This is the land which is held to be the holiest even in holy Aryavarta; this is the llrahmavaita of which out gieat Alanu speaks. This is the land from whence arose that mighty aspiration after the Spiiit, aye, ^^hich in limes to come, as history shows, was to deluge the woild. This is the land wheie, like its mighty rivers, spiritual aspiialions have aiisen and joined then sliength, till they tiavclled over the length and breadth of the woild, and dcclaied themselves with a voice of thunder. This is the land which had tin si to beat the brunt of all inioads and invasions into India; this heroic land had lirst to baie its bosom to evciy on- slaught of the outer barbaiians into Ai> aval la. I'his is the land which, after all its suffeiings, has not yet entirely lost its glory and its stiength, Heic it was that in laier times the gentle Nanak preached his marvellous lo\e for the woild. lleie it was that his bioad heart was opened, and his arms ontstrctcheil to embrace the whole woild, not only of Hindus, InU of Mahommedans loo. Hcie it was that one of the last and one of the most gloiious of oui lace, (nmi Govinda Singh, aflei shedding his blood, and that of his dcaiest and ncaio.st, for the cause of icbgion, e\cn w'hen desciLcd by those for svbom this blood w-as shed, rcliied into the South to die like a wounded lion stiuck to the heart, and without a word against his countiy, without a single word of muiniur, disappeaied.
Here, in this ancient land of ours, children of the land of five rivers, I stand befoie you, not as a leacliei — for I know very little to leach, but as one who has come fiom the East to exchange words of gi cell ng with the brothers of the West, to compare notes. Heie am 1, not to find out differences that exist among us, hut to find wheic we agicc. lleie am 1 li)mg to undei stand on what ground we may al\\a)S remain brothers, upon what loundalioiis the voice that has spoken from eternity may become stronger and sliongcr as it grows. Here am I trjing to piopose to yon something of constructive work and not destructive. For cnlicism the days.are past, and we arc wailing for consli active work. The woild needs, at times, ciiticisms, even fierce ones; hut that is only for a time and the work for eternity is progress and constiuclion, and not ci iticism and destruction. For the last bundled years or so, there has been a Hood of criticism all over this land of ouis, wheie the full play of Western.Science has been let loose upon all the dark spots, and as a result the corners and the holes have become much more prominent than anything else, Naturally enough thcic arose mighty intellects all over the land, great and gloiious, with the love of truth and justice in their hearts; in their hearts, the love of their country, and above all, an intense love for their religion and their God; and because these mighty souls felt so deeply, because they loved 80 deeply, they criticised everything they thought was wrong. Glory unto these mighty spit its of the past! 'Phey have done so much good; but the voice of the LECTURES— FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA present dav is coming to us, telling, “ Knough!” There has been enough of criticism, there has been enough of faull-linding, the time has come for the rebuilding, the recon- sliucling; the time has come for us lo gather all our scattered forces, to concentrate them into one focus, and thiough that, lo lead the nation on its onward march, which for centinies almost, has been slopped The house has been cleansed; let it be inhabited anew. The road has been cleared: march ahead, children of the Aryas!
Clenilemen, this is the molue that brings me before you, and, at the stait, I may declare to you that I belong to no paily and no sect. They are all gieat and glorious to me, 1 love them all, and all my life I have been attem|)ling to find what is good and true in them. Theiefore, it is my propo.sal to-night to bring before you points where we are agieed, to find out if we can, a giound of agreement; and if through the grace of the Lord such a state of things be possible, let us take it up, and from theory carry it out into practice. We are Hindus. I do not use the woid Hindu in any bad sense at all, nor do I agree with those that think there is any bad meaning in it. In old times, it simply meant people who lived on the other side of the Indus, to-day a good many among those who hate us may have put a bad interpretation upon it, but names are nothing. Upon us depends whether the name Hindu will stand for everything that is glorious, everything that is spiritual, or whether it will remain a name of oppi,obrium, one designating the down-tiodden, the woithless, the heathen. If at piesent the word Hindu means anything bad, never mind; by our action let us be ready to show that this is the highest word that any language can invent. It has been one of the principles of my life not to be ashamed of my own ancesiois. I am one of the proudest men ever born, but let me tell }0u frankly, it is not for myself, but on account of my ancestiy, The more I have studied the past, the more I have looked back, mote and more has this pride come to me, and it has given me the stiength and courage of conviction, raised me up fiom the dust of the eaith, and set me woi king out that great plan laid out by those gieat ancestors of ouis. ('hildren of those ancient Aryans, through the giace of the T.oid may you have the same pride, may that faith in your ancestors come into your blood, may it become a part and parcel of your lives, may it work towards the salvation of the woild!
llefoie trying to find out the precise point where we are all agreed, the common ground of our national life, one thing wc must remember. Just as there is an indivi- duality in eveiy man, so there is a national individuality. As one man diffeis from another in ccitain paiticulars, in certain chaiaclensiics of iiis own, so one lace differs fiotn another in ceitain other characteiistics; and just as it is the mission of eveiy man to fulfil a ceitain puipose in the economy of naluie, just as it is a pailicular line set out for him by his own past Karma,.so it is with nations — each nation has a destiny to fulfil, each nation has a message to deliver, each nation has a mission to accom- plish. Therefore, from the very start, wc must have to understand the mission of our own race, the destiny it has to fulfil, the place it has to occupy in the march of nations, the note which it has lo contiibiUe lo the harmony of laces. In our country, when children, wc hear stoiies how that some serpents have jewels in their heads, and whatever one may do with the serpent, so long as tlie jewel is there, the serpent cannot be killed. We hear stories of giants and ogres who had souls living in ceitain little birds, and so long as the bird was safe, there was no power on earth to kill these giants, you might hack them to pieces, or do what you liked to them, the giants could not die. So with nations, there is a certain point wlieie the life of a nation unites, wheie lies the nationality of the nation, and until that is touched, that THE COMMON BASES OF HINDUISM 151 nation cannot die. In the light of this we can understand the most marvellous pfienomenon that the histoiy of the world has e\er known. Wave after wave of baibaiian conquest has rolled over this de\oted land of ours. “Allah IIo Akbai! ’' has rent the skies for hundieds of yeais, and no Hindu knew what moment would bo his last. 1 his is the most suflering and the most subjugated of all the histoiic lands of the world. Vet we still stand piactically the same lace, re.iily to face difli- cullies again and again if necessary, and not only so, of late theic have been signs that we are not only strong, but ready to go out, for the sign of life is expansion.
We find to-day that our ideas and thoughts aie no more cooped up within the bounds of India, but whether wc will 11 or not, they are maiching outside, filteiing into the htciature of nations, taking their place among nations, and in some, even pelting a commanding, dictatoiial position. Behind this wc find the explanation, that the gieat contiibulion to the sum-total of the world’s progress fiom India is the greatest, the noblest, the sublimest theme that can occupy the mind of man- -it is philosophy and spiiituality. Our ancestors Hied many other things; they, like other nations, fust went to biing out the scciets of external Nature, as we all know, and with their gigantic brains that marvellous race could have done muacles in that line of which the woild yet cannot dieam. But they gave it up fot something higher; something better rings out from the pages of the Vedas “ 'I'hat science is the greatest which makes us know Him who never changes I " The science of Nature, cljangeful, e\anescent, the world of deatli, of woe, of misery, may be great, great indeed; but, the science of Him who changes not, the Blissful One, wheie alone is peace, where alone is life eternal, where alone is perfection, wheie alone all misery ccascs,~lhat, according to our ancestors, w'as the sublimest science of all. After all, sciences that can give us only bicad and clothes and pow'cr over our fellowmcn, sciences that can only teach us how to conquer oui fellow-beings, to rule over them, which teach the sliong to domineer over tfie weak, -those they could have discovered if they willed; but praise be unto the Lord, they caught at once the other side, which was grander, infinitely higher, infinitely more blisstul, till it has become the national characteristic, till it has come dowm to us, inheiited from father to son for thousands of years, till it has become a part and paicel of us, till it tingles in every diop of blood that runs thioiigh our veins, till it has become oui second nature, till the name of religion and Hindu have become one. This is the national characteiislic, and this cannot be touched. Bar- baiians with sword and fire, barbaiians biinging barbarous religions, could not one of them touch the core, not one could touch the ‘jewel,’ not one h.ad the pow’er to kill the ‘bird’ which the soul of the lacc inhabited. 'I’his, therefore, is the vitality of the race, and.so long as that remains there is no power under the sun that can kill the race. All the tortures and the miseries of the woild will pass over without hurting us, and we shall come out of the flames like Piahlad, so long as w'c* hold on to this giandest of all our inheiitances, spiiituality. If a Hindu is not spiiilual I do not call him a Hindu. In other countiies a man may be political first, and then he may have a little religion, but here in India the liist and the foremost duty of our lives is to be spiiitual fiist, and then, if there is time, let other things come. Bearing this in mind w'e shall be in a better position to undci stand why, for our national welfare, we must fiist seek out at the present day, all the spiiitual forces of the race, as was done in days of yore, and will be done in all times to come. National union in India must be a gafclieiing up of its scattered spiiitual foices. A nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.
LECTURES— P'ROM COLOMRO TO ALJfORA tSi Thcie ha\e been seels enoii^li in this counliy. There arc seels enough, and ihc ie will he enough in the fiUiiie, because this lias been the pcciiliarily of our religion, that in absliaet piinciples so much lalilude has been given, that although afterwaids so much detail has been woiked out, all these details ate the xvoiking out of principles, bioad as the skies above our heads, eternal as Natuie heiself, Sects, iherefore, as a matter of course, nuiM exist hcie, but what need not exist, is scctaiian quarrel. Sects must be, l)nt sectarianism need not. The woild would not be the better for sectari- anism, l)ut the woild cannot move on without having sects. One set of men cannot do evei) thing. The almost infinite mass of cncigy in the woild cannot be managed by a small number of people. Heie, at once we see the necessity that forced this division of laboui upon us — the division into beds, — for the use of spiiitual forces let theie be seels, but is there any need that wc should qiiairel, when our most ancient books declare that this tliffeientiation is only appaicnl, that in spile of all these dilTciences theie is a ihiead of haimony, that beautiful unity, lunning thiough them all } Our most ancient liooks have declared: Ekum sai viprd bahudha vadanii. — “ That wliich exists is One; sages call Plim by vaiioiis names.” Theiefoie, if there are these sectaiian stiuggles, if theie aie these fights among the dilTeicnl sects, if there is jealousy and bailed between the different.sects in India, the laud whcie all sects have alwa)s been honouied, it is a shame on us who dare to call oui selves the descendants ot those fathers.
There are ceitain gicat principles in which, I think, wc arc — whether Vaishnavas, . Saivas, S.iktas or GAnapalyas, whelhci belonging to the ancient Vedanlists, oi the modern ones, whelliei belonging to the ohl ligid ^ects, oi the modem lefoiin ones -- we aic all one, and whoevci calls hiinsell a Hindu, believes in ceilain pimciples. Of course theie is a dilTcronce in the intcipiotalion, in the explanation, of these pimciples, and that dirteience should be theie, and it should be allowed, foi our standaid is not to bind eveiy man down to our own position; it would be a sin, to force every man to work out our ow'ii inlet prclalion of things, and to live by our own methods, reihaps all who are heie will agiee on the fust point, that we believe the Vedas to be the eternal teachings of the seciets of Religion. We all believe that this holy liteiaturc is without beginning and without end, coeval with Naluie, which is without beginning and WMl bout end; and that all our religious dilfeiences, all our religious struggles must end when we stand in the presence of that lioly book; we are all agreed that this is the last court of appeal in all our spuiiual dilfoicnces. Wc may lake different points of view as to what the Vedas are. Theie may be one sect which rcgauls one portion as more sacicd llian another, but that inatleis little, so long as w'e say that we arc all brotheis in the Vedas, that out of these venerable, eternal, marvellous books, has come everything that we possess to-day, g )od, holy, and pure. Well, therefore, if we believe in all this, let this principle first of all be preached bioadcast throughout the length and breadth of the land. If this be true, let the Vedas have that pioininence which they ahvays descivc, and which we all believe in; fust then the Vedas. The second point we all believe in i.s God, the creating, the pieseiving Power of the whole universe, and unto whom it peiiodically returns, to come out at other periods and manifest thi.'s wondeiful phenomenon, called the universe. We may differ as to our conception of God. One may believe in a God who is entirely peisonal, anolhei may believe in a God who is personal and yet not human, and yet another may believe in a God who is enliiely impeiscJbal, and all may get their support fioin the Vedas. Still wc ate all belicvcis in God; that is to say, that man Wt! CoMMOK^ nASES OE ttWEVlSM 153 ivho does tlol believe in a most nIarveiloUs Infinite Power, from which everything ha3 come, 111 ^vhlch everything lives, and to which everything must in the ertd return, cannot be called a Hindu. If that be so, let us try to pi each that idea all over the land. Preach whatever conception you have to give, there is no difTerence, we are not going to fight over it, but to pieach God; that is all we want. One idea may be better than another, but, mind you, not one of them is bad. One is good, another is better, and again another may be the best, but the word bad docs not enter the category of our religion. Therefore, may the Loid bless them all who preach the name of God in whatever form they like. The moie He is picachcd, the better for this race. T^et our children be brought up in this idea, let this idea enter the homes of the pooicst and the lowest, as well as of the richest and the highest, — the idea of the name of God.
The thiid idea that I will present before you is, that, unlike all other races of the woild, we do not believe that this woild was cieated only so many thousand years ago, and is going to be destroyed eternally, on a certain day. Nor do we believe that the human soul has been created along with this universe just out of nothing. Here is another point I think we arc all able to agree upon, We believe in Nature being without beginning and without end, only at psychological periods this gioss matciicd of the outer unlver.se goes back to its finei state, thus to remain for a ccitain period, again to be piojected outside, to manifest all this Infinite panorama we call Naluic; this wave-like motion is going on even before time began, through eternity, and will lemain for an infinite period of time. Next, all Hindus believe that man is not only a gross material hrody, not only that within this there is the finer body, the mind, but theio is something yet greater; for the body changes, so does the mind, but something beyond, the Almain— I cannot translate the word to you, foi any lianslation will be wiong— that there is something beyond even this fine body, \\hich is the Atman of man, which has neither beginning nor end, whieft knows not what death is. And then this peculiar idea different from that of all other races of men, that this Atman inhabits body after body until there is no moie interest foi it to continue to do so, and it becomes free, not to be born again. I refer to the theory of Samsdra and the tlieoiy of eternal souls taught by our.Shastras. 'I'his is another point wliere we all agioc, whatevci sect we may belong to. There may be diffeicnccs as to the relation between the soul and God. According to one sect the soul may be eternally different ftom God, according to another it may he a spark of that infinite fire, yet again accoiding to othcis it may be one with that Infinite. It does not matter what our inteipretation is, but so long as we hold on to the one basic belief that the soul is infinite, that this soul was never cieated, and theiefore will never die, that it had to pass and evolve into vaiious bodies, till it attained peifection in the human one — to that we are all agreed. And then comes the most diffeieniiating, the grandest, and the most wonderful discovery In the realms of spirituality that has ever been made. Some of you, peihaps, who have been study- ing Western thought, m.ay have observed already, that there is another radical dif- ference seveiing at one stioke all that is Western from all that is Eastern, It is this that we hold, whether we are.Saktas, Sauias, or Vaishnavas, even whether we are Rauddhas or Jainas, we all hold in India that the soul is by it.s nature pure and perfect, infinite in power and blessed. Only, accoiding to the Dualist, this natural blissfulness of the soul has become contracted by past bad woik and, through the grace of God, it Js again going to open out and show its perfection, while according LECTURES— FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA to the ironist, even this idea of contraction is a partial mistake, it is the veil of Maya that causes us to think the soul has tOst its powers, but the povvers are there fully manifest. Whatever the difference may be, we come to the cential core, and there is at once an irreconcilable diiTeienco between all that is Western and Kastern. The I'astern is looking inward for all that is great and goo<l. When we worship, we close our e}es and tiy to find God within. 'I'he Western is looking up outside for his God. To the Westerns their religious books have been inspired, while with us our books have been expired; breath-like they came, the breatli of God, out of the hearts of sages tlicy sprang, the Manlra-draihlds.
This is one great j>oint to understand, and, my friends, my brethren, let me tell you, this is the one point we shall have to insist upon in the future. For I am firmly convinced, and I beg you to undci stand this one fact, — no good comes out of the man who day and night thinks he is nobody. If a man, day and night thinks he is miserable, low and nothing, nothing he becomes. If }’ou say yea, yea, I am, I am, so shall you be; and if you say I am not, think that you are not, and day and night meditate ujion the fact that you aie nothing, aye, nothing sliall you be. That is the great fact which you ought to remember. We arc the children of the Almighty, we are spaiks of the infinite, divine fire. How can wc be nothings? We aic everything, ready to do everything, we can do everything, and man must do everything. This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them foiwaid and forwaid in the march of civilisation, and if there has been degeneration, if there lias been defect, maik my words, you will find th.it degradation to have staited on the day our people lost this faith in themselves, loosing iaith in one's self means losing faith in God. Do you believe in that Infinite, good Providence woiking in and through you If you believe that this Omnipresent One, the Aniaryamin, is present in cveiy atom, is through and through, as the Sanski it woid goes, penetrating your body, mind and soul, how can you lose heart } I may be a little bubble of watci, and you may be a mountain-high wave; never mind! The infinite ocean is the background of me as w'ell as of you. Mine is also that infinite ocean of life, of powder, of spiiitualily, as well as yours. I am already joined. — from my very biith, from the very fact of my life — 1 am in Yoga with that infinite life, and infinite goodness, and infinite power, as you are, mountain-high though you may be. 'I'here- foie, my biethien, teach thi.s life-saving, great, ennobling, giand doctiinc to your children, even from their veiy biith. You need not leach them Advaitism; teach them Dvaitism, or any ‘ ism ’ you please, hut we have seen that tliis is the common ‘ism’ all through India; this marvellous doctrine of the soul, the peifection of the soul, is commonly believed in by all sects. As sa)s our g.eat philosopher Kapila, if purity has not lieen the nature of the soul, it can never attain puiity aflerw’ards, for anything tliat w'as not pel feet by natuic, even if it attained to perfection, that peifec- lion w'ould go away again. If impuiily is llie nature of man, then man will have to remain impure, even though he may be piue for five minutes. The time will come when this purity will w'ash out, pass away, and the old natural impurity will have its sway once more. Theieforc, say all our philosophers, good is our nature, perfection is our nature, not imperfection, not impurity, — and we should remember that. Remember the beautiful example of the great sage who when he was dying, asked his mind to remember all his mighty deeds and all his mighty thoughts. Theie you do not find that he was teaching hjs mind to remember all his w’eakness and TIJE COMMON BASES OF HINDU JSAt all his follies. Follies there are, weaknels there must be, but remember your real nature always, — that is the only way to cure the weakness, that is the only way to cure the follies.
It seems that these few points are common among all the various religious sects in Itulia, and perhaps in fuiuie upon this common platform, conservative and libeial religionists, old type and new t)pe, may shake hands. Above all, there is another thing to remember, wRich I am sony we foiget from time to time, that leligion, in India, means realisation and nothing shot l of that, “believe in the doctrine and you arc safe,’' can never be taught to us, for we do not believe in that; you are what you make )Oui selves. You aic, by the gi ace of God and your own exertions, what you are. Meie believing in ceilain iheoiies and doctrines will not help you much. The mighty vvoid that came out fiom the sky of spiiitiialily iii India was Anubhuti, realisation, and ours aie the only books which dcclaie again and again: Lord is to be seenA Bold, brave words indeed, but tiue to their very core; eveiy sound, every vibration is tiue. Religion is to be realised, not only heard; it is not only that,some docltinc should be learnt like a pai lot. Not only is there intellectual assent; lliat is nothing; but it must come into us. Aye, and iheiefore the greatest pi oof that wc have of the existence of a God is not because our reason says so, 1ml because God has been seen by the ancients as well as by the motloins. We believe in the soul not only because theie are good reasons to prove its existence, but, above all, because theie have been in the past, thousands in India, there >el aic.still many who have lealised, and there will be thousands in the tulizie, who will realise, and see theii own souls. And theie is no salvation foi man until he sees God, realises his own soul, 'rheiefore, above all, let us understand this, and the more we undei stand it the less vve shall have of sectarianism in India, foi it is only that man vvlio has lealised God and seen Him, who is leligious. In him the knots have been cut asunder, in him alone the doubts have subsided; he alone has become free fioin the flints of action, who has.seen Him who is ueaiest of the near and farthest of the far. Aye, we often mistake nieie prattle for i el igious tiulh,