mere intellectual peroiations foi gieal spiiitnal icalisauon, and then comes sectaii- anism, then comes fight. If vve once ^uulel^land that this realisation is tlie only religion, vve shall look into oui own hearts and find how far wc are towaids lealising the iriilhs of leligion. Then we shall undci stand that vve ourselves are groping in darkness, and aie leading oiUeis to giope in the.same daikness, then we shall cease fioni sectai ianism, cjuaiie! and fight. Ask a man who wants to slait a sectaiian figlit, “ Have you seen God? Have )ou seem the Atman? If you have not, what nght have }ou to pieach Ilis name, — }Ou walking m daikness to lead me into the same daik- ness,— the blind leading the blind, and both falling into the ditch?”
Theieforc, take more lliouglil befoic you go and find fault with others. Let them follow their own path to icalisation so long as they snuggle to see truth m then own hearts; and wlien the bioad, naked tiiUh will be seen, then they will find tliat wonderful blissfulness which marvellously enough has been testified to by cveiy seer in India, by everyone who has realised the truth. 1 hen vvoids of love alone will come out of that heait, for it has already been touched by Him who is the essence of Love Himself.
Then and then alone, all sectarian quai l els will cease, and we shall be in a position to understand, to biing to our heaits, to embrace, to intensely love the very word Hindu, and evciy one who bears that name. INIark me, then and then alone, you are a Hindu, when the very name sends through you a galvanic shock of strength.
LECTURES-FROM COLOMBO TO AtMORA Then and then alone, you aie a Hindu when every man who hears Ihe name, from any counlry, speaking our language or any other language, becomes at once the nearest and the dearest to you. Then and then alone, you are a Hindu when the distress of anyone beaiing that name comes to your heart and makes you feel as if your own son were in distiess. Then and then alone, you are a Hindu when you will be leady to bear eveiything for them, like the great example I have quoted at the beginning of this lecture, of your gi eat Guru Govuid Singh. Diiven out fioin this country, fighting against its oppressors, after having shed his own blood for the defence of the Hindu religion, after having seen his childien killed on the battle-field, — aye, this example of the great Guiu, left even by those for whose sake he was shedding his blood and the blood of his own nearest and dearest, — he, the wounded lion retired from the field calmly to die m the.South, but not a wotd of curse escaped his lips against those wiio had ungiatefully foisakcn him * INTark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if )ou want to do good to your country. You may see tliousands of defects in your countrymen, but maik then Hindu blood.
They aie the fiisl Gods }Ou will h.ave to worship, even if they do eveiything to hint you; even if everyone of them send out a cui.se to you, you send out to them aoids of love. If they diivc you out, letiie to die in silence like that mighty lion, like Govind Singh. Such a man is woi thy the name of Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before us always, AH our hatchets let us bury; send out this grand cm lent of love all lound, T.ct tliem talk of India’s legeneiation as they like; let me tell you as one who has been woiking — at least lining to work --all his life, that iheie is no regeneration for India until you be spiiilual, Not only so, but u])on it depends the \yelfare of the whole woikl. b'or I must tell you frankly that the vet) foundalions of Western civilisation have been shaken to their base. 'I'he mightiest bnildings, if built upon the loose sand foundations of matcnalism, must coine to giief one clay, must tottei to then destiuction some day. H'he histoiy of the woild is our witness, f^alion after nation has aiisen and based its gtealness upon maleiialism — man was all matter, it declared. Aye, in Western language, a man gives up the ghost, but in our language a man gives up his body. The Weslcru man is a body lust, and then he has a soul; with us a man is a soul and spint, and he has a body, Theicin lies a woild of difference. AH such civilisations, tlicicfoic, a.s have been based upon such sand foundations as material comfoit and all that, have disappeaied one after the other, after shoit lives, fiom the face of the world; but the civilisation of India and Ihc other nations that have stood at India’s feet to listen and learn, namely, Japan and China, live even to the present day, and there are signs ^ven of revival among them, Their lives are like that of the Phoenix, a thousand times destioyed, but icady to spring up again more gloiious. Hut a mateiialisiic civilisation once dashed down, never can come up again; that building once thrown down, is broken into pieces once for all. Therefore have patience and wait, the future is in store for us.
Do not be in a hurry, do not go out to imitate anybody else. This is another great lesson we have to remember; imitation is not civilisation. I may deck myself out in a Haja’s dress; but will that make me a Raja? An ass in a lion’s skin never makes a lion. Imitation, cowardly imitation, never makes for progress, It is verily the sign of awful degradation in a man. Aye, when a man has begun to hate him- pelf, then the last blow has 'come. When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancesiois, the end has ggme. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet THE COMMON BASES OF HINDUISM 157 {)rouil of my race, proud of my ance«.tors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am pioud that I am a counlrymarii of yours, } ou the dc&ceiulanls of llic saj^es, you the descendants of the most glorious Rihhis the world ever saw. Therefoje have faith in yourselves, be proud of your ancestors, instead of beiny ashamed of them. And do not imitate; do not imitate! Whenever you aie undei the thumb of otheis, you lose your own independence. If you aic working, even in sjiiiitud things at the dictation of others, slowly you lose all faculty even of tliought. Ihiug out thiough your own c.Kcitions wliat you have, but do not imitate, yet take what i.s good fiom others. Wo have to leain fi6m others. You put the seed in the gtound, and give it plenty of earth, and air, and water to feed upon; w-hen the seed glows into the plant, and into a gigantic tiOe, does it become the eaith, does it become the air, or docs it become the water? It becomes the mighty plant, the mighty tree, after its own natuie, having absorbed everything that wa.s given to it. Let that be youi jiosition. We have indeed many things to leal 11 from others, yea, that man who lefu.ses to Icaiii is aheady dead.
“lake the jewel of a woman for your wife, though she be of infeiior descent. Learn supieme knowledge with seivice even fiom the man of low biilli; and even’ from the C’handAla, leain by seiving him the way to salvation.” Leain every thing that is good fiom otheis, but bring it in, and in yoiu own way absoib it; do not become others. Do not be diaggcd aw-ay out of tins Indian life; do not for a moment think that it would be beltei for India if all the Indians dressed, ate and behaved like another lace. You know the difliculty of giving up a habit of a few yeais. The T,oid knows how many thousands of years are in your blood; this national.specialised life has been flowing in one way, llie Loid knows for how many thousands of yeais; and do you mean to say that that mighty stream, which has nearly leached its ocean, can go back to the snows of its Himalayas again? That is im- possible' Tiie snuggle to do so wouhl only break it. Theiefore, make way for the life-cuiienl of the nation. Take away the blocks that bar the way to the pi ogress of this mighty river, cleanse its path, clear the channel, and out it will lusli by its own naluial impulse, and the nation will go on caieeriiig and progjessing.
Tliese arc the lines which I beg to suggest to you for sjiiiitual vvoik in India. There are many other gieat juoblems which, for want of time, I cannot bung before you this night. For instance, theie is the vvondeiful quc.slion of caste. I have been studying tins cjueslion, its pro^ and cons, all my life; I have studied it in nearly every province in India. I have mi,xed with people of all castes nearly in every part of the country, and I am too bewildered in my own mind to grasp even the very significance of it, 'I’lie nioie I liy to study it, the more I gel bewildered. Still, at last I find that a little glimmer of light is before me, 1 begin to feel its significance just now. Then there is the other gieat problem about eating and drinking. That is a gieat problem indeed. It is not so useless a thing as we generally think. I have come to the conclusion that the insistence which we make now about eating and drinking, is most cmious and is just going against what the Shdstras required, that is to say, we come to grief by neglecting the proper purity of the food we eat and diink; we have lost the Hue spun of it.
There are seveial othei (]ueslions which I want to bring before you, and show bow these problems can be solved, how to work out the ideas; but unfortunately 158 LECTURES— FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA tlic meeting could not come to order until very late, and I do not wish to detain you any longer now. I will therefore keep my iileas about caste and other things for a future occasion.
Now, one word more and I \vill finish about these spiritual ideas. Religion for a long lime has cotne to be statical in India, what we want is to make it dynamical. I waul it to be brought into the life of ever} body. Religion, as it always has been in the past, must enter the palaces of kings as w-ell as the homes of the poorest peasants in the land. Religion, the common inheritance, the univcr.sal biithright of the race, must be brought free to the door of everybody. Religion in India must be made as free and as easy of access as is God’s air. And this is the kind of work we have to bring about in India, but not by getting up little sects and lighting on points of dilTeiencc. Let us pieach where we all agiee, and leave the diffeiences to remedy themselve.s. As I have said to the Indian people again and again, if there is the daikness of cenluiies in a lOom, and we go into the room and begin to ciy, “ Oh, it is dark, it is daik! ” will the daikness go? Biing in the light and the daikness will vanish at once. Tliis is the seciet of reforming men. Suggest to tfiem higher things; believe in man first. Why start with the belief that man is degraded and degeiieiated? I have never failed in my faith in man in any case, even taking him at his woist. Wherever I had faith in man, though at first the prdspect was not always bright, yet it tiiumphed in the long lun. Ila\e faith in man, whether he appears to you to be a very learned one or a most ignoiant one. Have faith in man, w'hether he appeals to be an angel or the veiy devil himself. Have faith in man first, and then having f.iith in him, believe that if there are defects in him, if he makes mistakes, if lie embraces the crudest and the vilest doctrines, believe that it is not from his real nature that they come, but from the waint of liighcr ideals. If a man goes towMids what is fal.se, it is because he cannot get what is true. 'I'here- fore the only method of correcting what is false is by supplying him with what is true. Do this, and let him compaic. You give him the tiulh, and there your work is done. Let liiin coinpaie it in his owm mind with what he has alieady in iiim; and, mark my words, if you have really given him the liuth, the lalsc must vanish, light must dispel dai kness and liulh will biiiig the good out. This is the way if you want to lefoim the counliy spiiiiually; this is the way, and not by fighting, not even by telling people that what they are doing is bad. Put the good before them, .see liow eageily they take it, see how the I)i\ine that iie\ci dies, that is ahvays living in the Iiuman, comes up awakened and slretclicb out its hand for all that is good, and all that is gloiious.
]May He who is the Creator, the Pieservcr and the Piouc^'tor of our race, the God of our foietatheis, whether called by the name of Vishnu, or Shiva, or Shakti, or Ganapati, whether He is woishipped as Saguna or as Niiguna, whether He is worshipped as pei.sonal, or as impel sonal, may He w^hoiii our foicfalheis kndj|^4nd addressed by the words— That which exists is One; sages call Him by various names ’ — ^may He enter into us with His mighty love, may He shower Hib blessings on us, may He make us understand each other, may He make us work for each other w'ilh real love, with intense love for truth, and may not the least desiie for oui own pci sonal fame, our own pei sonal pieslige, our owm personal advantage, entei into this gicat woik of the spiiUual regencialion of India.
In his second lecture on Bhakli, Swamiji was very emphatic in his insistence upon practical woik bein^ more necessaiy in India than mere thcoiy, of which he believed the country has had enough and to spare. The starving millions, he urged, cannot live on metaphysical speculations, what they require is biead. He suggested that the best religion for to-day is, that evciy man should, according to his means, go out into the slioets, to seaich for one, two, six or twelve " hungry Naiayans/’ take them into his house, feed them, clothe them, and offer them all the worship he would give to his Devahi. ]\Ian is the highest temple of Hod, and the worship of God ihiough man is theiefore of the highest. In such work he should alw a) s lemembei that accoiding to the Hindu religion, the icceivei is giealer than the giver, because, foi the time being, the leceuei is (h)d Himself. He added that lie bad seen cbaiily in man) countnes, and the leasbn for its failuie was the spiiit in which it was earned out. The spiiit elscwlieie was, ’‘Here, take this and go away.'* (diarity belied its name so long as it was given to gain name, or the applause of the woild. In conclusion, he again mged the young men of Lahoie, to cieate at once an association of an entirely unsectaiian chaiacler, foi working duiing the evenings, among “the pool Naiayans" — the giving of food, the nuising of the sick, and llie education of the ignoiaiU, on simple and populai lines.
"THE VEt)ANTA, {Ddivired at Lahot'e on the ulh November 1897,) Two worlds there are!ri which we live, one the external, the olht'r, internal. Human progress has been maile, from days of yore, almost in j>arallel lines along ^ both these woilds. 'I'he search began in the external, and man at first wanted to get answers for all the deep problems from outside nature. Man wanted to satisfy his thiri»t for the beautiful and the sublime from all that suiiounded him; he wanted to expicss himself and all that was within him in the language of the concrete; and grand indeed were the answers lie got, most marvellous ideas of God and worship, and most rapturous expressions of the beautiful. Sublime ideas came from the external world indeed. But the other, opening out for humanity later, laid out before him an universe yet subllmer, yet more beautiful, and infinitely more expansive. In the Karma-kanda portion of the Vedas, we find the most wondeiful ideas of leligion Inculcated, we find the most wondeiful ideas about an ovci-ruling Creator, rreserver and Destroyer of the universe presented before us, in language sometimes the most soul-stirring. Most of you peihaps remember that most wondeiful sloka in the Rig Veda.Samhita where )ou get the description of chaos, peihaps the.sublimest that has ever been attempted yet. In spite of all this, we find it is only a painting of the sublime outside, we find that yet it is gioss, that something of mailer )et clings to it. Vet we find that it is only the e.xpiession of the Infimle in the language of matter, in the language of the finite, it is the infinite of the muscles and not of the mind; it IS the infinite of space, and not of thouglit. rheiefoie in the second portion or Jnana-kanda, we find there is altogethei a dilTcient pioceduie. The fust was a search in external nature for the liiiths of the univeise; it was an attempt to get the solution of the deep problems of life fiom the mateiial woikl.
Whose glory these Himalayas declaie.” 'hhis is a grand idea, but yet it was not grand enough for India. The Indian mind had to fall back, and the research took a diffeicnt diioction altogether, from the external the search came to the internal, from matter to mind. I'heic arose the ciy, “ When a man dies, wh.tt becomes of him &c. “ Some say that he exists, ■ others, that he is gone; say, O king of Death, what is Tniili?” An entirely different procedure we find here. The Indian mind got all that could be had from the external world, but it did not feel satisfied with that; it named to seaich further, to dive into its own soul, and the final answer came.
The Upanishads, or the Vedanta or the Aranyakas, or Rahasya, is the name of this portion of the Vedas. Here we find at once that icligion has got rid of all external formalities. Here we find at once that spiritual ihings are told not in the language of matter, but in the language of the spirit, the supeifine, in the language of the superfine. No more any grossness attaches to it, no more is there any compromise with things of worldly concern. Bold, brave, beyoml the conception of the present day, stand the giant minds of the sages of the Upanishads, declaring the noblest truths that have ever been preached to humanity, without any compromise, without any fear. This, my countrymen, I want to lay before you. Even the Jnana- kanda of the Vedas is a vast ocean; many lives ate necessary to undeistand even TITE VEEAXTA,9, TITE VEEAXTA,9, « lUtle ofit Truly hns it been said of the Upanishads, by Ramanuja, that the Vedanta is tlie head, tiie siiouicieis, the crested foim of tiie Vedas, and surely enough the Upanishads have become the liible of modem India. Tiie Hindus Lve tL greatest respect tor the Kaima-ltanda of the Vedas, hut, for all pr.actical purposes, we know that or ages by Srul, has been meant the Upanisliads, and tiie Upanisliads ai;ne. W e know that al our great pi, ilosophcis, eitlier Vjasa, l>alanjali, Gautama, and eve-i the father of all philosophy, the great Kapila himsell, whenever they wanted an authority or what they wrote, everyone of them found it in the Upanishads, and nowheic else, for therein aie llie truths that remain foi ever..
There are truths that are true only in a certain line, in a ceilain'diicction, under certain arcumstances, and for ccilain tunes, those tl.u a.e founded on the institutions of the tiniess Theie ate other tmths wl.ich a.e based on the nature of man hi.nselt and which must endure so long as man hunself endu.cs. These a.e the liuths that alone can be uni ve. sal, and in spite of all the changes that have come to India as to our social surioumlings, our methods of di ess, our manner of eating, our modes of worship,— these universal truths of the S.utis, the marvellous Vcdantic ideas,.stand out in their own sublimity, immovable, i.nvanquisbable, deathless, and immortal. Yet the genus of all the ideas that weie developed in the Upanishads had been taught alieady in the Kaima-kanda. The idea of the cosmos, which all sects of Vedanti sis had to lakcfoi gianlcd, the ps)chology which has foimed the common basi.s of all the Indian schools of thought, had ihcio been woikcd out already and piesenled befoie the woiKl. A few words, iheiefore, about the Kaima-kanda are necessaiy befoie we be<>in the spiiiiual poilion of the Vedanta, and first of all I should like to explain the sense in which I use the word \'cdanla.
Unfoilunatcly there is the mistaken notion in modern India, that the void Vedanta has lefeienco only to the Adxaila.system, but )ou must alway.s icmeinber that in model 11 India, the thice Piuislluiiuis aic considered equally impoilant in the study of all the s).stems of leligion. Fii.st of all there are the Revelations, the Siuiis, by which I mean the Upanishads. Secondly, among our philosophies, the Sulias ol Vyasa ha\o the gicalost piominence, on account of ihcii being the consummation of all the pieccding systems of philosophy. I'liese.systems are not conliadicloiy to one anollici, but one is based on another, and there i.s a giadual unfolding of the theme which culminates m the Sutias of V)asa. Then, between the Upanishads and the Sulias, which aie the.systematising of the maivellous truths of the Vedanta, comes 111 Sn Gila, the divine commcntaiy on the Vedanta. The Upanishads, the Vjasa Sutias, and the Gila, thercfoic, have been taken up by every sect in India that wants to claim authoiity for oilliodoxy, whether Duali.si, or Wishn.avist, or Advaitist; the authoiities of each of these are the Ihiee Praslhiina^, We find that a Sankaiachaiya, or a Ramanuja, or a jNIadhwacharya, or a Vallabhachaija, or a Chaitanya, any one who wanted to piojiound a new.sect— had to take up these thicc.sj stems and wiite only a new commentary on them. Therefoic it would be wiong to confine tlie woid Vedanta only to one sy.stem. which has aiisen out of the Upanishads. All these arc coveied by the woul Vedanta. The Visishladvailist has as much light to be called a Vedanlist as the Advailisl; in fact I will go a lillle fuUhcr and.say that what we leally mean by the woid Hindu is leally the same as Vedantist. 1 wanljouto note, that these three systems have been cm lent ih India almost fiom time iinmemoiial ■ — for you must not believe that.Sankai a was the inventor of the Advaita system; it existed ages befoie Saiikaia was boin; he was one of its last representatives. So with U 62 LECTURES~FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA the VisislUadvaila system; it existed ages before Ramanuja appeared, ns we already know fiom the commeiitaiies he has wiittcn; so wiili the Dualistic systems that have existed side by side \\ilh the othcis. And wilii my little knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that they do not contradict each other. Just as in the case of the six J)itrt/iafi(U, we find they are a gradual unfolding of the grand principles, ^vhose music beginning fai back in the soft low notes, ends in the tiium|)hant blast of the Advaita, so also in these thiee s} stems we find the giadual working up of the human mind towaids higher and higher ideals, till ever) thing is merged in that wondciful unity which is reached m the Advaita S)Stem. Theiefoie these three are not contiadictoiy. On the other hand I am bound to tell }OU, that this has been a mistake committed by not a few. We (ind that an Advaitist teacher keeps intact those te.xts whicli especially leach Advailism, and lues to interpiet the Dualistic or (JualKied-non-dualisiic tcMs into his own meaning..Kimilaily we (ind l,)ualislic teachers trying to lead iheii Dualistic meaning into Advailic texts. Durtiuius were great men, )et there is a sating as, “ luen the faults of a (bun must be told.” I am of opinion that in this only they weic mistaken. We need not go into text toitming, we need not go into any sort of religious dishonesty, we need not go into any.soil of giammalical twaddle, we need not go about li>ing to jnit our own ideas into le.xls which wcie never meant for them, but the work is plain and becomes easiei, once you uiidei stand tlu; inaivellous docliine of Adh 'ikth ahheda.
It is line that the Upanisbads bate this one theme liefoie them, eKf^'»T5f I — ‘MVhal IS that knowing w hit h we know etei tilling else V' In modem language, the theme of the l'|)anishads is to (ind an ullimale unity of things. Knowledge is nothing but (jiuling unity in the midst ol liiveisity. Dti iy science is based upon this, all human knowlt'dge is baseil upon the (iiuliug of unity in the midst of dp.eisii); and if it is the task oi small fiagmeiUb of human kiKJtt ledge, vthjch w'c call our sciences, to (ind unitt m the midst of a few (liffiMenl pluMionn'ii.i, the task becomes stupendous when the theme beb)re us is to (ind unity ui the midst of this martellously divcisified uiiitcise, whcie piotail unmnnbeied dilfeienccs in name and form, in mailer and spun,— each thought diOoimg fiom evei\ othcM iboughl, each form differing fiom eveiy olhei foim. Yet, to haimomse these man} planes and unend- ing in the midst of this mlinile vaiiety to find unity, is the theme of the I'panifchads. On the olhei hand, the old idea of Arunii/utii AV./'i.r applies. To show- a man the fine star Arundhali, one takes the big and biilliant star ncaicst to it. upon which he ii» asked to fix his eyes (list, and then it becomes quite easy to diiecl Ids sight to Amndhati, d'his is the task hcfoie us, and to piove my idea I have simpl)" to show you the Dpanishads, and you will see it. Nearly every chapter begins with Dualistic leaching, upitsand. Latei on, (Jod u first taught as some one who is the (dcalor of this univeise, Us Pioserver, and unto whom eveit thing goes at last, lie is one to be woi shipped, ibe Rulci, the Ouide of nature, cxlemal and internal, }c*t as if Ho weie something outside of nature and external. One step fuither, and we find the same teacher leaching that tins (Joil is not outside of nature, but immanent in nature. And at last both ideas are discarded, and w'hatevcr is loal is lie; there is no dilfeience. " ‘^^t-’b^kelii, That thou ait.” That Immanent One i.s at