Thus, apart from the solid facts and truths that we may learn from religion, apart from the comforts that we may gain therefrom, religion itself, as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION 23 the human mind can have. This pursuit of the Infin- ite, this struggle to grasp the Infinite, this effort to get beyond the Hmitations of the senses, out of matter, as it were, and to evolve the spiritual man, instead of filling the mind with low, narrow and little ideals; this striving day and night to make the Infinite one with our being — this struggle itself is the grandest and most glorious that man can make. Some persons find the greatest pleasure in eating. We have no right to say they should not. Others find the greatest pleasure in possessing certain things. We have no right to say they should not. But they also have no right to say "no" to the man who finds his highest pleasure in spiritual thought. The lower the organi- zation the more is the pleasure in the senses. Very few men can eat a meal with the same gusto that a dog, or a wolf can. But all the pleasures of the dog or the wolf have gone, as it were, into the senses, into that eating. The lower types of humanity in all nations find more pleasure in the senses, while the cultured and the educated find more in thought, in philosophy, in the arts and sciences. Spiritual thought is a still higher plane. The subject being infinite, that plane is the highest, and the pleasure there is the highest for tliose who appreciate it. So, even on the utilitarian ground — that man is to seek for pleasure — he should cultivate religious thought, for that is the highest pleasure that exists. Thus religion as a study, seems to me to be absolutely necessary. W^e can see it in its effects. It is the greatest motive power that moves the human mind. No other ideal can put into us the same mass of energy as the spiritual. So far 24 J NANA YOGA as human history goes, it is obvious to all of us that this has been the case, and its powers are not dead. I do not deny that men on simply utilitarian grounds can be very good and moral. There have been many great men in this world perfectly sound and moral and good simply on utilitarian grounds, but the world- movers, men who bring, as it were, a mass of mag- netism into the world, whose spirit works in hundreds and in thousands, whose life produces a halo around them wherever they go, igniting others with a spiritual fire — such men we always find had that spiritual back- ground. The motive power of their energy came from religion. Religion is the greatest motive power, to release that infinite energy which is the birthright and nature of every man. Nothing can compare with religion there. In building up character, in making for everything that is good and great, in bringing peace to others, and peace to one's own self, religion is the highest motive power, and religion ought to be studied therefore from that standpoint. Religion must be studied on a broader basis than formerly. All narrow, limited, fighting ideas of religion have to go. All sect ideas and tribal or national ideas of religion must be given up. Each tribe or nation having its own particular God, and thinking that every other is wrong, is superstition that should belong to the past. All such ideas must be abandoned.
As the human mind broadens, so its spiritual steps must broaden. The time has already come when a man cannot record a thought without it reaching to all corners of the earth; by merely physical means we have come into touch with the whole world — so the THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION 25 future religions of the world have to become as univer- sal, as wide.
The religious ideals of the future must embrace all that exists in the world that is good and great, and, at the same time, have infinite scope for future devel- opment. All that was good in the past must be preserved and kept; and yet the doors must be open for future addition to this already existing store. Religions must also be inclusive. Religions must not look down wath contempt upon people who have not the particular ideal of God which governs their spe- cial sect. In my life 1 have seen a great many spir- itual men, a great many sensible persons, who did not believe in God at all. That is to say, not in our sense of the word. Perhaps they understood God better than we can ever do. The Personal idea of God or the Impersonal, the Infinite, the Moral Law, or the Ideal Man — these all have to come under the definition of religion. And when religions have become thus broadened, their power for good will have increased a hundred times beyond the present. Religions, hav- ing tremendous power in them, have often done more injury to the world than good, simply on account of their narrowness, and limitations.
Even at the present time we find many sects and societies, with almost the same ideas, fighting each other, because the one does not want to set forth those ideas in precisely the same way as the others. There- fore religions will have to broaden. Religious ideas will have to become universal, vast and infinite, and then alone we shall have the fullest play of religion, for the power of religion has only just begun in the 26 J NANA YOGA world. It is sometimes said that religions are dying out, that spiritual ideas are dying out of the world. To me it seems that they have just begun. The power of religion, broadened and purified, is going to pene- trate every part of human life. So long as religion was in the hands of a chosen few, or of a body of priests, it was in the temples, it was in the churches, it was in books, in dogmas, in ceremonials, forms and rituals. When men have come to the real, universal, spiritual concept, then, and then alone, religion will become real and living; it will come into our very nature, live in every movement of the human being, it will penetrate every pore of society, and be infinite- ly more a power for good than it has ever been before.
What is needed is a fellow-feeling between the different types of religion, seeing that they all stand or fall together; a fellow-feeling which springs from mutual esteem and mutual respect, and not the con- descending, patronizing, niggardly expression of good- will unfortunately in vogue at the present time with many. And above all, this is needed, between types of religious expression coming from the study of mental phenomena — unfortunately even now laying exclusive claim to the name of religion — and those expressions of religion whose heads are penetrating more and more into the secrets of heaven, though their feet are clinging to earth — the so-called material- istic sciences.
To bring about this harmony both will have to make concessions, sometimes very large, nay, more, some- times painful; but after all, each will find itself better for the sacrifice and more advanced in truth. And THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION" 2/ in the end, the knowledge which has its basis in changes in time, and that which is founded on changes in space will both meet and become one, where there is neither space nor time, where the mind cannot reach, nor the senses — the Absolute, the Infinite, the "One without a second."
Ill THE REAL NATURE OF MAN Great is the tenacity with which man cHngs to the senses, yet however substantial he may think the exter- nal world in which he lives and moves, there come times in the lives of individuals and of races when, involuntarily they ask, 'Ts this real?" To the person who never finds a moment to question the credentials of his senses, whose every moment is occupied with some sort of sense-enjoyment — even to him death comes, and he also is compelled to ask: *Ts this real?" Religion begins with this question and ends with the answer. Even in the remote past where recorded his- tory cannot help us, in the mysterious light of mytholo- gy, back in the dim twilight of civilization, we find the same question was asked "What becomes of this? What is real?"
One of the most poetical of the Upanishads, the Katha Upanishad, begins with the inquiry: **When a man dies there is a contention. One party declares that he has gone forever, the other insists that he is still living. Which is true?" Various answers have been given. The whole sphere of metaphysics, phil- osophy and religion is really filled with various answers to this question. Attempts at the same time have been made to suppress it, to put a stop to this 28 THE REAL NATURE OF MAN 2g unrest of mind, which asks, "What beyond? What is real?" But so long as death remains all these attempts at suppression will uniformly prove to be unsuccess- ful. We may very easily talk about seeing nothing beyond and keeping all our hopes and aspirations con- fined to the present moment. We may struggle hard, and perhaps everything outside may help to keep us limited within the narrow bonds of the senses. The whole world may combine to prevent us from broad- ening out beyond the present; yet, so long as there is death the question must come again and again, **Is death the end of everythmg, of all these things to which we are clinging as if they were the most real of all realities, the most substantial of all substances?" The world vanishes in a moment and is gone. Stand- ing on the brink of a precipice beyond which is the infinite yawning chasm, every mind, however har- dened, is bound to recoil, and ask, **Is this real?" The hopes of a lifetime, built little by little with all the energies of a great mind, vanish in one second. Are they real? This question will have to be answered. Time will never lessen its power. As time rolls on it adds value to itself. Then there is the desire to be happy; we run after everything to make ourselves happy, we run after the senses, go on madly career- ing into the external world. The young man, with whom life is successful, if you ask him, declares that it is real; he thinks it is all quite real. Perhaps the same man, growing old, and with fortune ever elud- ing him, will declare that it is fate. He finds at last that his desires cannot be fulfilled. Wherever he goes there is an adamantine wall beyond which he 30 J NANA YOGA cannot pass. Every sense-activity results in a reac- tion. Everything is evanescent. Enjoyment, misery, luxury, wealth, power and poverty, even life itself are all evanescent.
Two positions remain to mankind. One is to be- lieve with the Nihilists that all is nothing. We know nothing. We can never know anything either about the future, the past, or even of the present. For we must remember that he who denies the past and the future and wants to stick to the present is simply a" madman. One may as well deny the father and mother and assert the child. It would be equally logi- cal. To deny the past and future, the present must inevitably be denied also. This is one position, that of the Nihilists. I have never seen a man who could really become a Nihilist for one minute. It is very easy to talk.
Then there is the other position, to seek for an explanation, to seek for the real, to discover in the midst of this eternally changing and evanescent world whatever is real. In this body which is an aggrega- tion of molecules of matter, is there anything which is real? And this has been the search throughout the history of the human mind. In the very oldest times we often find glimpses of light coming into men's minds. We find man even then going a step beyond this body finding something which is not this external body, but which although very much like it, is not it, being much more complete, much more perfect, which remains even when this body is dissolved. We read in the hymns of the Rig Veda addressed to the God of Fire who is burning a dead body, "Carry him, Fire, THE REAL NATURE OF MAN 3 1 in your arms gently, give him a perfect body, a bright body, carry him where the fathers Hve, where there is no more sorrow, where there is no more death." The same idea you will find present in every religion, and we get another idea with it. It is a curious fact that all religions, without one exception, hold that man is a degeneration of what he was, whether they clothe this in mythological words, or in the clear lan- guage of philosophy, or in the beautiful expressions of poetry. This is the one fact that comes out of every scripture and of every mythology, that the man that is, is a degeneration of what he was. This is the kernel of truth behind the story of Adam's fall in the Jewish scripture. This is again and again repeated in the scriptures of the Hindus; the dream of a period which they call the age of truth, when no man died unless he wished to die; when he could keep his body as long as he liked and his mind was pure and strong. There was no death at that time, and no evil and no misery; and the present age is a corruption of that state of perfection. Side by side with this we find the story of the deluge everywhere. That story itself is a proof that this present age is held to be a corruption of the former by every religion. It went on becom- ing more and more corrupt until the deluge swept away a large portion of mankind and again the ascend- ing series began. It is going up slowly again to reach once more that early state of purity. You are all aware of the story of the deluge in the Old Testa- ment. The same story was current among the ancient Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Chinese and the Hindus. Manu, a great ancient sage, was praying on 32 JNANA YOGA the banks of the Ganges when a little minnow came to him for protection and he put it into a pot of water he had before him. "What do you want?" asked Manu. The little minnow declared he was pursued by a bigger fish and wanted protection. Manu car- ried the little fish to his home, and in the morning it had become as big as the pot, and said, "I cannot live in this pot any longer.'' Manu put him in a tank, and the next day he was as big as the tank and declared he could not live there any more. So Manu had to take him to a river, and in the morning the fish filled the river. Then Manu put him in the ocean, and he declared, "Manu, I am the creator of the Universe, I have taken this form to come and warn you that I will deluge the world. You build an ark, and in it put a pair of every kind of animal, and let your family enter the ark and there will come out of the deluge my horn. Fasten the ark to it, and when the deluge subsides come down and people the earth." So the world was deluged, and Manu saved his own family and a pair of every kind of animal and seeds of every plant, and when it subsided he came and peopled the world and we are all called "man" because we are progeny of Manu.* Now human language is the attempt to express the truth that is within. A little baby whose language itself consists of imperceptible, indistinct sounds, I am fully persuaded is attempting to express the highest philosophy, only the baby has not got the organs to express it, nor the means. The difference in the language between the highest phil- osophers and the utterances of babies is one of degree * Sanskrit root man, to think.
THE REAL NATURE OF MAN 33 and not of kind. What you call the most correct, sys- tematic, mathematical language of the present time and the hazy, mystical, mythological languages of the an- cients, differ only in degree. All of them have a grand idea behind, which is, as it were, struggling to express itself, and many times behind these ancient mytholo- gies are nuggets of truth, and many times, I am sorry to say, behind the fine, polished phrases of the modern, is arrant trash. So we need not throw overboard everything because it is clothed in mythology, because it does not fit in with the notions of Mr. So-and-So, or Mrs. So-and-So of modern times. If they laugh at religion because most religions declared that men must believe these things, because such and such a prophet has said them, they ought to laugh more at these moderns. In modern times if a man quotes a Moses, or a Buddha, or a Christ, he is laughed at; but let him give the name of a Huxley, a Tyndall, or a Dar- win, and it is swallowed without salt. "Huxley has said it," that is enough for many. We are free from superstitions indeed! That was a religious supersti- tion, and this is a scientific superstition; only in and through that superstition came life-jgiving lines of spir- ituality; in and through this modern superstition come lust and greed. That superstition was worship of God, and this superstition is worship of filthy lucre, of fame or power. That is the difference.
To turn back to our mythology, behind all these stories we find one idea standing supreme — that man is a degeneration of what he was. Coming to the pres- ent times, modern research seems to repudiate this position absolutely. Evolutionists seem to entirely 34 J NANA YOGA contradict this assertion. According to them man is the evolution of the mollusc, and therefore what this mythology states cannot be true. There is in India, however, a mythology which is able to reconcile both these positions. The Indian mythology has a theory of cycles, that all progression is in the form of waves. Every wave is attended by a fall, and that by a rise the next moment, that by a fall in the next, and again another rise. The motion is in cycles. Certainly it is true even on the grounds of modern research, that man cannot be simply an evolution. Every evolution presupposes an involution. The modern scientific man will tell you that you can only get the amount of ener- gy out of a machine which you put into it before. Something cannot be produced out of nothing. If man is an evolution of the mollusc, then the perfect man, the Buddha man, the Christ man, was involved in the mollusc. If it is not so, whence come these gigantic personalities? Something cannot come out of nothing. Thus we are in the position of reconciling the scriptures with modern light. That energy which manifests itself slowly through various stages until it becomes the perfect man cannot come out of nothing. It existed somewhere, and if the mollusc, or the protoplasm, is the first point to which you can trace it, that protoplasm, somehow or other, must have con- tained the energy. There is a great modern discus- sion going on as to whether this aggregate of materials we call the body is the cause of manifestation of the force we call the soul and thought, etc., or whether it is the thought that manifests this body. The religions of the world of course hold that the force called THE REAL NATURE OF MAN 35 thought manifests the body, and not the reverse. There are schools of modern people who hold that what we call thought is simply the outcome of the adjustment of the parts of the machine which we call body. Taking the second position, that the soul or the mass of the thought, or however you may call it, is the outcome of this machine, the outcome of the chemical and physical combinations of matter making up the body and brain, the question remains unan- swered. What makes the body? What force com- bines all these molecules into the body form? What force is there which takes up material from the mass of matter around and forms my body one way, another body another way, and so on? What makes these infinite distinctions? To say that the force called soul is the outcome of the combinations of the molecules of the body is putting the cart before the horse. How did the combinations come: where was the force to make them? If you say some other force was the cause of these combinations and that soul was the out- come of that matter, and that soul — which combined a certain mass of matter — was itself the result of the combinations, it is no answer. That theory ought to be taken which explains most of the facts, if not all, and without contradicting other existing theories.
The force which takes up the matter and forms the body is the same which manifests through that body, and this is more logical. To say therefore that the thought- forces manifested by the body are the out- come of the arrangement of molecules and have no existence at all, has no meaning, neither can force evolve out of matter. It is rather more possible to 36 J NANA YOGA demonstrate that what we call matter does not exist at all. It is only a certain state of force. Solidity, hardness, or anything, can be proved to be the result of motion. Increase of vibration will make things solid. A mass of air vibrated at a tremendous rate would become as solid as a table. A thread of a spider's web moved at almost infinite velocity would be as strong as an iron chain, would cut through an oak tree, such force would be given to it by motion. Looking at it that way it would be rather easier to prove that what we call matter and so on does not exist. But the other way cannot be proved.