is iipe and requires have, as it were, thiown a challenge to the whole world fiom the most ancient times. Tn the West, they are tiying to solve the problem how^ much a man can [lossess, and we are trying here to solve the pioblem on how little a man can live. This stiugglc and this ciiffeience will still go on for some cenluiies. Tuit if histoiy has any liulh in it, and if prognostications ever prove true, it must be that those who tiain themselves to live on the least and control themselve$ THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA 45 well, will in ihc end gain the battle, and that those who run after enjoyment and luMiiy, houever vigoious they may seem fui the nionuMil, will lu\o to die and betomo anni- hilated. 'rhcic aie tiincb in the hisioi) of a nnin’t. life, nay, in die hisloiy of ihe lives of nations, when a soil of woild-weaiines.s becomes painUilly piedoiinnant. It seems that such a tide of woild-w’eaime''S has come u])on the W’eslein Woild. U'heie too, they have their liiinkeis, gieat men; and they aie already finding out that this race after gold and power is all vanity of vanities; many, nay most of the cultured men and women theie, ate alieady vveaiy of this compctiiion, this stiuggle, this biulality of their comrneicial ciMlisalion, and they aie looking foiwaid towaids .something letter. Theie is a class which still clings on to political and social changes as the only panacea for the evils in Kutope, but among the gieai ihinkcis theie, othei ideals are glowing. They have found out that no amount of political 01 social manipulation cjf human conditions can ciiie the evils of life. It is a change of the soul itself for the bettei, that alone will cuie the evils of life. No 'amount of foicc, or government, or legislative ciuclty will change the conditions of a lacc, but it is spiiilual culluie and ethical cultuie alone that can change wiong racial tendencies for the bolter. Thus, these laces of the West aie eagei foi some new thought, for.some new plnlosoph}; tliQ leligion they have h.ul, Cliiislianily, although good and gloiious in many lespccts, has been impcifeclly undeistood, and is, as understood hitheito, found to be insunicient. The tlioiighlful men of the West find in our ancient philosophy, especially in the Vedanta, the new impulse of thought they are seeking, the veiy spiiilual food and dunk for which they aie hunger- ing and thii Sling. And it is no wonder that this is so.
1 have become used to licar all sorts of vvorideiful claims put forward in favour of every leligion under the sun. You have also heaid, cjuile within lecenl limes, the claims put forvvaid by Dr. Bai lows, a great fiiencl of mine, that Chiisiianity is the only universal religion. Let me consider this question awhile and lay befuie you my reasons why I think that it is Vedanta, and Vedanta alone, that can become the univcisal religion of man, and that no other is filled for that idle. Excepting our own, almost all the other great religions in the vvoi Id are inevitably connected with the life or lives of one or more of their founders. All their theories, their teach- ings, their doctrines, and their ethics are built round the life of a peisonal founder, fiom whom they get their sanction, theii authoiity, and their power; and strangely enough, upon the historicity of the founder's life is built, as it were, all the fabiic of such religions. If theie is one blow dealt to the hisloi icily of that life, as has been the case is modern times with the lives of almost all the so-called foundeis of leligion— we know that lialf the details of such lives is not now sciiously believed in, and that the other half is seiiously doubted — if this becomes the case, if that rock of histoiicity, as they pretend to call it, is shaken and shattered, the whole building tumbles down broken absolutely, never to regain its lost status. Everyone of the gieat religions in the world excepting our own, is built upon such histoiical chaiac- teis; but ours rests upon principles. There is no man or woman who can claim to have created the Vedas, They are the embodiment of eternal principles; sages discovered them; and now and then the names of these sages are mentioned, just their names; we do not even know who or what they were. In many cases vve do not know who their fathers were, and almost in every case we do not know when and where they weie born. But what cared they, these sage.s, for tlieir names They \yere the preachers of piinciples, and they themselves, so far as they went, tried to 46 LECTURES FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA become illustrations of the principles they preached. At the same lime, just as our God IS an impeisonal and yrt a peisonal God, so is our religion a most intensely iinpeison.il one, a religion h.ised upon principles; and yet it lias an infinite scope for the play of poisons, for what leligion gives 3011 nioic Incarnations, more prophets and seers, and still w.uls for inlnnlely tnoie? The Ilhag.wad-Gua says that Incar- nations aie infinite, leaving ample scope for as many as you like, to come. There- foie if any one 01 inoie of these peisons in India's icligious histoiy, any one or more of these Incarn.uions, and any one 01 moie of oui piophels are proved not to have been histoiic.d, it does not injuie our lehgion at all; even then it lemains firm as ever, because it 1^ ha ed upon piinciples, and not upon peisons. It is in \ain to tiy to gaihei all the peoples of the Moild around a •'ingle pci sonahly. It is difficult to make tiiein gather together even louud cteiiial and uuneisnl piiiiciples. If it ever becomes possilile to bung the hugest poiiion of humamiy to one way of thinking in regard to idigion, maik }ou, it must he alwa) s thiough piinciiiles and not through peison.s. Yet as I Inue s, ud, out lehgion has ample scope for the authoiity and influence of peisons. Theie is th.it most wcmdeitul iheoiy of Ishta, which gives you the fullest and the lieest choice possilde among these gicat leligious pcisonahtics. You may take up any one of the piophets or tiacheis as )oui guide and the object of your special adoiation; )ou aie even alhjwcd to think that lie wiiom you have chosen is the gieatest of the piophels, gicalc'.t of all the, iheie is no haim in that, but you must keep to a liiui backgiouiid of eteiudly tiue piincipIes. The stiange fact here is, tliat the powei of oui lucainaiions has been holding good with us only so far as they aie illusiialions ot the piinciples 111 the Vedas '1 lie gloiy of Sii Riishna is, that he has been the best pieacher of oui eternal icbgion of piinciples and the best comnieiiiator on the Vedanta that ever lived in India.
The second claim of the Vedanta upon the attention of the world is, that of all the sculptures m tlie woild, it is the one scnptuie the leaching of which is in entire haimony with the results that h.ave been aflained by the modem snenlific invesiiga- tions of external nature. Two minds in the dim past of liistoi)-, cognate to each other in form and kinship, and sympathy, staited, being placed In ihlfcient routes. The one was the ancient Mindii miiul, and the other the ancient Gieek mind. The formei started by analysing the inleinal woild. The latter stalled in search of that goal l)e}'ond, by analysing the external woild. And even through the various vicissi- tudes of their Insioiy, it is easy to make out these two vibrations of thoughts as tending to piocluce similar echoes fiom the goal beyond. It seems clear that the conclusions of modem maleiiahstic science can be acceptable, haimoniously with tlieir religion, only to the Vedanlins, or Hindus as they are called. It seems clear that modern mateiiahsm can hold Us own and at the same time approach spiiituality by taking up the conclusions of the Vedanta. It seems to us, and to all who care to know, that the conclusions of modem science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago; only, in modem science they are wiiiten in the language of matter. This, then, is anollier claim of the Vedanta upon modern Western minds, its ration- ality, the wondeiful rationalism of the Vedanta. I have myself been told by some of the best Western scientific minds of the day, how wondei fully rational the conclu- sions of the Vedanta were. 1 know one of them personally, who scarcely has time to eal his meals, or go out of his laboiatoiy, but who yet would stand by the hour to attend my lectuies on the Vedanta; for, as he expresses it, they are so scientific, they so exactly haimonisc with the a.spi rations of the age and with the conclusions THE HFSSrOX OF THE VEDANTA M t6 which modem science is comin|jf al ihe prosenl time. Two such scientific conclu- eions drawn from Compaiali\e Religion, 1 would specially like to diaw)our allenlion to; the one beais upon the idea of the umveisality of leligions and llie other, on the idea of the onene'iS of things. We o])senc in the histoiie.s of Dab) Ion and among the Jews an inieiesling religious phenomenon happening. We find that each of these Babylonian and Jewish peoples was divided into so many tribes, each tilbe having a god of its own, and that these little tribal Gods had often a generic name. The gods among the Babylonians weie all called Baals, and among them Baal Merodac was the chief. In coui.se of time one of these many lubes w'ould conquer and assimilate the other lacially-.illied tubes, and the natuial lesult would be, that the God of the conquciing tube would be placed at the head of all the gods of the other tribe.s, 'I'hus the so-called boasted monotheism of the Semites w'as created. Among the Jew.s the gods w'ciil by the name of Moloch. Of these there was one Moloch who belonged to the tube called Isiael, and he w-as called the Moloch Yahva, 01 Moloch Vava. In lime, tins tube of Isiael slowdy conqucied some of the other tribes of the same lace, destro)ed then Muhichs, and declaied its own Moloch to be the Supieme Moloch of all the Molochs. And I am suie most of you know the amount of bloodshed, of tyianny, and of biulal savagery that this lehgious con- quest entailed. Lalei on, the Babylonians lued to deslioy tins supremacy of Moloch Yahva, but couhl not succeed in doing so. it seems to me, that such an attempt at tubal sell-assertion in ichgious mattcis might have taken jilace on the fioiUieis of India ahso. Heie too, all the \auous lubes of the Ai}ans niiglit ha\e come into confiicr with one anothc'f, foi declaiing the supiemacy of iheir seveial tubal gods; but India’s history was to be otheiwise, was to be dilTerent liom that of the Jews. India was alone to be the land of ail lands of lolciaiion and of spiiiluality, and therefoie the fight between lubes and then gods did not long lake place hcie. Foi one of the gieatest sages that was ever boui, found out here in India even at that distant time, which hisioiy cannot reach, and into whose gloom even liadilion itself dates not peep —in that (lustant time the sage aiose, and declaied, Ekam sai viprd bahudhd vjilanh." — He who exists is one; the sages call Him vaiiously. This is one of the most menioiable sentences that was c\ei uiieied, one of the giandest truths that w^as ever discoveicd. And for us Hindus this liuih has been the veiy backbone of our national existence. Foi throughout the vi.sUs of llie ceiUuues of our national life, this one idea, “ hahudhd vadantiT comes down, gaming in volume and in fulness till it has permeated llie whole of our national existence, till it has mingled m our blood, and has become one with us. We io\e that grand liuth in every vein, and our country has become the gloiums land of leligious toleiation. It is here and here alone that they build temples and chuiches for the lehgions which have come with the object of condemning our own lehgion. This is one \ery great piinciple that the world is waiting to Icain fiom us. Aye, you little know how much of intolerance is yet abioad. It stiuck me more than once, that I should have to leave my bones on foreign shores owing to the picvalence of icligious intolerance. Killing a man is nothing for religion's sake; to-moriow they may do it in the very heart of the boasted civilisation of the West, if to-day they aie not really doing so. OiUcasting in its most hoirible forms would often come down upon the liead of a man in the West, if he daied to say a woid against Iils couniiy’s accepted leligion. They talk glibly and smoothly here in cniicism of our caste law’S. If you go to the West and live there as I have done, you will know that even some of the biggest profes- 48 LECTURF.S—FROM COLOMBO TO AtJfORA sors yon heal of, are ni rant rowauh and dare not say for fear of public opinion, a hundic'dlh part of what they hold to be leally line in leligions mailers.
Theiefore the w’oild is w'ailin<? for this giand idea of univeisal toleration. It will be a f^ixat acqni.Mlion to civilisation. Nay, no civilisation can long exist unless this idea enters into it. No civilisation can grow, unless fanaticism, bloodshed and biutality slop. No civilisation can begin to lift up its head until we look chatitably upon one another, and the first step towaids that much needed charity is to look chart.* tably and kindly upon the leligious convictions of others. Nay more, to understand, that not only should we be charitable, but positively helpful, to each other, however different our lehgious ideas and convictions may be. Anti that is exactly what we do in India, as I have just i elated to you. It is here in India that Hindus have built and arc sldl budding chui dies for (diristians, and mosques for Mabommedans. That is the thing lo do. In spile of their hatied, in spite of their biutality, in spite of their ci nelly, in spite of their tyianny, and in spite of the vile language they are given to ulleiing, we wdl and must go on building churches for the Christians and nlosque.’l for the INTahotnmcdans until we conquer thiough love, imlll we have demonstrated to the world that love alone is the fittest thing to suivive and not liatred, that it is gentle- ness dial has the strength lo live on and to fiuclify, and not mete brutality and physical foice.
The other gi eat idea that the wot Id w’ants from us to-day, the thinking part of Kurope, nay, the whole world — more, pieihaps, the lower classes than the higher, moic the masses than the culluicd, nioic the ignoiant than the educated, moie the weak than the stiong -is that eternal grand idea of the spiritual oneness of the whole universe. 1 need not tell ton to-day, men finm the Madias Univeisity, how the niotlcin tescaichcs of the West have demonstrated thiough )»h}sical means, the one- ness and die solidaiity of the whole univcisc; how, pliysically speaking, you and I, the sun, moon and stais, aic but hide waves or wavelets in the midst of an infinite ocean of mailer; how Indian psychology dcinonslialed ages ago that, similaily, both body and mind arc but mere names oi I'.lile wavelets in the ocean of matter, the ; and how. going one step further. It is also shown in the Vedanta that, behind that idea ol the unit} of the whole show, the real Soul is one. There is but one.">uul thioughout the universe, all is but One Existence. This great idea of the leal and basic solidaiity of the whole universe has frightened many, even in this counliy; it even now finds sometimes mote opponents than adherents; 1 tell you, iievciiheless, that It IS the one gieat iifc-giviug idea which the woild wants from us to-day, aiul vviiich the mule masses of India want for their uplifting, for none can vcgeneiate this land of ours without the inactical ajiplication and effective npciation of this ideal of the oneness of thing.s. The rational West is earnestly bent upon seeking out the rationality, the raison d'etre of all its philosophy and its ethics; and } oil all know well that ethics cannot be derived from the mere sanction of any person- age, howevei gieat and divine he may have been. Such an explanation of the auihonly of ethics appeals no moie to the highest of the woild’s thinkers; they want sonieUiing more ih.m human sanction for ethical and moral codes to be binding, they want some eternal principle of truth as the sanction of ethics. And where is that cteinal sanction to be found except in the only Infinite Reality, that exists in you and in me and in all, in the self, in the soul? The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality, that you and I are not only brothers— every lileuUure voicing nun’s bliugglc towards freedom has preached that for you — but that you and I are leally one. This is the dictate of Indian pliilosophy. This oneness is the rationale of all ethics and all spiritu.dity, Eliidpe wants it to-day just as much as our down-trodden masses do, and this gieat piiilClple is even now unconsciousl)^ forming the basis of all the latest political and social aspirations that are coming up in Kngiand, in Geiinaiiy, in Fiance, and in Ameiica. And mark it, mv Mends, thill in and llirough all the lileraluie voicing man’s stiuggle towards frcedoni, towards Uni- ver'^al fleedom, again and again yoii lind the Indian Vedantic ideals coming out promi- nently. Ill some cases the wi itch's do not know the soiuce of their Inspiration, ili some cases they tiy to apjiear very oiiginal, and a few theie are, bold and giatefUl enough to mention the souicc and acknowledge their indebtedness to it. When I was in Ameiica, I heaid once the comidainl made that I was preaching too much of Advaila, and too little of dualism. Aye, 1 know what giandedr, what oCeans of love, what infinite, ecstatic blessings and joy iheie aio in the dualistic lovC-theories of woiship and leligion. 1 know it all. Jlut this is not the time with us to weep, even in joy; wo liavo had weeping cnougli; ho nroie ia this the lime foi us to becomd soft. 'Fiiis softness has been With us till we have become like masses of cotton, and aic dead. What our couiUiy now wants, are muscles of iron and neivcs of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteiics and the secicls of the universe, and will accomplish their puipose in any fashion, even if it meant going clown to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. 'I’hat is what we want, and that can only be created, established and strengthened, by undeislanding and lealising the ideal of the Advaita, that ideal of the oneness of all. Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith In God, — this is the setret of gieat- ness. If }ou have faith in all the thiee hundred and thirty millions of your mytho- logical gods, and in all the gods which foreigners have now and again introduced into jouimidst, and still liave no faith in youi selves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in }Oulsel\es, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need. Wliy is it that wc, llirce handled and thiity millions of people, have been uilod for the last one thousand ycais by any and every handful of foreigners who chose to walk over our prostiate bodies } Because they had faith in themselves and we had not. What did I leain In the West, and what did I see behind those liothy savings of the Cliiislian sects repeating that man was a fallen and hopelessly fallen sinner? Tbete, I sa\V that Inside the national hearts of both Europe and Ameiica, resides the tremendous jiower of the men’s faith in themselves. An Eng- lish boy Will tell Vou — “ 1 am an Englishman, and I can do anything.” 'I'he Aiiicilcan boy will tell }Ou the same thing, and so will any liulopean boy. Can our boys say the same thing here? No, nor even the boys’ falheis. Wc have lost faith in our- selves. Theiefore, to pi each the Advaita aspect of the Vedanta is necessary to rouse up the heaits of men, to show them the glory of their souls. It is therefore that I preach this Advaila, and 1 do so not as a sc'ctarian, but upon univyusal and ividely acceptable grounds.
I It is easy to find out the W'ay of reconciliation that will not hurt the dualist or he qualified nionist. Tliere is not ouc system in India which does not hold the loclrine that God is within, that Divinity resides w-iihin al! things. Every one of ur Vedantic systems admits that all purity and peifection and strength are in the 3ul already. According to some, this peifection sometimes becomes, as it were, 3ntracted, and at other times it becomes expanded again. Vet it is there. Accord- ig to the Advaita, it neither contracts nor expands, but becomp^..-j 50 LEC7URES—FR0M COLOMBO TO ALMOEA uncovered, now and again. PicUy nmcli llic same thing in ellecl. '1 he one may be a more logical slatemejil than the othei, but as to the losult, the piaclical con- clusions, both arc about the same; and this is the one cenliiil idea which the woi Id stands in need of, and nowheie is the want moie felt than in this, oui own mother- land. Ate, my fiiends, I must tell )Ou a few hatjsh tinlhs. 1 lead in the news- papers, how, when one of oui poor tcllows is muuleied or ill-tiealcd by an English- man, howls go all o\ei the coimtiy; I lead and 1 weep, and the next moment comes to my mind the question, who is responsilde for it all. As a Vedantist I cannot but put that question to myself. The Hindu is a man of introspection, he wants to see things in and through himself, thiough the suhjeclive vision. 1 theieloie ask inysolf who is lesponsible, and the answer comes e\ciy time, not the English; no, they aic not lesponsilile; it is we who aic icsponsible for all our misery and all our degiadalion, and we alone uie icsponsible. (Jur aiistociatic ancestors went on treading the common masses of oui counliy under fool, till they became helpless, till undei this loinienl the poor, pool people neaily foigot that they weie human beings. They ha\e been compelled to be niciely hewers of wood and duuvers of w’.atei foi centimes, so much so, that the) luc made to beliesc that they aie bout as sl.ives, bom as hewers of wood and diaweis of watei. With all our boasted education of niodcin limes, if aiqbody says a kind woid for them, I often liiid our men slmnk at once liom the duty of lifting them up. these iioot dowii-tiodden people. Not only so, but 1 also Imd that all soils of most demoniacal and biulal atgumenls, culled from the cruile ideas of heredilaiy tiansmis.sion, and other such gibberish fiom the Western woild, aie hioughl forwaid in oidei to biuUdisc and tyiannise ovei the poor, all the more. At the Pailiamenl of Religions in Amciica, there came among oiheis, a young man, a Negio bom. a leal Afiican Ncgio, and he made a beautiful speech. 1 bec.ime mteiestcd in the young man, and now and then talked to luin, but could learn nothing about him. But one day in England, 1 met.some Ameiicans, and tins is what they told me. 'kliat this boy was the sou of a Negro chief who lived in the licait of Afiica. and that one day another chief became angiy with the father of this boy and inuideied him and murdeicd the molher also' and they were cooked and eaten: he oideicd the child to be killed also, and cooked and eaten; but the boy fled, and after passing thiough great luudshii>s liid having travelled a distance of seveial hundieds of miles, he reached the sea-shoie, and lheie"he was taken into an Ameiican vessel and bioughl over to Ameiica. And this boy made that speech! Alter that, what w^as I to think of your doctiine of hciodily! A>e, Biahmans, if the Birdunan has more aptitude foi learning on the, vriound of heicdily than the Paiiah, spend no more money on the Brahman’s eilut.v uon but spend all on the Paiiah. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed. If the Bu'ihman is born clever he can educate himself without help. If the othen aic not bom clever, let them have all the teaching and the teachers they want. Tb