, is only a passing +phase in civilisation, and those who are making permanent arrangements +for accommodating this temporary mood of history will be unable to fit +themselves for the coming age, when the true spirit of freedom will +have sway. + +With the unchecked growth of Nationalism the moral foundation of man's +civilisation is unconsciously undergoing a change. The ideal of the +social man is unselfishness, but the ideal of the Nation, like that of +the professional man, is selfishness. This is why selfishness in the +individual is condemned, while in the nation it is extolled, which +leads to hopeless moral blindness, confusing the religion of the +people with the religion of the nation. Therefore, to take an example, +we find men more and more convinced of the superior claims of +Christianity, merely because Christian nations are in possession of +the greater part of the world. It is like supporting a robber's +religion by quoting the amount of his stolen property. Nations +celebrate their successful massacre of men in their churches. They +forget that Thugs also ascribed their success in manslaughter to the +favour of their goddess. But in the case of the latter their goddess +frankly represented the principle of destruction. It was the criminal +tribe's own murderous instinct deified--the instinct, not of one +individual, but of the whole community, and therefore held sacred. In +the same manner, in modern churches, selfishness, hatred and vanity in +their collective aspect of national instincts do not scruple to share +the homage paid to God. + +Of course, pursuit of self-interest need not be wholly selfish; it can +even be in harmony with the interest of all. Therefore, ideally +speaking, the nationalism, which stands for the expression of the +collective self-interest of a people, need not be ashamed of itself +if it maintains its true limitations. But what we see in practice is, +that every nation which has prospered has done so through its career +of aggressive selfishness either in commercial adventures or in +foreign possessions, or in both. And this material prosperity not only +feeds continually the selfish instincts of the people, but impresses +men's minds with the lesson that, for a nation, selfishness is a +necessity and therefore a virtue. It is the emphasis laid in Europe +upon the idea of the Nation's constant increase of power, which is +becoming the greatest danger to man, both in its direct activity and +its power of infection. + +We must admit that evils there are in human nature, in spite of our +faith in moral laws and our training in self-control. But they carry +on their foreheads their own brand of infamy, their very success +adding to their monstrosity. All through man's history there will be +some who suffer, and others who cause suffering. The conquest of evil +will never be a fully accomplished fact, but a continuous process like +the process of burning in a flame. + +In former ages, when some particular people became turbulent and tried +to rob others of their human rights, they sometimes achieved success +and sometimes failed. And it amounted to nothing more than that. But +when this idea of the Nation, which has met with universal acceptance +in the present day, tries to pass off the cult of collective +selfishness as a moral duty, simply because that selfishness is +gigantic in stature, it not only commits depredation, but attacks the +very vitals of humanity. It unconsciously generates in people's minds +an attitude of defiance against moral law. For men are taught by +repeated devices the lesson that the Nation is greater than the +people, while yet it scatters to the winds the moral law that the +people have held sacred. + +It has been said that a disease becomes most acutely critical when the +brain is affected. For it is the brain that is constantly directing +the siege against all disease forces. The spirit of national +selfishness is that brain disease of a people which shows itself in +red eyes and clenched fists, in violence of talk and movements, all +the while shattering its natural restorative powers. But the power of +self-sacrifice, together with the moral faculty of sympathy and +co-operation, is the guiding spirit of social vitality. Its function +is to maintain a beneficent relation of harmony with its +surroundings. But when it begins to ignore the moral law which is +universal and uses it only within the bounds of its own narrow sphere, +then its strength becomes like the strength of madness which ends in +self-destruction. + +What is worse, this aberration of a people, decked with the showy +title of "patriotism," proudly walks abroad, passing itself off as a +highly moral influence. Thus it has spread its inflammatory contagion +all over the world, proclaiming its fever flush to be the best sign of +health. It is causing in the hearts of peoples, naturally inoffensive, +a feeling of envy at not having their temperature as high as that of +their delirious neighbours and not being able to cause as much +mischief, but merely having to suffer from it. + +I have often been asked by my Western friends how to cope with this +evil, which has attained such sinister strength and vast dimensions. +In fact, I have often been blamed for merely giving warning, and +offering no alternative. When we suffer as a result of a particular +system, we believe that some other system would bring us better luck. +We are apt to forget that all systems produce evil sooner or later, +when the psychology which is at the root of them is wrong. The system +which is national to-day may assume the shape of the international +to-morrow; but so long as men have not forsaken their idolatry of +primitive instincts and collective passions, the new system will only +become a new instrument of suffering. And because we are trained to +confound efficient system with moral goodness itself, every ruined +system makes us more and more distrustful of moral law. + +Therefore I do not put my faith in any new institution, but in the +individuals all over the world who think clearly, feel nobly, and act +rightly, thus becoming the channels of moral truth. Our moral ideals +do not work with chisels and hammers. Like trees, they spread their +roots in the soil and their branches in the sky, without consulting +any architect for their plans. + + + + + WOMAN AND HOME + + +Creative expressions attain their perfect form through emotions +modulated. Woman has that expression natural to her--a cadence of +restraint in her behaviour, producing poetry of life. She has been an +inspiration to man, guiding, most often unconsciously, his restless +energy into an immense variety of creations in literature, art, music +and religion. This is why, in India, woman has been described as the +symbol of Shakti, the creative power. + +But if woman begins to believe that, though biologically her function +is different from that of man, psychologically she is identical with +him; if the human world in its mentality becomes exclusively male, +then before long it will be reduced to utter inanity. For life finds +its truth and beauty, not in any exaggeration of sameness, but in +harmony. + +If woman's nature were identical with man's, if Eve were a mere +tautology of Adam, it would only give rise to a monotonous +superfluity. But that she was not so was proved by the banishment she +secured from a ready-made Paradise. She had the instinctive wisdom to +realise that it was her mission to help her mate in creating a +Paradise of their own on earth, whose ideal she was to supply with her +life, whose materials were to be produced and gathered by her comrade. + +However, it is evident that an increasing number of women in the West +are ready to assert that their difference from men is unimportant. The +reason for the vehement utterance of such a paradox cannot be ignored. +It is a rebellion against a necessity, which is not equal for both the +partners. + +Love in all forms has its obligations, and the love that binds women +to their children binds them to their homes. But necessity is a +tyrant, making us submit to injury and indignity, allowing advantage +over us to those who are wholly or comparatively free from its burden. +Such has been the case in the social relationship between man and +woman. Along with the difference inherent in their respective natures, +there have grown up between them inequalities fostered by +circumstances. Man is not handicapped by the same biological and +psychological responsibilities as woman, and therefore he has the +liberty to give her the security of home. This liberty exacts payment +when it offers its boon, because to give or to withhold the gift is +within its power. It is the unequal freedom in their mutual +relationships which has made the weight of life's tragedies so +painfully heavy for woman to bear. + +Some mitigation of her disadvantage has been effected by her rendering +herself and her home a luxury to man. She has accentuated those +qualities in herself which insidiously impose their bondage over her +mate, some by pandering to his weakness, and some by satisfying his +higher nature, till the sex-consciousness in our society has grown +abnormal and overpowering. There is no actual objection to this in +itself, for it offers a stimulus, acting in the depth of life, which +leads to creative exuberance. But a great deal of it is a forced +growth of compulsion bearing seeds of degradation. In those ages when +men acknowledged spiritual perfection to be their object, women were +denounced as the chief obstacle in their way. The constant and +conscious exercise of allurements, which gave women their power, +attacked the weak spots in man's nature, and by doing so added to its +weakness. For all relationships tainted with repression of freedom +must become sources of degeneracy to the strong who impose such +repression. + +Balance of power, however, between man and woman was in a measure +established when home wielded a strong enough attraction to make men +accept its obligations. But at last the time has come when the +material ambition of man has assumed such colossal proportions that +home is in danger of losing its centre of gravity for him, and he is +receding farther and farther from its orbit. + +The arid zone in the social life is spreading fast. The simple +comforts of home, made precious by the touch of love, are giving way +to luxuries that can only have their full extension in the isolation +of self-centred life. Hotels are being erected on the ruins of homes; +productions are growing more stupendous than creations; and most men +have, for the materials of their happiness and recreation, their dogs +and horses, their pipes, guns, and gambling clubs. + +Reactions and rebellions, not being normal in their character, go on +hurting truth until peace is restored. Therefore, when woman refuses +to acknowledge the distinction between her life and that of man, she +does not convince us of its truth, but only proves to us that she is +suffering. All great sufferings indicate some wrong somewhere. In the +present case, the wrong is in woman's lack of freedom in her +relationship with man, which compels her to turn her disabilities into +attractions, and to use untruths as her allies in the battle of life, +while she is suffering from the precariousness of her position. + +From the beginning of our society, women have naturally accepted the +training which imparts to their life and to their home a spirit of +harmony. It is their instinct to perform their services in such a +manner that these, through beauty, might be raised from the domain of +slavery to the realm of grace. Women have tried to prove that in the +building up of social life they are artists and not artisans. But all +expressions of beauty lose their truth when compelled to accept the +patronage of the gross and the indifferent. Therefore when necessity +drives women to fashion their lives to the taste of the insensitive or +the sensual, then the whole thing becomes a tragedy of desecration. +Society is full of such tragedies. Many of the laws and social +regulations guiding the relationships of man and woman are relics of +a barbaric age, when the brutal pride of an exclusive possession had +its dominance in human relations, such as those of parents and +children, husbands and wives, masters and servants, teachers and +disciples. The vulgarity of it still persists in the social bond +between the sexes because of the economic helplessness of woman. +Nothing makes us so stupidly mean as the sense of superiority which +the power of the purse confers upon us. + +The powers of muscle and of money have opportunities of immediate +satisfaction, but the power of the ideal must have infinite patience. +The man who sells his goods, or fulfils his contract, is cheated if he +fails to realise payment, but he who gives form to some ideal may +never get his due and be fully paid. What I have felt in the women of +India is the consciousness of this ideal--their simple faith in the +sanctity of devotion lighted by love which is held to be divine. True +womanliness is regarded in our country as the saintliness of love. It +is not merely praised there, but literally worshipped; and she who is +gifted with it is called _Devi_, as one revealing in herself Woman, +the Divine. That this has not been a mere metaphor to us is because, +in India, our mind is familiar with the idea of God in an eternal +feminine aspect. Thus the Eastern woman, who is deeply aware in her +heart of the sacredness of her mission, is a constant education to +man. It has to be admitted that there are chances of such an influence +failing to penetrate the callousness of the coarse-minded; but that is +the destiny of all manifestations whose value is not in success or +reward in honour. + +Woman has to be ready to suffer. She cannot allow her emotions to be +dulled or polluted, for these are to create her life's atmosphere, +apart from which her world would be dark and dead. This leaves her +heart without any protection of insensibility, at the mercy of the +hurts and insults of life. Women of India, like women everywhere, have +their share of suffering, but it radiates through the ideal, and +becomes, like sunlight, a creative force in their world. Our women +know by heart the legends of the great women of the epic age--Savitri +who by the power of love conquered death, and Sita who had no other +reward for her life of sacrifice but the sacred majesty of sorrow. +They know that it is their duty to make this life an image of the life +eternal, and that love's mission truly performed has a spiritual +meaning. It is a religious responsibility for them to live the life +which is their own. For their activity is not for money-making, or +organising power, or intellectually probing the mystery of existence, +but for establishing and maintaining human relationships requiring the +highest moral qualities. It is the consciousness of the spiritual +character of their life's work, which lifts them above the utilitarian +standard of the immediate and the passing, surrounds them with the +dignity of the eternal, and transmutes their suffering and sorrow into +a crown of light. + +I must guard myself from the risk of a possible misunderstanding. The +permanent significance of home is not in the narrowness of its +enclosure, but in an eternal moral idea. It represents the truth of +human relationship; it reveals loyalty and love for the personality of +man. Let us take a wider view, in a perspective truer than can be +found in its present conventional associations. With the discovery and +development of agriculture there came a period of settled life in our +history. The nomad ever moved on with his tents and cattle; he +explored space and exploited its contents. The cultivator of land +explored time in its immensity, for he had leisure. Comparatively +secured from the uncertainty of his outer resources, he had the +opportunity to deal with his moral resources in the realm of human +truth. This is why agricultural civilisation, like that of India and +China, is essentially a civilisation of human relationship, of the +adjustment of mutual obligations. It is deep-rooted in the inner life +of man. Its basis is co-operation and not competition. In other words, +its principle is the principle of home, to which all its outer +adventures are subordinated. + +In the meanwhile, the nomadic life with its predatory instinct of +exploitation has developed into a great civilisation. It is immensely +proud and strong, killing leisure and pursuing opportunities. It +minimises the claims of personal relationship and is jealously careful +of its unhampered freedom for acquiring wealth and asserting its will +upon others. Its burden is the burden of things, which grows heavier +and more complex every day, disregarding the human and the spiritual. +Its powerful pressure from all sides narrows the limits of home, the +personal region of the human world. Thus, in this region of life, +women are every day hustled out of their shelter for want of +accommodation. + +But such a state of things can never have the effect of changing woman +into man. On the contrary, it will lead her to find her place in the +unlimited range of society, and the Guardian Spirit of the personal in +human nature will extend the ministry of woman over all developments +of life. Habituated to deal with the world as a machine, man is +multiplying his materials, banishing away his happiness and +sacrificing love to comfort, which is an illusion. At last the present +age has sent its cry to woman, asking her to come out from her +segregation in order to restore the spiritual supremacy of all that is +human in the world of humanity. She has been aroused to remember that +womanliness is not chiefly decorative. It is like that vital health, +which not only imparts the bloom of beauty to the body, but joy to the +mind and perfection to life. + + + + + AN EASTERN UNIVERSITY + + +In the midst of much that is discouraging in the present state of the +world, there is one symptom of vital promise. Asia is awakening. This +great event, if it be but directed along the right lines, is full of +hope, not only for Asia herself, but for the whole world. + +On the other hand, it has to be admitted that the relationship of the +West with the East, growing more and more complex and widespread for +over two centuries, far from attaining its true fulfilment, has given +rise to a universal spirit of conflict. The consequent strain and +unrest have profoundly disturbed Asia, and antipathetic forces have +been accumulating for years in the depth of the Eastern mind. + +The meeting of the East and the West has remained incomplete, because +the occasions of it have not been disinterested. The political and +commercial adventures carried on by Western races--very often by +force and against the interest and wishes of the countries they have +dealt with--have created a moral alienation, which is deeply injurious +to both parties. The perils threatened by this unnatural relationship +have long been contemptuously ignored by the West. But the blind +confidence of the strong in their apparent invincibility has often led +them, from their dream of security, into terrible surprises of +history. + +It is not the fear of danger or loss to one people or another, +however, which is most important. The demoralising influence of the +constant estrangement between the two hemispheres, which affects the +baser passions of man,--pride, greed and hypocrisy on the one hand; +fear, suspiciousness and flattery on the other,--has been developing, +and threatens us with a world-wide spiritual disaster. + +The time has come when we must use all our wisdom to understand the +situation, and to control it, with a stronger trust in moral guidance +than in any array of physical forces. + +In the beginning of man's history his first social object was to form +a community, to grow into a people. At that early period, individuals +were gathered together within geographical enclosures. But in the +present age, with its facility of communication, geographical barriers +have almost lost their reality, and the great federation of men, which +is waiting either to find its true scope or to break asunder in a +final catastrophe, is not a meeting of individuals, but of various +human races. Now the problem before us is of one single country, which +is this earth, where the races as individuals must find both their +freedom of self-expression and their bond of federation. Mankind must +realise a unity, wider in range, deeper in sentiment, stronger in +power than ever before. Now that the problem is large, we have to +solve it on a bigger scale, to realise the God in man by a larger +faith and to build the temple of our faith on a sure and world-wide +basis. + +The first step towards realisation is to create opportunities for +revealing the different peoples to one another. This can never be done +in those fields where the exploiting utilitarian spirit is supreme. We +must find some meeting-ground, where there can be no question of +conflicting interests. One of such places is the University, where we +can work together in a common pursuit of truth, share together our +common heritage, and realise that artists in all parts of the world +have created forms of beauty, scientists discovered secrets of the +universe, philosophers solved the problems of existence, saints made +the truth of the spiritual world organic in their own lives, not +merely for some particular race to which they belonged, but for all +mankind. When the science of meteorology knows the earth's atmosphere +as continuously one, affecting the different parts of the world +differently, but in a harmony of adjustments, it knows and attains +truth. And so, too, we must know that the great mind of man is one, +working through the many differences which are needed to ensure the +full result of its fundamental unity. When we understand this truth in +a disinterested spirit, it teaches us to respect all the differences +in man that are real, yet remain conscious of our oneness; and to know +that perfection of unity is not in uniformity, but in harmony. + +This is the problem of the present age. The East, for its own sake and +for the sake of the world, must not remain unrevealed. The deepest +source of all calamities in history is misunderstanding. For where we +do not understand, we can never be just. + +Being strongly impressed with the need and the responsibility, which +every individual to-day must realise according to his power, I have +formed the nucleus of an International University in India, as one of +the best means of promoting mutual understanding between the East and +the West. This Institution, according to the plan I have in mind, will +invite students from the West to study the different systems of Indian +philosophy, literature, art and music in their proper environment, +encouraging them to carry on research work in collaboration with the +scholars already engaged in this task. + +India has her renaissance. She is preparing to make her contribution +to the world of the future. In the past she produced her great +culture, and in the present age she has an equally important +contribution to make to the culture of the New World which is emerging +from the wreckage of the Old. This is a momentous period of her +history, pregnant with precious possibilities, when any disinterested +offer of co-operation from any part of the West will have an immense +moral value, the memory of which will become brighter as the +regeneration of the East grows in vigour and creative power. + +The Western Universities give their students an opportunity to learn +what all the European peoples have contributed to their Western +culture. Thus the intellectual mind of the West has been luminously +revealed to the world. What is needed to complete this illumination is +for the East to collect its own scattered lamps and offer them to the +enlightenment of the world. + +There was a time when the great countries of Asia had, each of them, +to nurture its own civilisation apart in comparative seclusion. Now +has come the age of co-ordination and co-operation. The seedlings that +were reared within narrow plots must now be transplanted into the open +fields. They must pass the test of the world-market, if their maximum +value is to be obtained. + +But before Asia is in a position to co-operate with the culture of +Europe, she must base her own structure on a synthesis of all the +different cultures which she has. When, taking her stand on such a +culture, she turns toward the West, she will take, with a confident +sense of mental freedom, her own view of truth, from her own +vantage-ground, and open a new vista of thought to the world. +Otherwise, she will allow her priceless inheritance to crumble into +dust, and, trying to replace it clumsily with feeble imitations of the +West, make herself superfluous, cheap and ludicrous. If she thus +loses her individuality and her specific power to exist, will it in +the least help the rest of the world? Will not her terrible bankruptcy +involve also the Western mind? If the whole world grows at last into +an exaggerated West, then such an illimitable parody of the modern age +will die, crushed beneath its own absurdity. + +In this belief, it is my desire to extend by degrees the scope of this +University on simple lines, until it comprehends the whole range of +Eastern cultures--the Aryan, Semitic, Mongolian and others. Its object +will be to reveal the Eastern mind to the world. + +Of one thing I felt certain during my travels in Europe, that a +genuine interest has been roused there in the philosophy and the arts +of the East, from which the Western mind seeks fresh inspiration of +truth and beauty. Once the East had her reputation of fabulous wealth, +and the seekers were attracted from across the sea. Since then, the +shrine of wealth has changed its site. But the East is famed also for +her storage of wisdom, harvested by her patriarchs from long +successive ages of spiritual endeavour. And when, as now, in the midst +of the pursuit of power and wealth, there rises the cry of privation +from the famished spirit of man, an opportunity is offered to the East +to offer her store to those who need it. + +Once upon a time we were in possession of such a thing as our own mind +in India. It was living. It thought, it felt, it expressed itself. It +was receptive as well as productive. That this mind could be of any +use in the process, or in the end, of our education was overlooked by +our modern educational dispensation. We are provided with buildings +and books and other magnificent burdens calculated to suppress our +mind. The latter was treated like a library-shelf solidly made of +wood, to be loaded with leather-bound volumes of second-hand +information. In consequence, it has lost its own colour and character, +and has borrowed polish from the carpenter's shop. All this has cost +us money, and also our finer ideas, while our intellectual vacancy has +been crammed with what is described in official reports as Education. +In fact, we have bought our spectacles at the expense of our eyesight. + +In India our goddess of learning is _Saraswati_. My audience in the +West, I am sure, will be glad to know that her complexion is white. +But the signal fact is that she is living and she is a woman, and her +seat is on a lotus-flower. The symbolic meaning of this is, that she +dwells in the centre of life and the heart of all existence, which +opens itself in beauty to the light of heaven. + +The Western education which we have chanced to know is impersonal. Its +complexion is also white, but it is the whiteness of the white-washed +class-room walls. It dwells in the cold-storage compartments of +lessons and the ice-packed minds of the schoolmasters. The effect +which it had on my mind when, as a boy, I was compelled to go to +school, I have described elsewhere. My feeling was very much the same +as a tree might have, which was not allowed to live its full life, but +was cut down to be made into packing-cases. + +The introduction of this education was not a part of the solemn +marriage ceremony which was to unite the minds of the East and West in +mutual understanding. It represented an artificial method of training +specially calculated to produce the carriers of the white man's +burden. This want of ideals still clings to our education system, +though our Universities have latterly burdened their syllabus with a +greater number of subjects than before. But it is only like adding to +the bags of wheat the bullock carries to market; it does not make the +bullock any better off. + +Mind, when long deprived of its natural food of truth and freedom of +growth, develops an unnatural craving for success; and our students +have fallen victims to the mania for success in examinations. Success +consists in obtaining the largest number of marks with the strictest +economy of knowledge. It is a deliberate cultivation of disloyalty to +truth, of intellectual dishonesty, of a foolish imposition by which +the mind is encouraged to rob itself. But as we are by means of it +made to forget the existence of mind, we are supremely happy at the +result. We pass examinations, and shrivel up into clerks, lawyers and +police inspectors, and we die young. + +Universities should never be made into mechanical organisations for +collecting and distributing knowledge. Through them the people should +offer their intellectual hospitality, their wealth of mind to others, +and earn their proud right in return to receive gifts from the rest of +the world. But in the whole length and breadth of India there is not a +single University established in the modern time where a foreign or +an Indian student can properly be acquainted with the best products +of the Indian mind. For that we have to cross the sea, and knock at +the doors of France and Germany. Educational institutions in our +country are India's alms-bowl of knowledge; they lower our +intellectual self-respect; they encourage us to make a foolish display +of decorations composed of borrowed feathers. + +This it was that led me to found a school in Bengal, in face of many +difficulties and discouragements, and in spite of my own vocation as a +poet, who finds his true inspiration only when he forgets that he is a +schoolmaster. It is my hope that in this school a nucleus has been +formed, round which an indigenous University of our own land will find +its natural growth--a University which will help India's mind to +concentrate and to be fully conscious of itself; free to seek the +truth and make this truth its own wherever found, to judge by its own +standard, give expression to its own creative genius, and offer its +wisdom to the guests who come from other parts of the world. + +Man's intellect has a natural pride in its own aristocracy, which is +the pride of its culture. Culture only acknowledges the excellence +whose criticism is in its inner perfection, not in any external +success. When this pride succumbs to some compulsion of necessity or +lure of material advantage, it brings humiliation to the intellectual +man. Modern India, through her very education, has been made to suffer +this humiliation. Once she herself provided her children with a +culture which was the product of her own ages of thought and creation. +But it has been thrust aside, and we are made to tread the mill of +passing examinations, not for learning anything, but for notifying +that we are qualified for employments under organisations conducted in +English. Our educated community is not a cultured community, but a +community of qualified candidates. Meanwhile the proportion of +possible employments to the number of claimants has gradually been +growing narrower, and the consequent disaffection has been widespread. +At last the very authorities who are responsible for this are blaming +their victims. Such is the perversity of human nature. It bears its +worst grudge against those it has injured. + +It is as if some tribe which had the primitive habit of decorating its +tribal members with birds' plumage were some day to hold these very +birds guilty of the crime of being extinct. There are belated +attempts on the part of our governors to read us pious homilies about +disinterested love of learning, while the old machinery goes on +working, whose product is not education but certificates. It is good +to remind the fettered bird that its wings are for soaring; but it is +better to cut the chain which is holding it to its perch. The most +pathetic feature of the tragedy is that the bird itself has learnt to +use its chain for its ornament, simply because the chain jingles in +fairly respectable English. + +In the Bengali language there is a modern maxim which can be +translated, "He who learns to read and write rides in a carriage and +pair." In English there is a similar proverb, "Knowledge is power." It +is an offer of a prospective bribe to the student, a promise of an +ulterior reward which is more important than knowledge itself. +Temptations, held before us as inducements to be good or to pursue +uncongenial paths, are most often flimsy lies or half-truths, such as +the oft-quoted maxim of respectable piety, "Honesty is the best +policy," at which politicians all over the world seem to laugh in +their sleeves. But unfortunately, education conducted under a special +providence of purposefulness, of eating the fruit of knowledge from +the wrong end, _does_ lead one to that special paradise on earth, the +daily rides in one's own carriage and pair. And the West, I have heard +from authentic sources, is aspiring in its education after that +special cultivation of worldliness. + +Where society is comparatively simple and obstructions are not too +numerous, we can clearly see how the life-process guides education in +its vital purpose. The system of folk-education, which is indigenous +to India, but is dying out, was one with the people's life. It flowed +naturally through the social channels and made its way everywhere. It +is a system of widespread irrigation of culture. Its teachers, +specially trained men, are in constant requisition, and find crowded +meetings in our villages, where they repeat the best thoughts and +express the ideals of the land in the most effective form. The mode of +instruction includes the recitation of epics, expounding of the +scriptures, reading from the Puranas, which are the classical records +of old history, performance of plays founded upon the early myths and +legends, dramatic narration of the lives of ancient heroes, and the +singing in chorus of songs from the old religious literature. +Evidently, according to this system, the best function of education +is to enable us to realise that to live as a man is great, requiring +profound philosophy for its ideal, poetry for its expression, and +heroism in its conduct. Owing to this vital method of culture the +common people of India, though technically illiterate, have been made +conscious of the sanctity of social relationships, entailing constant +sacrifice and self-control, urged and supported by ideals collectively +expressed in one word, _Dharma_. + +Such a system of education may sound too simple for the complexities +of modern life. But the fundamental principle of social life in its +different stages of development remains the same; and in no +circumstance can the truth be ignored that all human complexities must +harmonise in organic unity with life, failing which there will be +endless conflict. Most things in the civilised world occupy more than +their legitimate space. Much of their burden is needless. By bearing +this burden civilised man may be showing great strength, but he +displays little skill. To the gods, viewing this from on high, it must +seem like the flounderings of a giant who has got out of his depth and +knows not how to swim. + +The main source of all forms of voluntary slavery is the desire of +gain. It is difficult to fight against this when modern civilisation +is tainted with such a universal contamination of avarice. I have +realised it myself in the little boys of my own school. For the first +few years there is no trouble. But as soon as the upper class is +reached, their worldly wisdom--the malady of the aged--begins to +assert itself. They rebelliously insist that they must no longer +learn, but rather pass examinations. Professions in the modern age are +more numerous and lucrative than ever before. They need specialisation +of training and knowledge, tempting education to yield its spiritual +freedom to the claims of utilitarian ambitions. But man's deeper +nature is hurt; his smothered life seeks to be liberated from the +suffocating folds and sensual ties of prosperity. And this is why we +find almost everywhere in the world a growing dissatisfaction with the +prevalent system of teaching, which betrays the encroachment of +senility and worldly prudence over pure intellect. + +In India, also, a vague feeling of discontent has given rise to +numerous attempts at establishing national schools and colleges. But, +unfortunately, our very education has been successful in depriving us +of our real initiative and our courage of thought. The training we get +in our schools has the constant implication in it that it is not for +us to produce but to borrow. And we are casting about to borrow our +educational plans from European institutions. The trampled plants of +Indian corn are dreaming of recouping their harvest from the +neighbouring wheat fields. To change the figure, we forget that, for +proficiency in walking, it is better to train the muscles of our own +legs than to strut upon wooden ones of foreign make, although they +clatter and cause more surprise at our skill in using them than if +they were living and real. + +But when we go to borrow help from a foreign neighbourhood we are apt +to overlook the real source of help behind all that is external and +apparent. Had the deep-water fishes happened to produce a scientist +who chose the jumping of a monkey for his research work, I am sure he +would give most of the credit to the branches of the trees and very +little to the monkey itself. In a foreign University we see the +branching wildernesses of its buildings, furniture, regulations, and +syllabus, but the monkey, which is a difficult creature to catch and +more difficult to manufacture, we are likely to treat as a mere +accident of minor importance. It is convenient for us to overlook the +fact that among the Europeans the living spirit of the University is +widely spread in their society, their parliament, their literature, +and the numerous activities of their corporate life. In all these +functions they are in perpetual touch with the great personality of +the land which is creative and heroic in its constant acts of +self-expression and self-sacrifice. They have their thoughts published +in their books as well as through the medium of living men who think +those thoughts, and who criticise, compare and disseminate them. Some +at least of the drawbacks of their academic education are redeemed by +the living energy of the intellectual personality pervading their +social organism. It is like the stagnant reservoir of water which +finds its purification in the showers of rain to which it keeps itself +open. But, to our misfortune, we have in India all the furniture of +the European University except the human teacher. We have, instead, +mere purveyors of book-lore in whom the paper god of the bookshop has +been made vocal. + +A most important truth, which we are apt to forget, is that a teacher +can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can +never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. +The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living +traffic with his knowledge, but merely repeats his lessons to his +students, can only load their minds; he cannot quicken them. Truth not +only must inform but inspire. If the inspiration dies out, and the +information only accumulates, then truth loses its infinity. The +greater part of our learning in the schools has been wasted because, +for most of our teachers, their subjects are like dead specimens of +once living things, with which they have a learned acquaintance, but +no communication of life and love. + +The educational institution, therefore, which I have in mind has +primarily for its object the constant pursuit of truth, from which the +imparting of truth naturally follows. It must not be a dead cage in +which living minds are fed with food artificially prepared. It should +be an open house, in which students and teachers are at one. They must +live their complete life together, dominated by a common aspiration +for truth and a need of sharing all the delights of culture. In former +days the great master-craftsmen had students in their workshops where +they co-operated in shaping things to perfection. That was the place +where knowledge could become living--that knowledge which not only has +its substance and law, but its atmosphere subtly informed by a +creative personality. For intellectual knowledge also has its aspect +of creative art, in which the man who explores truth expresses +something which is human in him--his enthusiasm, his courage, his +sacrifice, his honesty, and his skill. In merely academical teaching +we find subjects, but not the man who pursues the subjects; therefore +the vital part of education remains incomplete. + +For our Universities we must claim, not labelled packages of truth and +authorised agents to distribute them, but truth in its living +association with her lovers and seekers and discoverers. Also we must +know that the concentration of the mind-forces scattered throughout +the country is the most important mission of a University, which, like +the nucleus of a living cell, should be the centre of the intellectual +life of the people. + +The bringing about of an intellectual unity in India is, I am told, +difficult to the verge of impossibility owing to the fact that India +has so many different languages. Such a statement is as unreasonable +as to say that man, because he has a diversity of limbs, should find +it impossible to realise life's unity in himself, and that only an +earthworm composed of a tail and nothing else could truly know that it +had a body. + +Let us admit that India is not like any one of the great countries of +Europe, which has its own separate language; but is rather like Europe +herself, branching out into different peoples with many different +languages. And yet Europe has a common civilisation, with an +intellectual unity which is not based upon uniformity of language. It +is true that in the earlier stages of her culture the whole of Europe +had Latin for her learned tongue. That was in her intellectual budding +time, when all her petals of self-expression were closed in one point. +But the perfection of her mental unfolding was not represented by the +singularity of her literary vehicle. When the great European countries +found their individual languages, then only the true federation of +cultures became possible in the West, and the very differences of the +channels made the commerce of ideas in Europe so richly copious and so +variedly active. We can well imagine what the loss to European +civilisation would be if France, Italy and Germany, and England +herself, had not through their separate agencies contributed to the +common coffer their individual earnings. + +There was a time with us when India had her common language of culture +in Sanskrit. But, for the complete commerce of her thought, she +required that all her vernaculars should attain their perfect powers, +through which her different peoples might manifest their +idiosyncrasies; and this could never be done through a foreign tongue. + +In the United States, in Canada and other British Colonies, the +language of the people is English. It has a great literature which had +its birth and growth in the history of the British Islands. But when +this language, with all its products and acquisitions, matured by ages +on its own mother soil, is carried into foreign lands, which have +their own separate history and their own life-growth, it must +constantly hamper the indigenous growth of culture and destroy +individuality of judgement and the perfect freedom of self-expression. +The inherited wealth of the English language, with all its splendour, +becomes an impediment when taken into different surroundings, just as +when lungs are given to the whale in the sea. If such is the case even +with races whose grandmother-tongue naturally continues to be their +own mother-tongue, one can imagine what sterility it means for a +people which accepts, for its vehicle of culture, an altogether +foreign language. A language is not like an umbrella or an overcoat, +that can be borrowed by unconscious or deliberate mistake; it is like +the living skin itself. If the body of a draught-horse enters into the +skin of a race-horse, it will be safe to wager that such an anomaly +will never win a race, and will fail even to drag a cart. Have we not +watched some modern Japanese artists imitating European art? The +imitation may sometimes produce clever results; but such cleverness +has only the perfection of artificial flowers which never bear fruit. + +All great countries have their vital centres for intellectual life, +where a high standard of learning is maintained, where the minds of +the people are naturally attracted, where they find their genial +atmosphere, in which to prove their worth and to contribute their +share to the country's culture. Thus they kindle, on the common altar +of the land, that great sacrificial fire which can radiate the sacred +light of wisdom abroad. + +Athens was such a centre in Greece, Rome in Italy; and Paris is such +to-day in France. Benares has been and still continues to be the +centre of our Sanskrit culture. But Sanskrit learning does not exhaust +all the elements of culture that exist in modern India. + +If we were to take for granted, what some people maintain, that +Western culture is the only source of light for our mind, then it +would be like depending for daybreak upon some star, which is the sun +of a far distant sphere. The star may give us light, but not the day; +it may give us direction in our voyage of exploration, but it can +never open the full view of truth before our eyes. In fact, we can +never use this cold starlight for stirring the sap in our branches, +and giving colour and bloom to our life. This is the reason why +European education has become for India mere school lessons and no +culture; a box of matches, good for the small uses of illumination, +but not the light of morning, in which the use and beauty, and all the +subtle mysteries of life are blended in one. + +Let me say clearly that I have no distrust of any culture because of +its foreign character. On the contrary, I believe that the shock of +such extraneous forces is necessary for the vitality of our +intellectual nature. It is admitted that much of the spirit of +Christianity runs counter, not only to the classical culture of +Europe, but to the European temperament altogether. And yet this alien +movement of ideas, constantly running against the natural mental +current of Europe, has been a most important factor in strengthening +and enriching her civilisation, on account of the sharp antagonism of +its intellectual direction. In fact, the European vernaculars first +woke up to life and fruitful vigour when they felt the impact of this +foreign thought-power with all its oriental forms and affinities. The +same thing is happening in India. The European culture has come to us, +not only with its knowledge, but with its velocity. + +Then, again, let us admit that modern Science is Europe's great gift +to humanity for all time to come. We, in India, must claim it from her +hands, and gratefully accept it in order to be saved from the curse of +futility by lagging behind. We shall fail to reap the harvest of the +present age if we delay. + +What I object to is the artificial arrangement by which foreign +education tends to occupy all the space of our national mind, and thus +kills, or hampers, the great opportunity for the creation of a new +thought-power by a new combination of truths. It is this which makes +me urge that all the elements in our own culture have to be +strengthened, not to resist the Western culture, but truly to accept +and assimilate it; to use it for our sustenance, not as our burden; to +get mastery over this culture, and not to live on its outskirts as the +hewers of texts and drawers of book-learning. + +The main river in Indian culture has flowed in four streams,--the +Vedic, the Puranic, the Buddhist, and the Jain. It has its source in +the heights of the Indian consciousness. But a river, belonging to a +country, is not fed by its own waters alone. The Tibetan Brahmaputra +is a tributary to the Indian Ganges. Contributions have similarly +found their way to India's original culture. The Muhammadan, for +example, has repeatedly come into India from outside, laden with his +own stores of knowledge and feeling and his wonderful religious +democracy, bringing freshet after freshet to swell the current. To our +music, our architecture, our pictorial art, our literature, the +Muhammadans have made their permanent and precious contribution. Those +who have studied the lives and writings of our medieval saints, and +all the great religious movements that sprang up in the time of the +Muhammadan rule, know how deep is our debt to this foreign current +that has so intimately mingled with our life. + +So, in our centre of Indian learning, we must provide for the +co-ordinate study of all these different cultures,--the Vedic, the +Puranic, the Buddhist, the Jain, the Islamic, the Sikh and the +Zoroastrian. The Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan will also have to be +added; for, in the past, India did not remain isolated within her own +boundaries. Therefore, in order to learn what she was, in her relation +to the whole continent of Asia, these cultures too must be studied. +Side by side with them must finally be placed the Western culture. For +only then shall we be able to assimilate this last contribution to our +common stock. A river flowing within banks is truly our own, and it +can contain its due tributaries; but our relations with a flood can +only prove disastrous. + +There are some who are exclusively modern, who believe that the past +is the bankrupt time, leaving no assets for us, but only a legacy of +debts. They refuse to believe that the army which is marching forward +can be fed from the rear. It is well to remind such persons that the +great ages of renaissance in history were those when man suddenly +discovered the seeds of thought in the granary of the past. + +The unfortunate people who have lost the harvest of their past have +lost their present age. They have missed their seed for cultivation, +and go begging for their bare livelihood. We must not imagine that we +are one of these disinherited peoples of the world. The time has come +for us to break open the treasure-trove of our ancestors, and use it +for our commerce of life. Let us, with its help, make our future our +own, and not continue our existence as the eternal rag-pickers in +other people's dustbins. + +So far I have dwelt only upon the intellectual aspect of Education. +For, even in the West, it is the intellectual training which receives +almost exclusive emphasis. The Western universities have not yet truly +recognised that fulness of expression is fulness of life. And a large +part of man can never find its expression in the mere language of +words. It must therefore seek for its other languages,--lines and +colours, sounds and movements. Through our mastery of these we not +only make our whole nature articulate, but also understand man in all +his attempts to reveal his innermost being in every age and clime. The +great use of Education is not merely to collect facts, but to know +man and to make oneself known to man. It is the duty of every human +being to master, at least to some extent, not only the language of +intellect, but also that personality which is the language of Art. It +is a great world of reality for man,--vast and profound,--this growing +world of his own creative nature. This is the world of Art. To be +brought up in ignorance of it is to be deprived of the knowledge and +use of that great inheritance of humanity, which has been growing and +waiting for every one of us from the beginning of our history. It is +to remain deaf to the eternal voice of Man, that speaks to all men the +messages that are beyond speech. From the educational point of view we +know Europe where it is scientific, or at best literary. So our notion +of its modern culture is limited within the boundary lines of grammar +and the laboratory. We almost completely ignore the aesthetic life of +man, leaving it uncultivated, allowing weeds to grow there. Our +newspapers are prolific, our meeting-places are vociferous; and in +them we wear to shreds the things we have borrowed from our English +teachers. We make the air dismal and damp with the tears of our +grievances. But where are our arts, which, like the outbreak of +spring flowers, are the spontaneous overflow of our deeper nature and +spiritual magnificence? + +Through this great deficiency of our modern education, we are +condemned to carry to the end a dead load of dumb wisdom. Like +miserable outcasts, we are deprived of our place in the festival of +culture, and wait at the outer court, where the colours are not for +us, nor the forms of delight, nor the songs. Ours is the education of +a prison-house, with hard labour and with a drab dress cut to the +limits of minimum decency and necessity. We are made to forget that +the perfection of colour and form and expression belongs to the +perfection of vitality,--that the joy of life is only the other side +of the strength of life. The timber merchant may think that the +flowers and foliage are mere frivolous decorations of a tree; but if +these are suppressed, he will know to his cost that the timber too +will fail. + +During the Moghal period, music and art in India found a great impetus +from the rulers, because their whole life--not merely their official +life--was lived in this land; and it is the wholeness of life from +which originates Art. But our English teachers are birds of passage; +they cackle to us, but do not sing,--their true heart is not in the +land of their exile. + +Constriction of life, owing to this narrowness of culture, must no +longer be encouraged. In the centre of Indian culture which I am +proposing, music and art must have their prominent seats of honour, +and not be given merely a tolerant nod of recognition. The different +systems of music and different schools of art which lie scattered in +the different ages and provinces of India, and in the different strata +of society, and also those belonging to the other great countries of +Asia, which had communication with India, have to be brought there +together and studied. + +I have already hinted that Education should not be dragged out of its +native element, the life-current of the people. Economic life covers +the whole width of the fundamental basis of society, because its +necessities are the simplest and the most universal. Educational +institutions, in order to obtain their fulness of truth, must have +close association with this economic life. The highest mission of +education is to help us to realise the inner principle of the unity of +all knowledge and all the activities of our social and spiritual +being. Society in its early stage was held together by its economic +co-operation, when all its members felt in unison a natural interest +in their right to live. Civilisation could never have been started at +all if such was not the case. And civilisation will fall to pieces if +it never again realises the spirit of mutual help and the common +sharing of benefits in the elemental necessaries of life. The idea of +such economic co-operation should be made the basis of our University. +It must not only instruct, but live; not only think, but produce. + +Our ancient _tapovanas_, or forest schools, which were our natural +universities, were not shut off from the daily life of the people. +Masters and students gathered fruit and fuel, and took their cattle +out to graze, supporting themselves by the work of their own hands. +Spiritual education was a part of the spiritual life itself, which +comprehended all life. Our centre of culture should not only be the +centre of the intellectual life of India, but the centre of her +economic life also. It must co-operate with the villages round it, +cultivate land, breed cattle, spin cloths, press oil from oil-seeds; +it must produce all the necessaries, devising the best means, using +the best materials, and calling science to its aid. Its very existence +should depend upon the success of its industrial activities carried +out on the co-operative principle, which will unite the teachers and +students and villagers of the neighbourhood in a living and active +bond of necessity. This will give us also a practical industrial +training, whose motive force is not the greed of profit. + +Before I conclude my paper, a delicate question remains to be +considered. What must be the religious ideal that is to rule our +centre of Indian culture? The one abiding ideal in the religious life +of India has been _Mukti_, the deliverance of man's soul from the grip +of self, its communion with the Infinite Soul through its union in +_ananda_ with the universe. This religion of spiritual harmony is not +a theological doctrine to be taught, as a subject in the class, for +half an hour each day. It is the spiritual truth and beauty of our +attitude towards our surroundings, our conscious relationship with the +Infinite, and the lasting power of the Eternal in the passing moments +of our life. Such a religious ideal can only be made possible by +making provision for students to live in intimate touch with nature, +daily to grow in an atmosphere of service offered to all creatures, +tending trees, feeding birds and animals, learning to feel the immense +mystery of the soil and water and air. + +Along with this, there should be some common sharing of life with the +tillers of the soil and the humble workers in the neighbouring +villages; studying their crafts, inviting them to the feasts, joining +them in works of co-operation for communal welfare; and in our +intercourse we should be guided, not by moral maxims or the +condescension of social superiority, but by natural sympathy of life +for life, and by the sheer necessity of love's sacrifice for its own +sake. In such an atmosphere students would learn to understand that +humanity is a divine harp of many strings, waiting for its one grand +music. Those who realise this unity are made ready for the pilgrimage +through the night of suffering, and along the path of sacrifice, to +the great meeting of Man in the future, for which the call comes to us +across the darkness. + +Life, in such a centre, should be simple and clean. We should never +believe that simplicity of life might make us unsuited to the +requirements of the society of our time. It is the simplicity of the +tuning-fork, which is needed all the more because of the intricacy of +strings in the instrument. In the morning of our career our nature +needs the pure and the perfect note of a spiritual ideal in order to +fit us for the complications of our later years. + +In other words, this institution should be a perpetual creation by the +co-operative enthusiasm of teachers and students, growing with the +growth of their soul; a world in itself, self-sustaining, independent, +rich with ever-renewing life, radiating life across space and time, +attracting and maintaining round it a planetary system of dependent +bodies. Its aim should lie in imparting life-breath to the complete +man, who is intellectual as well as economic, bound by social bonds, +but aspiring towards spiritual freedom and final perfection. + + + THE END + + _Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE + + +=GITANJALI. (Song Offerings.)= Translated by the Author. With an +Introduction by W. B. YEATS, and a Portrait by W. ROTHENSTEIN. Crown +8vo. 5s. net. + +_ATHENAEUM._--"Mr. Tagore's translations are of trance-like beauty.... +The expanding sentiment of some of the poems wins, even through the +alien medium of our English prose, a rhythm which in its strength and +melody might recall familiar passages in the Psalms or Solomon's +Song." + + +=FRUIT-GATHERING. A Sequel to "Gitanjali."= Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +_ATHENAEUM._--"The eighty-six pieces that fill this volume are pure +jets of lyric feeling, aphorisms expressed in moving symbols, or fully +developed parables and allegories ... several are as perfect in form +as they are beautiful and poignant in content." + + +=GITANJALI AND FRUIT-GATHERING.= + +With Illustrations in colour and half-tone by NANDALAL BOSE, +SURENDRANATH KAR, ABANINDRANATH TAGORE, and NOBINDRANATH TAGORE. Crown +8vo. 10s. net. + + +=THE GARDENER. Lyrics of Love and Life.= Translated by the Author. With +Portrait. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +_DAILY MAIL._--"Flowers as fresh as sunrise.... One cannot tell what +they have lost in the translation, but as they stand they are of +extreme beauty.... They are simple, exalted, fragrant--episodes and +incidents of every day transposed to faery." + + +=THE CRESCENT MOON. Child-Poems.= Translated by the Author. With 8 +Illustrations in Colour. Pott 4to. 5s. net. + +_NATION._--"A vision of childhood which is only paralleled in our +literature by the work of William Blake." + + +=STRAY BIRDS.= Poems. With a Frontispiece by WILLY POGANY. Crown 8vo. +4s. 6d. net. + +_SCOTSMAN._--"The richness of this volume in thought and in imagery, +in tracing analogies and in discovering apologues, is such as to yield +pleasure and profit to the most fertile and cultured minds." + + +=LOVER'S GIFT AND CROSSING.= Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +_ATHENAEUM._--"The poems often touch extreme heights of passion and +sublimity, and the diction has a beauty and a music that few have +attained in this particular medium." + + +=THE FUGITIVE.= Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + +_SUNDAY TIMES._--"In 'The Fugitive' the lovers of Tagore will not be +disappointed. He has all his powers still undimmed. Indeed, the poet +never, in our judgment, has surpassed this work." + + +=CHITRA. A Play.= Translated by the Author. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +_OBSERVER._--"An allegory of love's meaning, clear as a pool in the +sunshine. It was written, we are told, twenty-five years ago.... Even +then Mr. Tagore had that calm intensity of vision which we have all +come to love in his later work. We find in him that for which Arjuna +groped in his love, 'that ultimate _you_, that bare simplicity of +truth,' and never more than in this little work of beauty, 'Chitra.'" + + +=THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER.= =A Play.= Translated by KSHITISH CHANDRA +SEN. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + +_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"Altogether, the play is a beautiful piece of +fanciful writing with a veiled purpose at the back of it." + + +=THE POST OFFICE. A Play.= Translated by DEVABRATA MUKERJEA. Crown 8vo. +3s. 6d. net. + +_MANCHESTER GUARDIAN._--"'The Post Office' is a delicate, wistful +thing, coloured with beautiful imagery; for a moment it lifts a corner +of the veil of worldly existence. The translation is throughout +extremely happy." + + +=THE CYCLE OF SPRING. A Play.= Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +_MANCHESTER GUARDIAN._--"The whole little drama is a spring-gift such +as England has seldom received." + + +=SACRIFICE and other Plays.= Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + +_SCOTSMAN._--"All the pieces have a rare beauty of their own." + + +=THE HOME AND THE WORLD. A Novel.= Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + +_SATURDAY REVIEW._--"In these days of indiscriminating praise, it is +hard for a reviewer to find words with which to welcome properly a +book so good as this." + + +=THE WRECK. A Novel.= Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. + +_MORNING POST._--"The story cannot fail to interest and delight." + + +=MASHI and other Stories.= Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + +_OXFORD MAGAZINE._--"Full of pregnant pictures of Indian life and +character, subdued but vivid in tone." + + +=HUNGRY STONES and other Stories.= Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"Contains descriptive passages of rare vigour and +beauty, and is embellished with imagery of a delicate and distinctive +character." + + +=S[=A]DHAN[=A]: The Realisation of Life. Lectures.= Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. +net. + +=NATIONALISM.= Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + +=PERSONALITY. Lectures delivered in America.= Illustrated. Crown 8vo. +6s. net. + +=CREATIVE UNITY. Essays.= Extra Crown 8vo. + +=MY REMINISCENCES.= Illustrated. Extra Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + +=GLIMPSES OF BENGAL. Selected from the Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, +1885 to 1895.= Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + +=ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR.= Translated by RABINDRANATH TAGORE, +assisted by EVELYN UNDERHILL. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +=RABINDRANATH TAGORE.= A Biographical Study. By ERNEST RHYS. +Illustrated. Extra Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. + +=SIX PORTRAITS OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE.= By W. ROTHENSTEIN. Reproduced in +Collotype. With Prefatory Note by MAX BEERBOHM. Imperial 4to. 10s. +net. + +=THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAHARSHI DEVENDRANATH TAGORE= (Father of +RABINDRANATH TAGORE). Translated by SATYENDRANATH TAGORE and INDIRA +DEVI. With Introduction by EVELYN UNDERHILL, and Portrait. Extra Crown +8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + +=THE PHILOSOPHY OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE.= By Prof. S. RADHAKRISHNAN. 8vo. +8s. 6d. net. + +=SHANTINIKETAN: The Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.= By W. W. +PEARSON. With Introduction by RABINDRANATH TAGORE. Illustrated. 8vo. +4s. 6d. net. + + LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. 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