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________________ PIILOSOPHY. YA , GANDHI. ,
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________________ " Shree Agamodaya Samiti Series." SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF Virchand R. Gandhi, B. A., M, R. A. S. BARRISTER-AT-LAW, THE JAIN DELEGATE TO THE PARLIAMENTS OF RELIGIONS; CHICAGO. U. S. A. (1893.) Hony. Secretary to The Jain Association of India. THE JAIN PHILOSOPHY. COLLECTED BY BHAGU F. KARBHARI. EDITOR. "THE JAIN' AND THE 'PATRIOT, BOMBAY. PUBLISHED BY Venichand Surchand Shah FOR Shree Agamodaya Samiti. BOMBAY SECOND EDITION. PRICE Re. one.) 1924 [COPIES 1000.
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________________ PRINTED AT THE JASWANTSINHJI PRINTING 'PRESS, LIMBDI, KATHIAWAR.
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________________ But Viva said quickly "There is no comparison: Vivekananda is an adept of vituperation but Mr. Gandhi is sincere and true. I admire Mr. Gandhi more than any man I ever heard of." "" Ella Sterling Cummins "
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________________ FOREWORD. The Jain Philosophy, a volume containing the speeches and writings of the late Mr. Virchand Raghavji Gandhi, was edited and published by the Late Mr. The B. F. Karbhari, the editor of the Jain paper. Further speeches and writings Yoga Philosophy & Karma Philosophy were published by Sheth Devchand Lalbhai Jain Pustakodhar Fund, and it is therefore that we publish the second editions of these volumes the whole series of the speeches and writings of the lateMr. V. R. Gnadhi. As far as we are concerned as we have heard there are further speeches & wrihas tings then these three volumes wut the matter remained with Mr. B. F. K. In a short volume Mr. Gandhi lays open the outlines of the principles of Jainism in an interesting and lucid manner to the English knowing public. He was a pioneer among the Jains to preach the principles of the Jain philosophy outside India, and we regret that his great and useful work has not only progressed after his demise, but no attempt whatsoever has been made to maintain the enthusiasm created by him. Not only that but the success and influence attained by him are not availed of. The Jain theory is based on reason and not on superstition and it is therefore that it can be accepted
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________________ by every human being on the earth. It is based on right faith, right knowledge, right conduct, tempered with merey, the foundations of true religion. The analysis and synthesis of the principles contained in these words require skilful handling when they are to be placed before the larger public than the devoted Jains only. It is most essential that every educated Jain should go through this present volume, wherein he will find Several topics that will interest him and widen his knowledge. The whole book is written in a language free from technical words and affords easy reading even to a layman. The book will also interest western scholers and will be found of real importance to the students of the Jain principles and theory. It is a pity to find that these important Volumes are not translated into vernacolars, as the Jain brethern in general could realize the importance of the work done by Mr. Virchand Raghavji Gandhi and we wish that this book will be translated in the near future in all vernaculars, so that all Jains may avail of the work done by Mr. Gand hi. So with confidence we recommend this book to the public desirous of knowing principles of Jainism and wish this book will have every success. 21 July 1924.7 K. P. Mody AHMEDABAD.S B. A., LL. B.
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________________ General Outlook. OF Shree Agamodaya Samiti, 1. Start:-This institution was started at Bhoyani in Viramgaum Taluka of the Ahmedabad District on Maha Shudi 10th of Sanvat year 1971 ( 25th January 1915 A, D.) Monday. This village Bhoyani is well known in Jain Annals as it contains the celebrated Jain Tirtha ( a holy place ) of Mallinatha, their 19th Tirthankara. It was started at the suggestion of Pannyasa Anandsagarjee ( at present Acharya Shri Sagaranandjee.) by Sheth Venichand Surchand and others with the consent of Pannyasa Anandsagarjee, Pannyas Manivijayji, pannyasa Meghavijayjee and several other Jain ascetics of different Gachchhas and with the consent of a number of Jains. This day being the anniverSary day on which the iinage of Mallinatha was installed, a number of Jains both laymen and ascetics assembled there that day. 2. Objects:-1. To enable Jain ascetics to acquire the knowledge of the heart of Jainism by studying in the prescribed ways the sacred books from ascetics well versed in them.
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________________ 10 2. To edit and publish Jain sacred books styled Agamas in necessary copies thus to make easy the obtaining of them (copies), in different places. 3. Fulfilment of objects. a. To further the first object, the knowledge of some Agamas was imparted at Patan (Northern Gujarat). Kapadvanj in the Kaira District, Ahmedabad, Surat, Palitana, and Rutlam in Malwa. b. To further the second object this institution has published the following sacred books (Agamas) and other Jain books: Sutra-Kritanga, Sutra 2nd. Sthananga, Sutra 3rd Samavayanga, Sutra 4th, Bhagavati, Sutra 5th. Gnata-Dharma-Katha, Sutra 6th. Upasaka-Dashanga, Sutra 7th. Antakrit-Dashanga and two other Sutras, 8th 9th and 10th. Pranshna-Vyakarana, Sutra 11th. Pragnapa, Sutra 15th. Surya-Pragnapti, Sutra 18th. Niryavali and four other Sutras, 19th to 23rd. Guchchhachara Prakirnakam. Avashyaka Sutra in four volumes, Ogha Niryukti
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________________ 11 Nandi Sutra Ashtaka by Haribhadra Suri. Four collection of 36 verses (about Pudgala matter) and other subjects. Dharma Bindu. Alphabetical index of Bhashya. Translation of versess Vishe-shavashyaka Bhashya with extracts from the commen tary. Vichara-sara-prakarana. Sadhu Samachari. Visheshavashyaka 4. Managing body:-In general and Managing Committes of this institution there are many members and the present workers that constitute the Managing Committee are as under: 1. 2. 3. 4. Bhogilal Halabhai 5. Kunverji Anandjee 6. Chunilal Chhaganlal Kamalshibhai Gulabchand 8. Jivanchand Sakerchand Javeri Esq. 7. "" Venichand Surchand Esq. Manilal Surajmal Hiralal Bakordas "" "" "" 13 5. Offices-Till some time past the office of this Institution was kept at the places, where the knowledge of the Agamas was imparted and other sutable places thus changing the same from time to time. Now the ""
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________________ 12 Head Office of this institution is at No. 426, Javeri Bazar Bombay No. 2, and the branch office for selling the printed books of this institution at Sheth Devchand Lalbhai's Dharamshala Gopipura, Surat. 6. Pecuniary position-This institution at present has about Rs. 45000/- (forty five thousand) partly subscribed, partly got from the interest, partly from the sales of books published by this institution. Besides, the sum about Rs. 13000/- (thirteen thousand) partly subscribed, and partly got from the interest is to the credit of Agama-Vanchana-Katha. From these the expenses in this connection are inet. AHMEDABAD, K. P. Modi, 24-9-1924, B. A., LL. B.
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________________ PREFACE. O F 1st Edition 1910. Ce n'est que la premier pas qui coute as the French have it. It is the first step that is difficult-that taken the rest follows swimmingly. But very few people can have any idea as to how difficult the "first step" is in an undertaking like the present-particularly in India. In spite of the progress that has undoubtedly been made in various directions under the ages of the Pax Britannica it is a fact that our people-even our educated peoplehave not yet developed the faculty of perspective. We have not yet learnt to look beyond to day. A great man delivers an address on an important subject, it is listened to by large audiences, just noticed in the ephemeral columns of the Press and-well, forgotton the next day; at any rate neglected, no steps being taken to embody it in a permanent form. One of the most elevating and instructive portions of Engligh literature is the record it possesses of the "noble thoughts of noble minds." Humanity, which is only a synonym for Vanity, thinks of perpetuating itself by the help of "presentments" manufactured with the help of science.
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________________ 14 never Pho Even the meanest of mankind" gets himself photographed and, poor man, thinks that he will go down to prosperity! And yet even sience fails and after some time the "presentment" disappears and the card board only remains! No. Such 'presentments,' such photographs of the body will never avail, be of any utility to the people of Hindusthan. tographs of some of the foremost men of the day are being hawked about in the streets. They are the photos only of the bodies of these men. Has any body ever taken care to photograph the hearts, the minds, the souls of these great men? It is with shame that I say that the sons of India have disgraced themselves by their lethargy in this department of literature. But luckily for mankind some of the noble "minds", remembering that no prophet is honoured in his country, take care to leave behind them in manuscript form the choicest of their matured thoughts and thus confer an inestimable boon on their kind. Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi was one of such minds. Luckily for his community and countrymen in general he has written out many of the important discourses delivered by him in India, England and America. It is six years now since his brief but brilliant career came prematurely to a close, and during this period no attempt has been made by any of his followers or colleagues to place the mind of the man before the public, to give a succient idea as to what he did in England and America, in what diverse ways he rerdered important services to our cause and religion by preaching the sublime principles of Jainism, not only in his mother Se 33
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________________ 15 country but also in far off lands. An humble attempt has been made in the following pages to place the man and his mind before the public, I must here gratefully admit that this attempt to collect the speeches and writings of Mr. Gandhi is due to the intelligent suggestion and spontaneous generosity of my friend Shet Jivanchand Dharamchand Javeri of Bombay, but for whose encouraging help such an attempt on my part would have been impossible. And it is with the greatest pleasure that I here admit that not only myself but the whole Jain community ought to be grateful to this inunificent Bombay merchant. As for the plan of the book I have divided it into two parts. The present volume contains almost everything that Mr. Gandhi had to say about Jainism. There is no publication at present extant which can help laymen to study and intelligently understand Jain religion and philosophy. I sincerely hope the present volume will serve as a hand-book for this purpose to our rising young generation. The second volume will contain the speeches and writings of Mr. Gandhi on the Yoga philosophy from the Jain point of view. I have tried my best to collect as many of the speeches and writings of Mr. Gandhi as I could get access to and have succeeded in getting together a valuable collection. But it is posible thet there are many others which my industry has not been able to discover. If
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________________ there are any such in the hands of the followers or colleagues of the departed man, I will thank them to let me know of them as they will form a valuable addition to the second volume to be published. But even if any further writings may not come forth yet I can safely say that the collection here offered contains the best and ripest work of Mr. Gandhi's mind. In conclusion, I have only to offer my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me to trace and collect these speeches and writings and to Mr. Manilal N. Doshi B.A. who has taken pains in going through the proofs. "Jain" office, Fort Bombay. 16 } BHAGU F. KARBHARI.
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________________ THE JAIN PHILOSOPHY. V. R. GANDHI, B. A., M. R. A. S. BAR-AT-LAW.
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________________
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________________ Adharmastikaya, 3,184. Ahimsa, 244. Ajiva, 146. VOCABULARY. Anekantvada, 18, 23, 238. Arhat, 20, 109, 110, 113, 131, 232, 349. Aryan, 32, 83. Aryavarta, 91. Asura, 134, 137. Ashrava, 243. Atman, 20, 32, 134. Avadhi, 21. Bandha, 243. Bhagavat Gita, 92. Bharat, 263. Brahma, 50. Brahman, 7, 23. Chandal, 229. Charvaka, 131.
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________________ Charitra Dharma, 1. Chhandogya, 134. - Deva, 4, 134, 135. Dharma, 32, 244. Dharmastikaya, 3, 184. Dharmika, 32. Dharm-shashtra, 181. Dravya, 146. Dravyarthik-naya, 1, 146. Drishti-raga, 30. Gnan-marga, 181. Indra, 135, 137, 138, 139. Jina, 1, 15, 231, 269. 191, Karma, 6, 7, 20, 21, 27, 58, 144, 146, 172, 183, 227, 242, 243, 244, 245. Karma-marga, 181, 242. Karman, 4, 7, 144 Kshama-shramana, 245. Kuran, 10. Mahavira, 20, 227, 228. Mahivrata, s.
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________________ Manushya, 4. Manvantara, 5. Maya, 236. Mimansaka, 19. : Moksha, 4, 20, 133, 243 Mukti, 21, 22, 23. Munists, 20. Naiti, 23. Naiyayika, 19. Naya-Vada, 238. Nara-Medha, 225. Naraka, 4. Nirjara, 243. Nigunta, 24. Niryukti, 245. Nirvana, 21, 144, 176. Nyaya, 130, 131. Om, 44, 97, 108, 109. Papa, 243. Paramo Dharma, 244. Patavali, Paryarthik Naya, 1, 46. Pralaya, 5. Prakriti, 16, 132, 133, 233. Praja Pati, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140,
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________________ Prakaran, 245. Purusha, 20 132, 133. Punya, 243. Rishis, 304. Rupa, 144. Samvara, 3, 243. Sanskrit, 6, 56, 71. Sankhya, 16, 19, 132, 133. Sankar, 19. Sati, 111. Sangna, 144. Samyag-gnana, 235. Sansara, 243. Sansarika, 243. Shruta-Dharma, 1, 2. Shudra, 40. Sutras, 18. Svastika, 97, 99, 100, 101, Svayam-Prakasha, 134. Syad-vada, 23, 238. Tirthankara, 7, 231. Tiryancha, 4. 22 Upanishad, 15.
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________________ 23 Valheahika, 19, 130, 131, 132. Veda, 143, 220, 225, 295. Vedant-sutras, 18. Vedant, 7, 14, 132, 133, 181, 239. Vedantist, 6, 140, 145. Vedantika, 140. Vedik, 15, 19, 213, 226, 295, Vignana, 144. Yoga, 133. Vogis, 199.
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________________ The Late Mr. Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. Bar-at-law. Lakshmi Art, Bombay, 8
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________________ Jaina Philosophy. Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi at the Chicago Parliament of Religions. THE PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS OF THE JAINS. Jainism has two ways of looking at thingsone called Dravyarthikanaya and the other Paryayarthikanaya. According to the kanaya view the universe is without and end but according to the Paryayarthika view we have creation and destruction at every moment. Dravyarthibeginning The Jain cannon may be divided into two parts. First Shruta Dharma i. e Philosophy, and Charitra Dharma i. e. second, Ethics.
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________________ 2 The Shruta Dharma inquires into the nature of nine principles, six kinds of living beings and four states of existance. Of the nine principles, the first is soul. According to the Jain view soul is that element which knows, thinks and feels. It is in fact the divine element in the living being. The Jain thinks that phenomena of knowledge, feeling, thinking and willing are conditioned on something, and that that something must be as real as anything can be. This "soul" is in a certain sense different from knowledge and in another sense identical with it. So far as one's knowledge is concerned, the soul is identical with it, but so far as some one else's knowledge is concerned, it is different from it. The true nature of soul is right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. The soul, so long as it is subject to transmigration, is undergoing evolution, and ivolution. The second principle is non-soul. It is not simply what we understand by matter, but it is more than that. Matter is a term contrary to soul. But nonsoul is its contradictory. Whatever is not soul is nonsoul. principles are but the diffecombination and separa The rest of the nine rent states produced by the tion of soul and non-soul, The third principle is merit; that on account of which a The fourth principle is demerit; that which a being suffers from misery. being is happy. On account of The fifth is the
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________________ state which brings in merit and demerit. The sixth is samvara that which stops the inflow of foreign energies. The seventh is distruction of actions. The eighth is bondage of soul, with actions. The ninth is total and permanent freedom of soul from all actions. Substance is divided into the sentient, or conscious, matter, dharmastikaya ( fulcrum of motion ) adharmastikaya ( fulcrum of stability, or rest) space and time. Six kinds of living beings are divided into six classes:-earth-body beings, water-body beings, fire-body beings, wind-body beings, and vegitables, all of them having one organ of sense, that of touch, and animals. These animals are again divided into four classes:--beings having two organs of sense, those of touch and of taste, such as tape worms leeches &c, beings having three organs of sense, those of taste touch and smell; such as ants, lice &c, beings having four organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell and sight, such as bees, scorpons, &c.; beings having five organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. These are human beings, animals, birds, men and gods. All these living beings have four, five or sis of the following capacities ;-capacity of taking food, capacity of constructing body, capacity of constructing organs, capacity of respiration, capacity of speaking and the capacity of thinking. Beings having one organ of sence i. e, of touch, have the first four capacities. Beings having two, three and
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________________ four organs of sense, have the first five capacities, while those having five organs have all the six capacites. The Jain caonical books treat very elaborately of the minute divisions of the living beings, and their prophets have long before the discovery of the microscope been able to tell how many organs of sense the minutest animalcule has. I would refer those who are desirous of studying Jain biology, zoology, botany anatomy, and physiology to the many books published by our society. * I shall now refer to the four states of existence. They are naraka, tiryanch manushya, and deva. Naraka is the lowest state of existence, that of being a denizen of hell; tirpanch is next, that of having an earth body, a waterbody, a firebody, a windbody of being a vegetable and lastly animals, and birds, which are again divided into four classes of having two three four or five senses. The third is manushya the state of being a man and the fourth is deva, that of being a denizen of the Celestial world. The highest state of existace is the Jian Moksha, apotheosis in the sense that the mortal being by the destruction of all karman attains the highest severed spiritualism, and the soul be!ng severed from all connection with matter gains its purest state and becomes divine. * Such books are in Sanskrit or Prakrit. Ed.
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________________ Having briefly stated the principal articles of Jain belief, I come to the great questions, the answers to which are the objects of all religious inquiry and the substance of all creeds. What is the origin of the Universe ? This involves the question of God. Gautama, the Buddha, forbids inquiry into the beginning of things. In the Brahmanical literature bearing on the constitution of cosmos frequent reference is made to the days and nights of Brahma, the periods of Manuantara and the periods of Pralaya. But the Jains, leaving all symbolical expression aside distinctly reaffirm the view previously promulgated by the previous hierophants, that matter and soul are eternal and cannot be created. You can affirm existence of a thing from one point of view, deny it from another and affirm both existence and non-existence with reference to it at different times. If you should think of affirming both existence and non-existence at the same time from the same point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be spoken of similarly. Under certain circumstances the affirmation of existence is not possible, of non-existence and also of both. What is meant by these seven modes is that a thing should not be considered as existing everywhere at all times, in all ways, and in the form of everything. It may exist in one place and not in another at one time. It is not meant by these modes that
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________________ there is no certainty or that we have to deal with probabilities only as some scholars have taught. Even the great Vedantist Sankaracharya has possibly erred when he says that the Jains are agnostics. All that is implied is that every assertion which is true, is true only under certain conditions of substance, space, time etc. This is the great merit of the Jain Philosophy, that while other philosophics make absolute assertions, the Jain looks at things from all standpoints, and adapts itself like a mighty ocean in which the sectarian rivers merge themselves. What is God then ? God, in the sense of an extra cosmic personal creator, has no place in the Jain philosophy. It distinctly denies such creator, as illogical and irrelevant in the general scheme of the universe. But it lays down that there is a subtle essence underlying all substances, conscious as well as unconscious, which becomes an enternal cause of all modifications and is termed God. The doctrine of the transmigration of soul or the reincarnation, is another grand idea of the Jain philosophy. The companion doctrine of transmigration is the doctrine of Karma. The Sanskrit of the word ' Karma' means action. " With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again," and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reaped," are but the corollaries of that most intricate
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________________ law of Karman. It solves the problem of the inequality and apparent injustice of the world. The Karman in the Jain philosophy is divided into eight classes: Those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth; those which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those which give one pleasure and pain, and those which produce bewilderment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely that a student of Jain Karman philosophy can trace any effect to a Particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully and so clearly the doctrine of Karmas. Persons who by right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, destroy all Karmas and thus fully develop the nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection, become divine and are called Jinas. Thuse Jinas who, in every age, preach the law and establish the order, are called Tirthankaras. 2. I now come to the Jain ethics, which direct conduct to be so adapted as to insure the fullest developinent of the soul-the highest happiness, that is the goal of human conduct, which is the ultimate end of human action. Jainism teaches to look upon all living beings as upon oneself. What then is the mode of attaining the highest happiness? The sacred books of the Brahman; prescribe devotion and Karma. The Vedanta indicates the path of knowledge as the means to the highest. But Jainism goes a step farther and says that the highest happiness is to be
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________________ obtained by knowledge and religious observances. The five Mahavratas or great commandments for Jain Ascetics are not to kill i, e. to protect all life; not to lie; not to take that which is not given; to abstain from sexual intercourse; to renounce all interest in wordly things especially to call nothing one's own. The History and Tenents of the Jains of India * Mr. Gandhi prefaced bis paper with remarks in refernce to the allegations of the previous day against the morality of the Hindu religion. He said: "I am glad that no one has dared to attack the religion I represent. It is well they should not. But every attack has been directed to the abuses exisiting in our society: And I repeat now, what I repeat every day, that these abuses are not from religion but in spite of religion, as in every other country. Soine men in their ambition think that they are Pauls and what they think they believe, and where should these new Pauls go to vent their platitudes but India ? Yes Sir, they go to India to convert the heathen in a mass but when they find their dreams melting away, as dreams always do, they return back to pass a whole life in abusing the
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________________ Hindu Abuses are not arguments against any reli. gion nor self adulation the proof of the truth of one's own. For such I have the greatest pity. There are a few Hindu temples in Southern India where women singers are employed to sing on certain occasions. Some of them are of dubious character, and the Hindu Society feels it and is trying its best to remove the evil. These wornen are never allowed to enter the main body of the temple and as for their being priestesses, there is not one woman priest from the Himalay to Cape Comorin. If the present abuses in India have been produced by the Hindu religion' the same religion had the strength of producing a society which made the Greek Historian say, "No Hindu was ever known to tell an untruth, no Hindu woman ever known to be unchaste," and even in the present day, where is the chaster woman or milder man than in India ? In the last place I am very, very sorry for those who criticise the great ones of India, and my only consolation is that all their information about them has come from third hand, or fourth hand sources, percolating through layers of superstition and bigotry. To those who find in the refusal of the Hindu to criticise the character of Jesus tacit acceptation of the superiority of the finatical nil admiraricult they represent, I am
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________________ 10 tempted to quote the old fable of AEsop and telt them "Not to you I bend the knee but to the image you are carrying on your back;" and to point out to them one page from the life of the great Emperor Akbar. A certain ship full of Mabommedan pilgrims was going to Mecca. On its way a Portuguese vessel captured it, amongst the booty were some copies of the Koran. The Portuguese hanged these copies of the Koran round the necks of dogs and paraded these dogs through the streets of Orinuz. It happened that this very Portuguese ship was captured by the emperor's men, and in it were found some copies of the Bible. The love of 'Akbar for his mnother is well-known and his mother was a realous Mahommedan. It pained her very much to hear of the treatment of the sacred book of the Mahommedans in the hands. of Christians and she wished that Akbar would do the same with the Bible, but this great man replied, "Mother, these ignorant men do not know the value of the Koran, and they treated it in a manner which is the outcome of ignorance. But I know the glory of the Koran and the Bible both and I can not deba se myself in the way they did." Mr. Gandhi's remarks were followed by expressions of sympathy from among the audience.
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________________ 11 The afternoon session opened with a few words of cordial and hopeful Salutation from Dr. Carlvon Bergen of Sweden after which Mr. Virchand Gandhi, a lawyer of Bombay and one of the chief exponents of the Jain religion of that country spoke as follows: Speech of Mr. Gandhi. "Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will, not trouble you with a long speech. I, like muy respected friends, Mr. Mazoomdar and others, come from India the motherland of religions. I represent Jainism, & faith older than Budhhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different from it in its psychology and professed by a million and a half of India's most peaceful and law abiding citizens. You have heard so many speeches from eloquent inembers and as I shall speak later on at some length, I will, at present, only offer on behalf of my community and their high priest Muni-Atma Ramji, whom I especially represent here, our sincere thanks for the kind welcome you have given us. This spectacle of the learned leaders of thought and religion meeting together on a common platform, and throwing light on religious problems, has been the dream of Atma Ramji's life, he has commissioned" me to say to you that he offers his most cordial congratulations on his own behalf, and on behalf
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________________ 12 of the Jain community for your having achieved the consunimation of that grand idea, of convening & Parliament of religions." Mr. Virchand Gandhi then was presented by Dr. Barrows as one whom he had come to esteem greatly as a guest in his own household. Mr. Gandhi was greeted with much applause as he came forward to speak, He said: "Are we not all sorry that we are parting so soon? Do we not wish this Parliament would last seventeen times seventeen days ? Have we not heard with pleasure and interest the speeches of the learned representives on this platform ? Do we not see that the sublime dream of the organisers of this unique Parliament has been more than realised? If you will only permit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love, I shall only ask you to look at the multifarious ideas presented to you in a liberal spirit, aud not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven blind men did in the elephant story. Once upon a time in a great city an elephant was brought with a circus. The people had never seen an elephant before. There were seven blind men in the city who longed to know what kind of an animal it was, so they went together to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hand on
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________________ 13 the ears, another on the legs, a third on the tail of the elephant and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an animal the elephant was, One of the blind men said, "Oh, to be sure, the elephant is like a big wiunowing fan." . Another blind inani said, "No, muy dear sir, you are wrong. The elephant is more like a big, round post." The third, " You are quite mistaken; it is like & tapering stick," The rest of them gave also their different opinions. The proprietor of the circus stepped forward and said; " My friends, you are all mistaken. You have not examined the elephant from all sides. Had you gone so you would not have taken one sided views." Brothers and sisters, I entreat you to hear the moral of this story and learn to examine the various religious systems from all standpoints. I now thank you from the bottom of my heart, for the kindness with which you have received us and for the liberal spirit and patience with which you have heard us. And to you, Reverend Dr. Barrows and President Bonny, we owe the deepest gratitude for the hospitality which you have extended to us."
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________________ 14 Philosophy and Psychology of the Jains.* In the concluding paragraph of the Prospectus of 1 MIND I find the following suggestive words: " While granting due credit to Hindu metaphysics and the mysticism of the Orient in general, we are yet inclined to look for the development of a Western Psychology that will harmonize with the conditions of life in the Occident, at the same time tending to promote the spiritual welfare of the race as a whole." This statement seems to whisper in my ears that " Hindu " metaphysics has not been able to offer the right solution of the various intricate problems of life that are staring in the face of the Western thinker. By "Hindu " is meant, of course, the special phase of Vedanta philosophy that has been presented to the people of the West during the fast four years. I am glad that the truth in Vedanta has come to the shores of this country. It would have been much better, however, if the whole truth lying back of the different sectarian systems of India had been presented, so that a complete instead of a partial view of India's wisdom might have satisfied the craving of deep students. But the history of the religious and philosophic progress of the world shows that sectarianism takes a long time to be transmuted into universalism, and so we shall have to wait. * Reprinted froin Mind Vol. 1, No. 4.
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________________ 15 * Besides "Hindu " or Vedic metaphysics, there are systems in India not based on the Vedas and Upnishads, and are therefore classed as heterodox by the Vedists, who, however, it must be admitted to their credit, do not consign them to the "uncovenanted mercies of God," as some Christian sects have done. These a:e the Buddhist and Jain systems. Much bas been written and spoken on Buddhisni, but very little on Jainism. In this article, therefore, I intend to present a short sketch of the latter, in the hope that Hindu metaphysics. may receive proper' consideration in the Occident. " Jain " ( or, more properly speaking, " Jaina's) means a follower of Jina, which is a generic term applied to those persons ( men and women ) that have conquered the lower nature--passion, hatred, and the like and brought into prominence the highest. The Jain philosophy, therefore, bases its doctrine on the absolute necessity ( for the realization of truth ) of conquering the lower nature. To the undeveloped or insufficiently developed observer, it is the conquering of the lower nature; to the fully developed, it is the realization of the perfect. There lived many such Jinas in the past, and many will doubtless yet be born. The philosophy of the Jains, therefore, is not essentially founded on any particular writting or external revelation, but on the unfoldment of spiritual consciousness, which is
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________________ 16 the birthright of every soul, Books, writtings, and scriptures may illustrate, wholly or in part, this truth; but the ultimate fact remains that no mere words can give full expression to the truths of Jainism which must be felt and realized within. I have been often asked, " What is the origiou of the universe, according to the Jaiu view ?" We might as well ask: What is the origin of Being ? What is the source of God? etc. Philosophy in the priinitive state ( logically, not chronologically ) postulates an external, simple substance from which it attempts to explain the multiplicity of the complex. Philosophy in this sense assumes various forms. All of them attempt to interpret the law of causation, and in that attempt mnany, fatigued after the long mental strain, stop at some one thing, element, or principle ( physical or metaphysical) beyond which they have not mentally the ability to go. Some ( for instance, the Ionic philosophers ) called it water, fire, or air. The Sankhya philosophy, in India, tried to explain evolution and even cosmic consciousness and the growth of organs, etc., as proceeding from the simple substance called Prakrits, or primordial matter. Modern science evolves all life from the simple protoplasm, In tracing every effect to a cause, when these pbilosophers stop at something they contradict themselves by not extending and applying the law of causation
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________________ 17 to what they call the "first principle." Dr. Paul Deussen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel, in Germany, very truly says, with reference to Causality ("Elements of Metaphysics " ): " As space and tiine are without limits, so also the net of causality is necessarily without beginning or end;" and he gives the following demonstration : "(a) If it were not without beginning, we should have to assuine a first state of things. In order that this state might develop, a change would have to occur in it, which change would itself again be the effect of a foregoing change," etc.* "(0) The chain of causality is without end, in asmuch as no change can take place at any time without proceeding as an effect from its sufficient cause. " Jain philosophy, therefore, is not the doctrine of illusion, nor of emanation, nor of creation. It is rather the doctrine that teaches the inexpugnability of various properties inextricably combined in & thing. Hence, the affirmation of only one property would be true so far as one side of the question isconcerned; but it becomes false when it rejects other sides-implying thereby that the very existance of *This is the rock on which splits the cosmoligical argument, which confounds the metaphysical principle of salvation (God) with the physical principle of creation.
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________________ 18 that particular side depends on the existence of other sides. Jainismi emphasizes at the same time the fact that at any particular moment it is impossible to express in words this complexity of truth (though possible to realize it in consciousness), for words always take for expression inore moments than one, This teaching is also known as the doctrine of many sidedness" (stienigale). For instance, the universe is eternal as well as non-eternal. If the manifestations, modifications, developinents, and activities are left out of consideration, what reinains of the universe is eternal. If merely those modifications, etc., are taken into consideration, that side of the universe (which is not a different thing from the universe, but only a different aspect,) is non-eternal, That is the only way of coming to a correct understanding and definite knowledge. Sankaracharya, coininentator of the Vedantasutras, has fallen into a great error when he states that the Jain doctrine should not be accepted because it is impossible that contradictory attributes, such as being and non-being, should at the same time belong to one and the same thing; just as observation teaches us that a thing cannot be hot and cold at the sane mo:nent." The Jains do not teach that a thing can be hot and cold at the same moment. Bat they do teach that a thing cangot be hot absolu
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________________ tely, and cannot be cold absolutely; it is hot under certain definite circumstances, and cold under others. The Jains do not teach that being and non-being (of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the same thing. What they teach is that in a thing there is being (of itself) and non-being (of other things), which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what it is not. Sankara, in fact, creates a man of straw, imputes to him certain imaginary doctrines, and by refuting them he knocks him down. That is his glory. Let us now see what the Jains have to say about the Vedic systems of philosophy. Guna-ratna, Suri, the cominentator of a Jain work on " Comparative Philosophy," says: "Although the various schools of philosophy, through sectarian bigotry, differ froin and contradict one another, still there are certain aspects of truth in them which would harmonize if they were joined ( into an organic whole]. For instance, the Buddhists advocate momentariness of things; the Sankhyas maintain eternality Naiyvavikas and : Vaiseshikas believe in independent eternalities and non-eternalities, being and non-being, community and difference, and eternality of the Word. The Mimansakas affirm eternality and non-eternality, separateness and identity, being and non-being, community and difference, and the eternality of the Word. Some postu
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________________ 20 tate either Time, Nature, Necessity, Karma, or Purusha as the origin of the Universe; and the Monists, who advocate the doctrine of Word-Brabina-Gnosis, believe in their identity. The diiferent aspects of truth accepted by these sectarians, when related to one another, all together become one grand truth; but, if they do not join hands, they contradict one another, and in so doing they are changed into "the flower of the sky' (which is not a real thing, but an illusion of the mind)." The Jain philosophy teaches that the universe - the totality of realities-is infinite in space and eterpal in timne; but the saine universe, considered from the stand-point of the manifestations of the different realities, is finite in space and non-eternal in time, Particular parts of the universe hare their cyclic laws corresponding to the laws of evolutior. and involution. At certain periods Arhats, or great Masters (Saviors of mankind), are born, who through love, sacrifice of the lower nature ( not of the real Self), and wisdom, teach the true doctrine. Referring to that part of the world known as BharataKhanda (India), the last Arhat, Mabavira, was born 598 B. C., in a town called Kundagrama in the territory of Videha, He lived seventy-two years and reached Moksha (the perfect condition] in 526 B. c. The Jain philosophy also teaches that each soul (Atman) is a seperate individuality, uncreated, and eternal in existence; that each individual soul has
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________________ 21 lived from time without beginning in some embodied state, evolving from the lower to the higher condition through the law of Karma, or cause and effect; that so long as the Karmas, (forces generated in previous lives) have not been fully worked out, it has, after physical death, to forui another body, uutil through evolutionary processes it unfolds its absolute purity. Its full perfection is then manifested. This perfection of the inviduality is the Jain Nirvana or Mukti, The individuality is not merged into anything; neither is it annibilated. The process of this development, or salvation, may be said simply to consist in right realization, right knowledge, and right life, the details of which are many. I will now say a few words about Jain Psychology. There are five Gateways of Knowledge, all unfolding through the laws of evolution and Karma. The first is the senses. In the lowest from of life, there is only one sense that of touch. In higher forms of life, there are two, three, four, and ( as in animals, birds, fish and men ) five senses. Through the senses a limited form of knowledge is unfolded. The second source is study and reading. The third is Avadhi, or the psychic faculty, through which finer and more subtle things are known. The fourth is inind-knowing, by which the mental processess of others
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________________ 22 are known and understood. The fifth is Absolute Knowledge, in which all limitations of body and brain are removed. This state is not a loss, but rather the acme, of consciousness. All these stages come to the ego not of themselves but through persistent effort and exercise of free will, or rather by making the will freer and freer. Personality is the mere physical but subtle gathering of acre tions through which the individuality becomes unfolded. Personality is therefore changing every moment; the individuality is for every moment the particular stage of unfoldment of the ego itself, and is consequently the bearer of the sins and sorrows, pleasures and enjoyments, of mundane life. In absolute perfection this bearing uuture is thrown off like a busk, and the ego dwells in divine and eternal bliss. It is got destroyed nor is it merged into another ego or in a Supreme Being; and if the question be asked whether in this state of Mukti (deliverance ) there is one ego or a plurality of egos, I would answer in the words of the Jain Master: "That Atman by which I experienced myself and my essence through self-realization---that I am: neither masculine, feminine, nor neuter; neither one, two, nor many." *This is not to be confounded with telepathy or direct thought-transference, in which a conscious relation has to be established between the agent and the recipient, since in genuine mind-knowing the developed man knows the mental activities of others without their trying to communicate them to him.
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________________ 23 Now I come back to the quotation with which I began this article. The Vedanta metaphysics teaches that salvation comes through knowledge (of Brahman). It is not the potential that through effort and conquest becomes the acual; and we are further taught that that which is is real now. On the other hand, Jainism teaches that from the ideal and transcendental standpoint you are Brabman, but its eternality, the real Mukti, comes from work and knowledge together, not form one alone. Through work and knowledge, Jainism says, the individual develops and unfolds the potential; tberefore, the statement, "I am Brahman," would be interpreted by a Jain to mean--I am Brahman only inherently, or in embryo; I have the capacity or the actual possibility of Brahman; what I am implicitly must become explicit. There is a vast difference between the implicit and the explicit. Those who do not recognize this difference would never make an attempt to become rational and free. The doctrine of the Jains known as Sjadvada or Anekanta-vada, it is proper to affirm, in the words of a writer in America. is competent to descend into the ntmost minutiae of metaphysics and to settle all the vexed questions of abstruse speculation by a positive method (not inerely asserting na iti, na iti, not so, not so )-to settle at any rate the limits of what it is possible to determine by any method which the human mind may be rationally supposed to possess. It promises to reconcile
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________________ 24 all the conflicting schools, not by inducing any of them necessarily to abandon their favorite 'standpoints,' but by proving to them that the standpoints of all others are alike tenable; or, at least, that they are representative of some aspect of truth which under some modification needs to be represented; and that the Integrality of Truth consists in this very variety of its aspects within the relational unity of an all comprehensive and ramifying principle." What is Jainism? * The opinions of scholars are devided as to the antiquity of the Jainisin faith; many claiming that is older then Brahminism Gautama Sakyainuni mentioned Jainism. He said ; "I hear that many Jain monks received hospitality from you, and you must continue to furnish it to theri." He spoke to them as Nigunta-tieless--they have no money; they are homeless Wanderers as Jesus was. He would have been called Jain if he had lived in India. Jain is generic as Christ. We believe that there is not one Christ but many Christs born in all countries. * This lecture contains only, notes taken by a pupil while lecturing on the subject. Ed.
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________________ 25 Jainism means any person who has conquered passion, and one who follows these principles is called a Jain. This philosophy of Jainism is not a monistic theory except in the last analysis. There is nothing in the universe but substance, but there are many kinds of substances. Existence cannot be separated froni substance. We are dualists. We say there is spirit and matter, while the positivists, and monists in this country say there is but one substance. Theosophists say spirit and matter are opposite poles of the same substance. We say no; spirit can never be matter. Matter is known by the senses, spirit only by spirit. The Greeks said "Know thyself by thyself." The highest knowledge is that which you derive simply by the power of the soul. Spirit is that whose attribute or differentia is consciousness; that which knows is soul; that which does not know is non-soul. People often confuse motion with life. We say these forces, such as cohesion etc. are different from life. They are concurrent things, but not the same. This consciousness appears in many forms. We divide organic beings into five classes; those that have one sense, and those that have two, three four and five senses.
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________________ 26 Consciousness is found in all these. The lowest is that found in the beings that have only the organ of touch. The reason why these organs of sense are found inherent in the law of ethical causation, Not that consciousness becomes human ( describing the difference in souls the speaker used this illustration) put a dollar into the pocket of a rich man or a poor man. It is the same dollar althougb it may be spent for an entirely different purpose. So a soul in a plant body, an animal body, or a human body may be the same soul. There is no idea of transmigration in the Hindu philosophy; also re-incar nation is not correct. (The speaker explained how the exact use of these terms was not correct) if embodiment means taking on the body, then it is correct. We use the term re-birth. Re-birth is to be avoided. We must act so as to be regenerated in this life. When I do an act or think a thought, I creacte debts or forces which I must pay on the same plane. When you create debts on c physical plane you must pay them on a physical plane. Soul life is on the moral pla ne. Life may be divided into tne physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual planes. When a person is on the lowest plane he depends on gross matter for all his acts and powers. It he wishes to progress he must follow the rules pertaining to that life. We do not despise the physical life. He must act so that the physical will correspond with the laws of the other planes. Body is not the
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________________ temple of the soul, but a helper. (The speaker gave ar illustration of two enemies who were fastened in the stocks. One was rich and had food furnished him but could not partake of it unless fed by the other.) The key-note of our philosophy is, that body is to be taken care of only so far as it helps the spirit. Religion is with the Hindus not a sectional part but domiuates all life. (In describing the Hindu theory, he said "in such a philosophy there is no ne cessity of any ethical code.") ( Much here is missed showing the distinction between the Hinduism and Jainism.) (We say spirit has always been spirit; when it separates itself from matter it would live in the highest state)? There is no limit to the number of souls. There are an infinite number. Take out of an infinite number an infinite nuinber, andan infinite number will remain. In the space occupied by the point of a needle there are many souls, and no matter how many are taken out an infinite number remains. God to us would mean to have attained the perfect and liberated state. We pay homage to the perfect for the sake of perfection, and not for any reward. One of the prayers of the Jain is "I worship with power all consciousness which becomes the leader for us on the path of salvation; which has broken to pieces the inouitain of physical forces or Karme; which has acquired omniscience." I worship these because I wish to become that power.
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________________ 28 There is not a native Buddhist in all India. Hinduism has borrowed Buddhistic ideas, and is now a mixture of the old Vedic faith with other philosophies. Mind is a relationship established between the soul and body, which is the action of the soul along a certain line. No soul is disembodied unless it is liberated. Out philosophy teaches that the liberated soul can exist without form and without space, and has the higbest consciousness of power, life, etc. Souls who die assume a body, but not an earthly body for they are liberated. We do not belive in materialism. We believe that spirits may appear as a vision, but we insist upon three conditions as necessary; First, that the vision appears a foot above the floor; second, it must appear in broad day light; third, it must not cast a shadow. [Being questioned, the speaker replied: "I, my self, have seen such a vision..] The spirits which appear are usually those of spirits which cannot get away from eartbly ties. Affection limits thein to an earthly plane. Being asked about recognizing friends who thus appear, he said: That the soul on an earthly plane rocognizes only limited relationship, but if it passed to the higher plane if recognized universal relationship. [To a question, he replied that the spirit could return as a ministering spirit.]
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________________ 29 How to study Jain Philosophy, The Jain philosophy has been stumbling block to many a scholar Eastern and Western. Modern students are accustomed to think in the popular way known as the scientific way-the way common to the various sciences of the day. "It is the way with thein." as Prof. Williamu Wallace says" to assume that the student has a rough general image, of the objects which they examine; and under the guidance or with the help of this generalised image, they go on to explain and describe its outlines more completely. They start with an approximate conception, such as any body may be supposed to have; and this they seek to render more definite, -The geologist for example, could scarcely teach geology, unless he could pre-suppose or produce some acquaintance on the part his pupils with what Huwe would have called an " Impression " or an "idea " of the rocks and formations of which he has to treat. The geoiueter gives a short, and, as it were, popular explanation of the sense in which angles, circles, triangles &c. are to be understood: and then by the aid of these provisional definitions we come to a more scientific notion of the same terms. The third book of Euclid, for example, brings before us a clearer notion of what a circle is, than the nominal explanation in the list of definitions. By means of these temporary aids, or as we may call them, lead
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________________ ing-strings for the intellect, the progress of the ordiDary scientific student is made tolerably easy." This is the scientific method of study. Never in this method is brought into prominence the necessity of psychological and ethical improvement of the mind which wishes to study the great problems of life and the universe. Self restrain, the first step in acquiring true knowledge, sacrifice of the cherished habits of mind, giving up of Drishti-raga, as we Jains call it, which are in our opinion the sine qua non of full and clear understanding of the self and the non-self, are saldom taken into consideration in the Westera method of thinking. This vice of the popular method of thinking is specially apparent in religious propagandists and political leaders. Their idols symbolised in certain words remain always unflinching. Atheisin, Fatherbood of God. The Occult Law of Sacrifice. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The Western scholars and scientific men of the modern age draw a demarkation line between animals and men, and we are told that animals are ouly conscious, while human beings are self conscious. Self consciousness is supposed to be the naturally inherited
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________________ 31 lihtliige property of every human being--that animals have only the consciousness of feelings through sensations but that they have no consciousness of their own individual existence, while human beings, in addition to the consciousness of the external world through feelings and thoughts have also & consciousness of their own existence. This distinguishing mark of fhe human being is easy to understand in superficial thought but it leaves the question open, what is self-consciousness, or consciousness of the self ? In fact, what is self. Materialistic science does not admit a self other than the body. Consciousness and self-consciousness, in this view, are merely the kaleidoscopic panorama--from the psychic side-of the various elements of the living body-elements that are changing every moinent, replaced by others. According to this idea, man is a bundle of bones, muscles and nerves, whose chief and perhaps only function would be to store sensations, feelings and emotions. Man would, therefore, be very little different from the animal except in the supposed fact that in the human being an additional series of kaleidoscopic changes in the arrangement of the particles oi the body is presented which is called selfconscio:1sness. This is a very small credit given to the human stage of individual developnent. In that philosophy there can be no place for individual menory, as the inco uing particles in the body can never co:ne to know that, what was done ten years
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________________ 32 ago by a certain multitude of particles, was actually done by them, if they were not there then. It does not answer in a satisfactory way the question-What is it that preserves unity amid the continuous changes that are goidg on all the time in the body? This unifying entity that is in every living thing is what the Arrans call fhe Atmin the soul. A11 living beings, therefore, are Atman material body not mixed up in a mechanical way as water and sugar are in syrup, but both of them phenomenally acting upon each other and creating important changes in each other. The similarity then between an animal and a human being lies in the fact that both are susceptible to hunger, sleep, fear and animal passions, but that which constitutes the special characteristic of the human being is that he can practice "Dharma'' i. c., understand, realize and bring into operation the spiritual law of the universe which teaches hirn how to control his lower nature and bring into pro:ninence the higher one. The buman being is a Dharmic (and in that sense, religious) being. How has he reached this stage? In one word, through the Law of Sacrifice. The first beginning of consciousness is made through the body and while in the lowest life there is only the body without organs of sense, even then, the finer the body is, the greater is the sensitiveness. The increase in consciousness and elevation in type take place by reason
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________________ 33 of the grosser being sacrificed and the subtler coming into prominence. This does not necessarily take place in all beings, but not even the tiniest animalcule can elevate itself to the higher stage of life unless and until voluntarily or involuntarily it throws of the impurities and gathers the subtler forces. Involuntarily this is done even by human beings. A low man living in a cultured family unconsciously gives up inuch of his gross nature and brings himself up to the polished physical level of those with whom he lives. Domesticated animals are the best illustration of this law of sacrifice. And in all such cases, with the giving up of lower nature, the individual souls become equipped with finer forces that they can use for reaching greater heights. Now, the student of humanity observing the different mental conditions of different men and women finds them divided into three classes. The lowest are those who are gross, immoral, sluggish and ignorant; the middle class consisting of men and women living only for the gratification of the senses, that is, pleasures of the world, eating, drinking, fine dress, etc., and the higher class made up of people that devote time and energy for spiritual good, the majority belonging to the second class. A person belonging to the lowest class desiring to elevate himself must make certain Sacrifices, so also should one belonging to the second class. That which was formerly gross must now be ennobled. That which
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________________ 34 was greed must now be transmuted into an unflinching will to accomplish the spiritual good. That which was passion and lust must now be changed into a burning love for all. But this change is to be accomplished through the Law of Sacrifice. From these considerations the ancient sages of India made certain rules for people who naturally, in the stage which they had reached, would keep selfgratification as an end and aim of life; in whom, in fact, the lower nature was so strong and powerful that nothing would set them to work except a desire for the gratification of the sense. And looking afound us to day we shall find that the majority of human beings are in that category. Few are the men and women whose life and conduct are purely based on altruistic motives; rare are the people in whom the thought of the little self does not control some of their acts and movements. Persons who have devoted their whole life to the service of humanity, aye, to the good of all living beings, are few and far between. And still the mnajority of human beings in whom the lower nature is more powerful can by degrees be elevated to a higher plane, where they can be taught to look upon life as a field for the performance of duty and not as an arena for self-gratification. This idea can be introduced in all departments of life. Just analyse the mental condition of the person who works for his own gratification. For everything that he does he wants a re
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________________ 35 ward. He wants a reward because there are still cause within him many desires controlling his very being He has not yet mastered his lower nature; at times he becomes its slave. Now, in order to liberate him from this slavish condition, the wise men of the East prescribed certain rules for man. He was asked to do certain things, not hoping to reap fruit therefrom but in order simply to perform certain duties that he owed to the world. In this way step by step he can free himself from the shackles of animal desires and learn the truths of a higher degree. One of those rules was that he should perform every day five sacrifices. The first sacrifice was to the Devas, the shining powers and intelligences of the upper world. Everything that gives nourishment to the human body is by correspondence related to the subtle energies of other worlds, is in fact fed and nourished by those energies. Man is therefore under obligation to those forces and if he receives so much from them, let him give something in return, let him not be selfish. If his body is being vitalized by pure air let him do something that will make the surrounding atmosphere pure. If he is nourished by pure fpod let him offer certain oblations to those forces that supply purity to food; and so in everything let him give someting in return; he will then fell the satisfaction of having done something for whatever benefit he received of others. He will feel that he is not a beggar nor a thief, but an honest and self-dependent person.
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________________ 36 The second sacrifice is to be made to parents and ancestors, We owe so much to our parents, They have brought us up, fed and clothed us remained awake many a night to care for us in baby hood. It would be ungrateful on our part if we did not do anything in return for all the benefits we received from them. If they are alive and have grown old, let us take care of them and serve them In any way that is likely to do them good. After death let us keep their names fresh in our memory. In the human evolution they have palyed their part, let us reciprocate their work by its appreciation and by continuing what they have done so that there shall be no break in the upward evolution of the human race. The third sacrifice was in favor of men-those who needed our help and care. Every man is a part of humanity and by helping a fellow man we help humanity. If the future salvation of man is based on love, it must be practical love, not a mere idea, and that love is to be carried out by actually helping those who need help. This scrifice must necessarily put an end to the growing selfishness of man and by its constant performance, his mental attitude is so thoroughly changed in reference to the external world that the greatest anxieties and worries would not agitate him; in all the troubles and changes his mind would be perfectly calm and quiet and he will learn to
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________________ 37 interpret and understand rationally the apparent injustice and inequalities of the world. The fourth sacrifice is to the animals. By protecting, feeding and taking care of animals we help their progress. On the ladder of evolution they occupy a lower step, but that does not justify us to destroy them. On the contrary, we owe a duty to them. They, as beasts of burden, have for ages been a constant and faithful aid to man in civilizing him self. Had it not been for the ox,"the borse, the camel and the elephant, mankind would have remained at a standstill. Had it not been for the sheep and goats, you and I could not have made ourselves warm by clothing made from their wool, and still how selfish must be those men and women who simply through force of babit and custom directly encourage the killing of these creatures and use their Hesh as food. Let them stop for a moment to think how ungrateful they are when they use animal flesh as food. If mankind has received so many benefits from tbe animal kingdom, let us return them by being kindly to them, by taking care and attending those that are suffering. The fifth sacrifice that man has to perform is for himself-by devoting some time, energy and money for study aud spiritual benefit. It is the Higher Self of an individual that has made it possible to
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________________ 38 elevate him from the archaic condition to the buwan condition. The grgtitude which the individual owes to the Higher Self is boundless, and if he has reached the human stage which presents bim with so many opportunities for unfolding its faculties, let him lose no time in making the best use of them. Let him devote some time every day for study, for reading, for concentration and for the perfect recognition of the Higher Self. Let him spend some money for books and for study. Let him help others in inaking it convenient for them to learn the higher truths. Let him assist those who are helping others. A person desiring by study to benefit himself without caring for his brethren is better than one who cares not to study at all, but under any circuinstances let all people learn something about the higher possibilities within themselves. Knowledge is power, and every person that has a desire for real power inust know-that is, inust know if there are higher and more subtle forces that operate on and within us and shape in a measure our destiny, and then study their laws so that you can ultimately exercise a wise control over them. Possibilities of the human soul are infinite. Let him or her who has the slightest desire to know the inner capacities of the self, study that self, learn how to analyze his or her inind, so that by :he knowledne acquired he or she can control the lower self and bring into prominence the higher one. In this way this sacrifice of time and money benefits the sacrificer, as well as others. Just think bow
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________________ 39 much we sacrifice by simply catering to our lower desires, emotions and caprices; such & sacrifice of inoney, time or energy does not really produce any Spiritual benefit in return; we do it because of our slavish obedience to the customs and entiquette of an ever-changing society. If we sacrifice so much for pleasing "society" may we not have sufficient courage to ignore the opinions of those that have never thought of the higher possibilities of soul, and decide to actually do something for our spiritual advancement. Let those that have time spend a portion of it in studying the latest forces of the soul. Let those that have money help themselves and others desirous of acquiring such knowledge. With the performance of the five above named sacrifices, animal mau becomes human. The law of the survival of the strongest in the barbaric state of man made bim a destructive creature, so that all the time his animal nature prompted btn to live on the sacrifice of others. With the turn of moral change in his life, he no longer lives on the weak, but learns to protect them, and even makes sacrifices so that they may be happy and comfortable. This sublime law of sacrifice has often been misinterpreted and abused. The Brahmins in India and the jews in Palestine had done it. For centuries together they used to sacrifice animals to the degraded and blood-thirsty intellegences or to an angry God.
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________________ 40 An arrogant priesthood, desirous of eating animal food and drinking intoxicating liquors, which they could not do under the established humane custom of protecting animals, is a capable of misinterpreting and murdering the sccred Truth, Sacrifice the interests of poor, dumb creatures so that their depraved palates may be satisfied. The priesthood always opposes the spread of knowledge and is the foremost advocate of caste. The low class man--the Shadra-cannot, in his opinion, even hear the sacred word; his very shadow pollutes the Brahmin. It there are Brahmins in India advocating caste and opposing the spread of education, there are Brahmins in other countries, too, that play the same part in civilization or in retarding civilization. Your mordern Christianity that emphasizes the literal interpretation of vicarious atonement would be worse than the Brahmin system of sacrificing animals. Salvation consists in bringing out the immortal and Higher Self of man, which self, being within him, must be unfolded through his own exertions. Our lower nature, our faults and sins have to be worked out by ourselves, and the death of one individual cannot remove the sins of the rest; if it can, where is the necessity of living a righteous life so much emphasized by Jesus ? Every man is the maker of his destiny and he must bring about his own salvation. There was another reasou for introducing the system of animal sacrifices. There are powerful
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________________ intelligences of a low order living in different regions of the universe and they are fed and nourished with low, vicious emanations going out from men, animals, impure food, etc. Oblations of blood, flesh and spirituous liquors are offered to propitiate those intelligences in practices of black magic. They may for a time help the performers of such sacrices, but ultimately enslave them. But the true sacrifice consists in giving up the lower nature, crucifying it on the alter of Higher Self-thus beco:ning one with "the Father in Heaven." This ancient truth was mangled and murdered by theologians in the east and the west; let us all join in reviving and restoring that truth to its former purity and thus help mankind in freeing theniselves from the bondage of ignorance that is forced upon them. JAINISM. For this, the last lecture of the course, the subject that I have selected is Jainism, and I shall condense as much as possible the things that might be said on this subject. Any philosophy or religion must be studied froin all standpoints, and in order thoroughly to grasp the ideas of any religion or philosophy, know what it says with regard to the
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________________ 42 origin of the universe, what its idea is with regard to God, with regard to the soul and its destiny, and what it regards as the laws of the soul's life. The answers to all these questions would collectively give us a true idea of the religion or philosophy. In our country religion is not different from philosophy, and religion and philosophy do not differ from science. We do not say that there is scientific religion or religious science; we say that the two are identical. We do not use the English word religon because it implies a binding back, and conveys the idea of dependence, the dependence of a finite being upon in infinite, and in that dependence consists the happiness or bliss of the individual. With the Jains the idee is a little different. With them bliss consists not in dependence but in independence; the dependence is in the life of the world, and if that life of the world is a part of religion then we may express the idea by the English word, but the life which is the highest life is that in which we are personally independent so far as binding or disturbing influences are concerned. In the highest state the soul, which is the highest entity, is independent. This is the idea of our religion. The first important idea connected with it is the idea of the universe. Is it eternal or non-enternal? Is it permanent or transitory ? Of course there are so many different opinions on the subject, but with these opinions I am not concerned in this lecture; I am only going to give the
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________________ 43 idea of the Jain philosophy. We say that we cannot study any idea unless we look upon it from all standpoints. We way express this idea by many symbols or forms; we have expressed it by the story of the elephant, and the seven blind men who wanted to know what kind of animal the elephant was, and each touching a difierent part of the animal, understood its form in so many different ways, and thereupon became dogmatic. If you wish to understand what kind of animal an elephant is, you must look upon it from all sides, and so it is with truth. Therefore we say that the univesse from one standpoint is eternal and from another non-eternal. The totality of the universe taken as a whole is eternal. It is a collection of many things. That colleclion contains the same practicles every mements, therefore as a collection it is eternal; but there are so many parts of that collection and so many entities in it, all of which have their different states which occur at different times and each part does not retain the seine state at all times. There is change, there is destruction of any particular form, and a new form comes into existence; and therefore if we look upon the universe from this standpoint it is 'non-eternal. With this philosophy there is no idea, and no place for the idea of creation out of notbing. That idea, really speaking, is not entertained by any right thinking people. Even those who belive in creation believe from a different standpoint than this. it mational
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________________ 44 cannot come into existence out of nothing, but is an emanation coming out of something. The state only is created. This book in a sense is created because all the parcticles are put together, having been in a different state. The form of the book is created. There was a beginning of this book and there will be an end. In the same manner, with any form of matter, whether this form lasts for moments or for centuries, if there was a beginning there must be an end. We say that there are both preservation and destruction in the many forces working around us. All these forces are working every moment in the midst of us and around us, and the collection of these entities is called by the Jain's God. The Brahmans represent it by the syllable Omg; the first sound in this word represents the idea of creation, the second of preservation and the third of destruction. All these are energies of the universe and taken as a whole they are subject to certain fixed laws. If the laws are fixed why do people bow down to tbese energies? Why do they consider the collective energy as a god or as God ? There is always an idea of the power to do evil in the beginning of this conception. When railroads were first introduced into India ignorant people who did not know what they who had never seen in their lives that a car or carriage could be moved without the horse or the OX, thought that there was some divinity in the engine, some god or goddess, and some of them would were even
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________________ 45 bow down before the car; and even to this day you will find in some parts of India, among the pariahs or low class that there are people who intertain this idea. So to these energies in our primitive state we are liable to attribute personality, and after a long course of development we symbolize our thoughts in the form of pictures, and explain them in that way to make them more intelligible to others. In the ancient times there was not rain, but a rainer not thunder but a thunderer, and in that way personality is attributed, or living consciousness and cbaracter, to those forces. There may be conscious entities in these forces as there may be living entities on the planets; but these forces themselves are not living entities. This, however, expresses the idea in the beginning, these energies were classed as creative, preservative and destructive, and these three entities were considered to be component parts of one entity called Brahma by the Hindus. Really, creation in this is in the sense of emanation, preservation is used in the sense of preserving the form, and destruction in the sense of destroying the form. The idea of matter is sometbing that can be handled or perceived by the senses, and the energies must be material energies, .as cohesion, magnatism, electricity, gravitation; but to consider these God would be the most materialistic idea, and therefore the Jains discard this idea so far as the Godhead or Godlike character is concerned. They of course admit the existence
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________________ 46 of these energies, that they are indeed to be found everywhere, but they are subject to fixed laws which cannot be interfered with by any person, not that these energies consciously influence our destinies with regard to good and evil. To say that they do so influence us is only to show our ignorance with regard to their laws. These energies collectively we call substantiality. There are innumerable qualities and attributes in matter itself, and they manifest themselves at different tinies and ways. We are not able without further development to know what energies are inherent in matter, and when any new thing comes to view we are surprised, and whatever is surprising, is considered to be sorrething coming from divinity; but where we understand scientific principles the surprise is removed and it is all as simple as the daily rising and setting of the sun. Thousands of years ago the different phenomena of nature were considered in different parts of the world to be the working of different gods ana goddesses, but when we understand science these phenomena become simple and the idea of these beings as characters of the highest spiritual power goes away. What is the God of the Jains ? You will ask. I have only told you what he is not. I will now tell you what it is. We know that there is something besides matter; we know that the body exhibits many qualities and powers not to be found in ordinary material substance, and that the
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________________ 47 something which causes this departs from the body at death. We do not know where it goes; we know that when it lives in the body, the powers of the body are different from what they are when it is not there. The powers of nature can be assimilated to the body when that something is there. That entity is considered by us the highest, and it is the same inherently in all living beings. This principle common to all of us is called divinity. It is not fully developed in any of us, as it was in the saviour's of the world, and therefore we call them devine beings. So the collective idea derived from observations of the devine character inherent in all beings is by us called God. While there are so many energies in the material world, and in the spiritual world, and putting those two energies together we give them the name of Nature, we separate the material energies and put them together, but the spiritual energies we put together and call them collectively God. We make a distinction, and worship only the spiritual energies. Why should we do so ? A jain verse says "I bow down to that spiritual power or energy which is the cause of leading us to the path of Salvation, which is supreme, which is omniscient; I bow down to that power because I wish to become like that power." So where the form of the Jain prayer is given, the object is not to receive anything from that entity or from that spiritual nature, but to become one like that; not that that spiritual entity will make us by
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________________ 48 a magic power become like itself, but by following out the ideal which is before our eyes we shall be able to change our own personality, it will be regenerated, as it were, and will be changed into a being which will have the same character as tbe divinity which is our idea of God. So we worship God, not as a being who is going to give us something, not because it is going to do something to please us, not because it is profitable in any way; there is not any idea of selfishness; it is like pr&Ctising virtue for the sake of virtue and without any other motive. Now we come to the idea of soni. The ordinary idea of soul substance is that in order for a thing to exist it must nave form, must be perceived by the senses. That is our ordinary experience. Really speaking it is the experience only of the sensuous part of the being, the lowest part of the human entity, and from that experience we derive conclusions and think that these conclusions apply to all substance. There are substances which cannot be perceived by the senses; there are subtler sensations and entities and these can be known only by the consciousness, by the soul. Such & substance, which cannot be seen, heard, tasted, smelled or touched, is a substance which need not occupy space, and need not have any tangibility, but it may exist, although it may not have any form ( and that sustance does not require any space, is intangible and cannot be seen ). Sight is
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________________ 49 an impression made on the nerves of the eyes by vibrations sent forth from the object perceived and this impression which we call sight, if there are no vibrations coming out of the object, is of course not produced; but if this substance influences us in certain ways, the implication is that there is something moving or producing vibrations, and these can not exist unless there is some material substance which is vibrating. The very fact that something is inoving in soine way and influences us in some peculiar way implies that there is soinething material about this. If there are no vibrations, the substance is not naterial. It need not exist in a form which will give us the impression of any colour, smell etc. There is nothing which can partake both of the attributes of soul and of matter; the attributes of matter are directly contrary to those of the soul. While one has its life in the other it does not become the other. How can that soul live in matter when its attributes are of a different nature ? By our own experience we know that we are obliged to live in surrouudings which are not congenial to 118, which are not of our own nature. that they are not related to their surroundings, there must be some reason for their being obliged to live in those surroundings, but there must be a reason in the intelligence itself; it cannot be in the material substance. Wo know that this is
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________________ 50 a fact, because intelligence cannot proceed froin any thing which is purely material. No material substance has given any evidence of having possessed intelligence; it might have done so when there was life in its but without this it has no intelligence. That intelligence is, we are quite sure, influenced by material things, but it does not arise from the material things. Persons of sound intelligence take a large dose of some intoxicating drink and the intelligence will not work at all. Why should this material thing influence the immaterial, the soul ? The soul thinks that the body is itself and therefore anything which is done to the material self is supposed by the real self to be done itself. That is where the Christain scientist and the Jain philosophy will agree; that if the soul thinks that the body is its real self, anything done to the body will be considered by the soul to be done to the soul, and therefore what happens to the body will be felt by the soul; but if the soul for a moment thinks that the body is not the self but altogether different and a stranger to the soul, for that reason no feeling of pain will exist; our attention is taken away in some other direction and we do not know what is passing before us. This shows that the self is something higher than the body. Still under ordinary circumstances the soul is influenced by the body and therefore we are to study the laws of the body and soul so as to rise above these little things and proceed on
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________________ 51 our path to salvation or liberation, which is the real aspiration of the soul. There is power of matter itself, but that power is lower than the power of the soul. If there was no power at all in the body or in matter, the soul would never be influenced by it, for mere non-exitance will never influnce any thing; but because there is such a thing as matter, when the soul thinks that there is a power of the body and a power of the matter, these powers will influnce it. Bodily power as we see it is on accout of the presense of the soul. There is a power in matter, as cohesion, etc, and this will work although the soul does not think anything about it. If the moon revolves around the earth there are some forces inherent in the earth and moon. What I mean to say is that the influence of these material powers on the soul powers depends on the soul's readiness or willingness to submit to these powers. If the soul takes the view that it will not be influnced by any thing it cannot be so infiunced. This being the soul's nature what is its origin ? Everything can be looked upon from two standpoints, the substance and the manifestation. If the state of the soul Itself is to be taken into consideration, that state has its beginning and its end. The state of the soul as living in the human body had a beginning at birth and will have an end at death, but it is a begining and end of the state, not of the thing itself. The soul taken as a substance is eternal; taken as a state
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________________ 52 every state has its beginning and end. So this beginning of a state implies that before this beginning there was another state of the soul. Nothing can exist unless it exists in some state. The state may not be perinanent, but the thing must have a state at all times. If therefore the present state of the soul had a beginning, it had another state before the beginning of this state, and after the end of his state it will have another state. So the future state is so nething that cornes out of or is the result of the present state. As the future is to the present so the present is to the past, The present is only the fitire of the past. What is true with regard to the future state is true with aegard to the past and present states. The acts of the past have determined our preseat state, and if this is true the acts of the present state, inust deterinine the future state. This brings us to the doctrines of rebirth, transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, reincarnation, etc., as they are variously known. First take incarnatien, which means literally becouing flesh, and really speaking that which is matter is always natter, and that which is spirit is always spirit or soul. The spirit does nct become flesh. If reincarnarion means to become flesh there can be no reincarnation, but if it means siniply the life in flesh for a short time, then there is" reincarnation, Reincarnation means also to be born in some state again and again, Metempsychosis means in the Greek
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________________ 53 only change; that the animal itself, body and soul, everything together, is changed into the human being and the human being, body and soul, is changed into some other being, and that is altogether changed into some other thing and so on. That is the idea of neteinpsychosis. Transmigration of souls is, especially in the idea of the Christians, the idea of the human soul going into the animal body, as if this were a necessity. But that is not the real idea; the real idea is simply going from one place to another or, from one body to another, but not necessarily going from the human body to the animal body, but simply travelling. It implies the idea of form. Nothing can travel unless it has form and occupies space and is material; so in our philosophy we reject all these terms if that is the idea connected with these terms, and use the idea of rebirth; that is, the soul is born in some other body, and birth does not imply the same conditions applying to the human birth. There are certain conditions in which huinan beings are born; the seed itself takes several months to ripen and then there is the birth. This inay be due to certain acts or forces which are generated by human beings. These are in a condition to be observed by beings whose forces will take them to some other planet, and we say that there is another condition of birth there. There is no necessity for gestation and fecundation. The Karmic body has
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________________ 54 in itself many powers, and has a force to take to itself another body, which is in the case of the human being a gross body, but in the case ot other beings a subtle body is generated, and this body is changeable so far as its form and dimensions ars concerned, therefore if the forces generated while we live any kind of life are of different kinds then in the case of some being it may be necessary that he should be born in the human condition, and pass through the actual conditions which must be obeyed if the human being is to be born, while if the forces generated are different in their character he may be born on some other planet where birth is manifested in a different way, without any necessity of the combination of the male and the female principle. There are so many different planes of life that the mere study of the human life ought not to be made to apply to all the affairs of life. We have studied only a few forins of the life of animals, human beings, etc., but that is only the part which under the present development of our science, of our eyesight even, we are able to study. We are not able to study other forms of life, innumerable in the universe, and therefore we ought not to apply the laws thus discovered to all forms of life. Our study is introspective because our idea is that the soul is able 10 know everything under the right circumstances. The knowledge acquired in these conditions is of a sounder nature and of a more correct kind
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________________ 55 bof which inte ore in the compreenises because the obstacles which come in the way of science are not there. Science has to commit mistakes and think they do not; still knowledge is. derived from inferences which we draw from certain premises which may not be right or if the premises are right the inferences may be wrong. We do not mean to say that there are always mistakes in the knowledge which is acquired through sensation or through matter, but sometimes it is possible, and while it may be correet knowledge in many cases we cannot rely on that. The highest kuowledge is immediate knowledge, derived by the soul without the assistance of any external thing, and the knowledge of liberated souls, and also the knowledge of human beings who are just on the point of being liberated, or have passed through the course of discipline, mental, moral and spiritual and have nearly exhausted past forces, at the same time, generating spiritual forces, and on account of discipline and spiritual evolution have become receptive. The soul sees everything when this state is arrived at; it knows everything is fully conscious and consciousness itself means first of all that it knows itself, and to know one's self means that it is something, some reality, and there can be ns reality unless it can distinguish itself from other realities. Only one universal thing could not know itself, because knowledge implies compar!ng one with another, and if that is not done there is no individuality. We
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________________ 56 say therefore that the soul in its highest existance knows that it is perfectly seperate from other things so far as experince and knowledge are concerned, but in so far as its nature is concerned, so long as there is a sense of seperateness there is no occasion, or opportunity for the soul to rise higher because when the soul thinks that it is living a different existence for its own sake it is considering its own selfish to be different from another person, and thinks that this is its own and a part of its nature, its own .being, and therefore anything done in regard to these surroundings will benefit of injure its own nature. It even thinks that its very life consists in doing good and in loving other souls and taking active measures for carrying into effect the very plan of that soul. Then it comes higher, and ultimately reaches the highest condition. The condition of the soul, as I have said, is the higest in which there is perfect consciousness there is infinite knowledge and infinite bliss; we express these three ideas in Sanskrit as existence infinite, bliss infinite and knowledge infinite. That condition of the soul cannot be described by us because description is something which proceeds fro:n a finite mind and when the soul becomes infinite no finite mind can fully express the condition of that infinite state. The attributes we give therefore to that condition of the soul are always full of conprehensive. We shall always leave out many things; we have not the power
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________________ 57 to express all our thoughts. How can we express, then, this state of a soul which so far as its power and knowledge are concerned is infinite ? The Jains, have studied the nature of the soul and the universe from these standpoints and have derived a beutiful principle, and so far as this is concerned there is this difference between this country and other countries and other religions, they can understand all these froin these standpoints. The Bible says. "Thou shalt not kill," and the Jains practise universal love so that this also means that we should not kill any beings. If we say that the Bible does not mean that we take away a part of the Bible why should we interpret the laws of any rellgion from the narrowest standpoint ? We should take into consideralion the nature, attributes and working of all things. We cannot derive laws which are to be applied to the whole universe simply by our observation of apart of the concious nature of the universe. If you wish to state correctly the nature of the universe you will study the nature of all the different parts of the universe and then the laws will be applicablc to all parts of it. We tbink that we are superior to other things because our tenants who live on the ground floor are inferior to us, but we have no right therefore to crush those tenants, who later on will acquire the right to inhabit the second and third floors and finally the highest floor. One living on the highest pla ne has no right to crush those who live
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________________ 58 on the lowest plane. If one thinks that he has a right to do this, that he has not sufficient strength to live without destroying life, our philosophy says that it is still a sin to destroy life, and it remains only to choose the lowest form, the less evil. We will in business take such a kind of business as will yield the most profit and will cause us to lose the least, in which we have the less liabilities; and the highest condition will be that in which we have no liabilities and no creditors, the state in which we may live without any creditors or in a perfectly free condition. That is the liberated condition. The idea of Karma is very complicated. I have told you something of it in my former lectures. The one chief point is that that theory is not the theory of fatalism not a theory in which the human being is tied down to some one, bound down by the force of something outside himself. In one sense only will there be fatalism, if we are free to do many things, we are also not free to do other things, and we canot be freed from the results of our acts. Some results may be manifested in great strength; others very weakly some may take a very long time and others a very short time; some are of such a nature that they take a long time to work out, while the influence of others may be removed by simply washing with water and that will be the case in the matter of acts done incidentally without any settled purpose or any fixed desire. In such a case with reference
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________________ 59 to many acts we may counteract their effects by willing to do so. So the theory of Karma is pot in any sense a theory of fatalisin, but we say that all of us are not going to one goal without any desire on our part, not that we are to reach that state without any effort on our part, but that our present condition is the effect of our acts, thoughts and words in the past state. To say that all will reach the perfect state inerely because some one has died that they might be saved, merely from a belief in this person, wonld be a theory of fatalism, because those who havo lived a pure and virtuous state and have not accepted a certain theory will not reach that state while those who accect it will reach the perfected state simply for that reason and no other. The faith in Saviours is simply this, that by following out the divine principle which is in our own selves when this is fully developed we also shall become Christs, by the crucifixion of the lower nature on tho alter of the higher. We also use the cross as a symbol. All living beings have to pass through or evolve from the lowest, the monadic condition, to the highest state of existence, and cannot reach this unless they obtain possession of the three things necessary right belief, right knowledge and right conduct. The right belief is really speaking, is not that there is no passing through forms after death, but the soul keeps progressing always in its own nature without any backward direction at all. We
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________________ 60 have expressed this in clear language without any parables or metaphors, but when we preach these truths to the ignorant masses, some story or picture might be necessary for them, and after that the explanation of the real meaning, as we have an allegory in the Pilgrim's Progress. It is just like reaching the Celestial City in that book, but we must all understand that these things are parables, Others inay need music to assist their religion, but wnen we understand the esoteric meaning which underlies all religions there will be no quarrelling and no need of naines or of forms, and this is really the object of all religions. Mave christian missions to India been successful ? Mr. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, You have heard the scholarly views of our friend and brother. ( Bishop Thoburn.) The views as they have been presented to you must appear convincing to those who have not seen or fully understood the other side: and I am most grateful to the Nineteenth Century Club that they have honored my country by giving me the opportunity to express my views on the subjeot of Christian Missions in India, which may not be very For Private & Rersonal Use Only
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________________ 61 important to the Christians of America, as they are rich and may well afford to misspend their money, but which is of great importance to my country as it has the tendency of affecting India vitally. But to yon, the members of the Nineteeth Century Club, the subject seellis to have presented an unusual importance, from the fact that this nation spends thousands of dollars far a work, the necessity of which is doubted by many even in this country. Christian Missions to India implies that India is a land of heathens and, therefore, stands on the same level with the Andaman or the Fiji Islands. That a country which has been recognised in all ages the world over as being the Mother of all religions and the cradle of civilization should be considered by Christians as heathens shows how much ignorance prevails in Christendom. I grant that such wrong impressions about India are caused solely by the missionaries who are noted, If not for anything else, at least for ignorance and lack of discrimination. In the first place, the men sent out to India on missionary duty are, as a European who has mixed with them says, "usually utterly ignorant of the history of India except perhaps its most recent phases and what is still more, they know nothing of I even if capable of understanding ) the Hindu religion and philosophy. The result is, that with a narrow
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________________ dogmatic creed and an inability to see any good outside of it, they render themselves offensive and contemptible in the eyes of educated natives." Since coming to this country, I have been studying your educational, industrial and religious institutions and have endeavored to know how the missionaries and clergymen are made.here ; and when I take into consideration the ways in which they are manufactured, I sometimes think the Missionaries ought not to be censured so severely on account of the odious doctrines they propagate. I concede that some of them are frequently large-hearted and poius. but as a rule, they are narrow-minded and ignorant and are SO devoid of spirituality that they are unable to recognise spiritual ideas or truths under other names or forms than those they have learned in their schools and colleges. I admit that the missionaries are generally affectionate husbands and good parents of frequently large families, and had they remained at home uncontaminated by the elastic business-morality, they would have turned out good tradesman or faithfull clerks; but we know that in this age of competition and 'under a system of centralization of wealth and creation of monopolies, many persons are forced from thier natural spheres into the Church, open to them, and when there is a keen competition in the clerical ranks, an outlet must be found. for the surplus; it becomes therefore, requisite to create a market for
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________________ 63 them in foreign countries. What have Christian Mission accomplished in India in religion? They have spread a false theology, theology not only false but positively injurious to the best interests of maukind. Why does the idea of life of a Hindu differ from that of a Christian ? Simply because the theory of one is different from that of the other. Hindu ism, Jainism and Buddhism have a certain theory of the Universe, of the origin of evil, of the suffering of living beings, as to their origin and so on, and each of these religions is nothing but a ramification of the principles underlying those theories. The Same is the case with the Christians' religion. Whatever may be the difference in detail between the respective theories and theologies of the religions of India and Chiristianity, there is this characteristic which marks Christianity out from other religions. It says that the whole world is destined for Christ; that Christianity is the only true religion and that the world is to be saved only by the Gospel message of the Bible. With such fanatical views these Missionaries go to India and introduce among the people, doctrines which have long since been exploded by the light of science and reason. And still, in preaching those doctrines in India, the Missionaries' claim that they proclaim the truth. Of course "truth" is used by them in a technical sense meaning "their own beliefs." In fact, Christianity and Truth are, in their opinon, con
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________________ 64 vertible terms. In a similar way they interpret the word "superstition" which, in their *vocabulary, ineans the religious belief of all non-Christians. They say that the 19th Century Christianity is the only true religion. With the u, Christianity has assumed different garbs. There was the Christianity of Christ, with certain ideas of God, his working. &c. Then caine a different kind of Christianity, that of the fathers of the Church who are 10W regarded by many Christians as ignorant. Then came the Christianity of the Middle ages which at present is looked upon as a mass of superstition. Then came Protestantisin with its new features. So Christianity is not a religion whose principles or doctrines are fixed, but is a growth; as it dezelops, it becomes in the eyes of its votaries more perfect and true. And how does it develop and grow ? Sometimes by the addition of new dogmas, sometimes by factions, i, e. the addition of sects and denominations. If the new dogmas are accepted by the people who never take the trouble of thinking for theinselves they become a part of Christianity. Thus, current opinion becomes truth to them. It becomes "truth" as soon as it is accepted; the same thing becoines falsehood as soon as it is rejected, the truth of yesterday is not the truth of to-day and the truth of to-day will not be the truth of to-torrow. And still all these added and rejected dogmas pass in the game of Christ who knew nothing
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________________ 65 about them and are propagated under his name and as if by his command, and the result has been disastrous. We all fully understand that the debasement of a nation's coinage is most disastrous to its commerce and revenues. It is an acknowledged fact to day, the worll over, that the spiritual coinage has become deba sed. It is also a fact that all religions worthy of the naine are making great efforts to purify and return to their orginal standard-I should have said all religions except Christia uity. The intellectual Hindus do not deny that their religion, as understood by the masses to-day, is not in its pure and unadulterated state as formerly, and the allimportant question with them is what are the real ideas expressed in their sacred literature ? Christians surely must know, even with greater certainty, that the 19th Century Christianity is not the religion taught by Jesus. Christians well know that their religion has becoine changed and corrupted as comparative theology and philological and other criticisms of their sacred books are more advanced than in the case of other religions. But Christians theologians are well aware that were they to atteinpt to purify their religion of to-day and bring it back to the standard of Apostolic days, the result would be to reform it out of existence. The Christian churches know this to be a fact. During
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________________ 66 the past century and especially during the past quarter century, the origin of Christainity has been fully exposed, its rise has been traced in detail, its early struggles noted, its gradual changes recorded, its growth, its dogmas and doctrines have been patiently studied and minutely decribed. Its family likeness to other religions has been noted and its relationship discovered. It is easy to see how much Christianity bas adopted from other and older religions or this and that older cosmogony, whence it copied its organization and from whence it collected the miscellaneous literature to form its Bible; whence it took its festivals, its liturgies and rituals and even its architecture its vestments and Sacred paraphernalia. Christianity stands to day before the world completely "explained". Every Christian knows that he can procure from any well-known bookseller volumes that will disprove completely and scientifically the devine origin of Christianity, and every step in its progress is laid bare and shown to be indisputably due to purely natural causes. And Christians also know that these books have not been written by scoffers but generally by men of profound learning, of intense earnestness and deep piety and frequently of great ability, many of whom have devoted a lifetime to untiring study and research of these subjects. Christians also know that there is not an article in their creed which has not been analysed
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________________ 67 by reason and logic, and tested by the canons of morality and justice and they know that the result of this examination, made by men as religious and quite as intelligent as themselves, is the utter condemnation of the central ideas of their religionan angry God and vicarious atonement-which are contrary to every fact in nature, as to the better aspirations of the human heart, and, in our present stage of enlightinent, are absurd, preposterous and blasphemous propositions. Christians well know that their much decorated sculptured statuary is not of pure chiselled marble, but that it is of clay, cemented together by blood and tears and hardened in the fires of hatred and persecution. And still the cry of the host of Christendom is "The whole world for Christ." What has the contact of Christian nations with Hindus done for the latter? The idea generally prevalent in this country about the morality and truthfulness of the Hindus evidently has been very low. they are all classed as Heathens and Pagans by the so-called religious representatives of the western world who fail by their conduct to call forth respect from the Hindu. Their unjust and diabolical charges against the Hindus have done, are doing, and will continue to do, more mischief in interracial matters than even the bitterest enemy of your republic could have invented. Such seeds of eymity
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________________ 68 and hatred have been sown by the Missionaries that I would have considered it to be an almost Herculean task to establish better relations between India and America, had it not been for the Parliament of Religions and the spread of liberal thought from its platform. It has become an article of faith with most of the orthodox Christians that the Hindus are liars. All sorts of abuses are heaped on the people of India from the Himalaya to Ceylon, and, without exception all these calumnies proceed either from the Missionaries or the English officer. We accord then as we do even the tiniest animalcule the right to live and be happy in their own way, if they let us alone, but when we find that these 'little creatures are annoying us, we have to brush them aside. The statements of these Missionaries made about the Hindus, their religions and life, are an admirable illustration of their methods and zeal. When I first came to know in this county from Missionary sources that in India women threw their babies into the Ganges and that people threw themselves under the car of Juganauth, I doubted whether in the blackest and most intolerant days of the Christian Church any set of villainous priests ever invented more barefaced fasehoods or malicious slanders. It was a Missionary of the Christian Church who threw a fire-brand in the peaceful assembly of the Parliament of Religions and a:tracted the representatives
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________________ 69 from India in the very house of their and his hosts. It is such persons who give you glowing reports of Christian Missions in India. They claim that they have raised the moral standard or the people, the position of the women, the religious ideas of the masses and what not. I shall now examine their claims. What was the moral status of the Hindus before the outer-barbarians invaded India ? If we examine the Greek, Chinese, Persian or Arab writings before the time of the Mahomedan invasion 'we will find in them the description of the true national character of the Hindus, i, e., tbe regard for trith and justice. Arrian in the 2nd century, Hiouen tbsang the famous Buddhist pilgrim in the 7th century and Marco Polo in the 13th century have each written in hishest terms of praise of the Hindu Character, of their truthfullness, honesty and the straight forwardness of their administration and justice, What Government eigher in Europe or America can justly lay claim to this virtue ? the Mahomedan Geographer, Idrisi, says. " The Indians are naturally inclined to justic and never depart from it in their actions. Their good faith, honesty and fidelity to their engagements are well-known and they are so famous for these qualities that people flock to their county from every side." In the face of the statement--what has Christian civilization done for India. I might quote to you passage after passage in
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________________ 70 admiration of Hinu virtues which impressed the foreigners who came into contact with them before Christian civilization reached us, but time will not permit me to do so. My main purpose is to show to you that the presence and predominating influence of foreigners, Scytheons, Mongolians, Mahomedans of Christians has been to deteriorate India. The literature and philosophy of Ancient India have excited the admiration of all scholars except Christian Missionaries. If I were asked under what sky the buman mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention af those who have studied Plato and Kant-I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we hear in Europe, we who have been nuntured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans and of one Semitic race, the jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life alone, but a transfigured and eternal life-again I should point to India." "Before India became the hunting-ground of foreign marauders, she had produced poets and philosophers at whose feet Homer or Plato, Shakespear or Bacon
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________________ 71 would have done well to sit and learn. But when these barbarians overran Aryavarta and made it into Hindoostan; when Mahomed of Ghuzni the great iconoclast made it his business to trample every thing that was dear and sacred to the Aryan mind; when Zenghiskhan and his successors with the exception of one or two spread their tyrany over the country and lastly when the European Commerce and Western Civilization began to suck the very blood of India, would you wonder that India is not in the same condition as it was in days gone by. The wonder is that not with standing these foreign attecks, India and her people have survived; that not with standing the demoralizing influences of foreigners, India still leads in spirituality and morality. Sir T. Munro says: "If a good system of agriculture, unrivalled, manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, schools established in every village for teaching reading writing, and arithmetic, the general practice of hospitality and charity amongst each other, and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote a civilized people-then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe, and if civilisation is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo." Professor Wilson, professor of Sanskrit at
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________________ 72 Oxford for many years says, "I have lived both from necessity and choice very much among the Hindus and bad opportunities of becoming acquainted with them in a greater variety of situations than those in which they usually come under the observation of Europeans. In the Calcutta Mint for instance, I was in daily personal coinmunication with a numerous body of artificers, mechanics and labourers and always found amongst them cheerful and unwearied industry, good humored compliance with the will of their superiors and a readiness to make whatever exertions were demanded from them. There was amougst them, no drunkenness no disorderly conduct, no insubordination." This was before the rivalry for the premium on large reports of the success of Christian Missions in India. What is the state of the low class people now in India under the benign influence of Christian Missions ? The vice of drunkenness has become common to thein. The Christian Government of India has systemized the vice of drinking and turned it into profit whereas no native ruler had ever raised revenues by liquor. Under the reign of the King of Oudh, there was not one liquor shop in Lucknow; now, under the rule of Christian Government, there are more than a hundred. The same was the case in Upper Burmab under the reign of Theebau. Naw a large revenue is gathered from the liquor traffic. In one year only ( 1890-91 )
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________________ 73 the English Government derived Rupees 4,947,780 from the liquor traffic-a revenue three or four times larger than that derived either from Customs or Assessed Taxes, or Forest or Registration or : Post Office and seven times as large as from Telegraphs, eight times as large as from Law and Justice. The income is increasing every year by $ 500,000. Fifteen years ago it was calculated that not above 10 per cent. of the people of india drank spirits, now they are paid to be over 20 per cent. To our rulers, then who are our political Christian Missionaries, the money howsoever obtained is the highest Gospel and certainly Christianity is responsible for all this because the first representatives of Christianity sanctioned the use of wine under the pretext of a religious ceremony. Why, this is, in fact, an inseparable incident of Christianity as it is viewed by the low class people who are perverted to Christianity. This is one of the vices which Christian civilization is forcing on us, and you will be startled when I tell you that even the missionaries have administered intoxicants in many instances to the world--be converts that fbe conversion might become more easy and sure and thereby a larger report sent out. It is a fact that perversion precedes conversion or enlistment and registration. I make this statement not upon my own authority but upon the authority of your own countrymen of high commercial standing
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________________ 74 who have mixed for years with missionaries in India and have been eye witnesses to such diabolical methods. Even in this country I have been told by those who claiin to have been present when the same methods were used with the Red Indians. With such practices, these men talk of the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of inan, the universal love and liberality of thought. Even aside form these acts. the teachings propagated among the most ignorant of the low classes is at best a dogma of one or other particular sect, first and foremost of which is that the Holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament is tbe only word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience. Now if the Scrip tures are what has been claimed for them i, e. if they are the infallible word of God from beginning to end, then we must discard all other sources of knowledge and follow only the teachings of this one book. But have even the most pious Christians, with any intelligence at all, really followed this doctrine to the exclusion of all other sources of knowledge ? Certianly we know as a fact that they have not. This one fact shows that in this respect, Christianity has been a failure as the sole source of light and life, not only in India but in any other country What sane literary man would consider the Bible to be the inspired word of God, a specially when he raises the question as to who wrote the books, when they were written, and where they were written.
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________________ 75 I do not intend to enter into a discussion of the fallibility or infallibility of the Bible, but it is a fact that the first bright spark of knowledge presented to the poor benighted souls of the Hindus is this theory about the Bible. Next, the Missionary teaches that the world and all things therein were created by the word of God's power out of nothing within the space of six days, and all very good. How many of your intelligent people believe in this dogma. If, as I am told, few people believe in it and many are trying to explain it away, yet the Bible teaching in this is none the less a failure. And the relation between God and man is explained thus:--I here quote from the Presbyterian confession of Faith. "The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him, as their blessedness and reward but by some voluntary condescentiou on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." " The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience." " Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant the Lord was pleased
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________________ 76 to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace: requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life, his holy spirit, to make them willing and able to believe." Also I find this teaching viz., " that the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called original sin, and from which do proceed by the fall of man through one man Adam, all men have been cursed of God and are the bond-slaves of Satan. This is the kind of teaching which the Americati people are spending thousands of dollars to propagate. We, the heathens of India, fail to see the Christian God in the light of a God of love and mercy. I have 10 time in which to speak of the pernicious effects of the doctrine of vicarious atonement and eternal hell. But this is the Christianity offered to the poor illiterate of India. A mere outside husk of the most exoteric form and that not even the teaching of Jesus. The cruel and blooy Jewish Jehovah is only masked, not altered at all by the illbefitting
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________________ 77 robe of " loving mercy" in which theologiaps have envoloped him. I do not see how the dogmas and doctrines presented by the Christian ministers or missionaries can ever elevate the spiritual state of any nation. The doctrine concerning the Godbead the destiny of soul and the purpose of existence as taught by the Christian clergy are so incompatible with ancient philosophy or nodern science that instead of furthering the development of humanity, they would and have arrested its growth in this world and the next. I beg you to bear in mind that I do not mean in any sense to say that the religions as now practised in India are not in any necessity of purification. I acknowledge that the Hindu religion will bear regeneration but that must come from the earnest and united efforts of the Hindus themselves. There are visible signs in India for the revival of the ancient philosophy but to expect dogmatic Christianity to take root among the Hindus has seemed not only to the Hindus but to the thinking and intelligent foreigners to be absurd. The earnest efforts therefore of the missionaries to christianise India have not only not succeeded, but haye proved in many respects harinful. Putting aside the theological view of Christianity-it has spread intolerance-intolerance being the root-principle of Christianity. Toleration ef other religions is impossible for Christianity for
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________________ 78 the simple reason that one of its fundamental doctrines is that there is no salvation outside of its pale. "They who have never beard the Gospel, know not the Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there Salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Saviour only of his body the church." It is then clearly impossible that other religions should find any way to live with Christianity since the latter is pledged by its very constitution to undermine and destroy all others. Christianity cannot now destroy other roligions by fire and sword as it has done in the past when the church and the bloody sword were inseparable powers; but if the end is death, "it is a mere matter of detail" as a writer has said, "whether one gets his head cut off or is nailed up in a barrel of honey." Next to intolerance, Christianity has introduced many vices in India which were unknown to the Hindus. You may say that these vices are not Christian, that Christianity has nothing to do with them. This may be true in a measure, but Christianity does not come alone; it does not come direct through Jesus Christ. It comes to us through its modern representatives. It comes percolating
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________________ 79 through the layers of superstition and bigotry, of intolerance and persecution, of damnation and eternal hell-fire. It takes on itself the qualities of these layers and imparts them to those that are received within its folds, in addition to the vices that are its own-such as proceed from the doctrine of vicarious atonement and original sin. And further it has brought to us its peculiar ideas of life, of marriage, of social relations and what not, The ideas of life with which we were infused long before my country became the coveted land of invaders and which are still the underlying principles of our so-called superstitions were and are different from those of Christian nations. The idea of life with you, has always been, as one of your ablest scholars has put it, as that of a struggle for existence, a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of all nations whose history is known to you and naturally these would be their ideas as long as they overlook the eternity of duration, the infinity of space, and the omnipotence of soul and consequently they look upon this life was an arena for gladiatorial strife and combat or as a market for cheating and huckstering." We in India, from highest potentate look the lowest Pariah to the upon life here as a mere
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________________ 80 waiting room from the known to the unknown, as a mere stage of growth from the lowest animalcule to the highest and perfected state. We believe in the eternity of the soul meaning thereby that it is eternal at both ends--at the beginning as well as at the end ; we preach and prctice brotherhood not only of men but of all living beings-not on Sundays only but all the days of the week. We believe in the law of universal justice that our present condition is he result of our past actions and that we are not bound down by the freak of an irresponsible governor-Judge and Prosecutor at the same time ; we depend for our salvation on our own acts and deeds and not on a constituted attorney. Our rite and ceremonies pnay appear to you as mere superstitions but modern science is just now beginning to understand that they are all based on scientific principles. The reason why a monk of my community would got touch money is based on the laws of polarity; the reason why a layman sits in a peculiar posture before a monk or a teacher is based on the physiological laws of the negative and positive conditions of the body. The reason why a religious teacher when delivering a discourse points his fingers in this way is based on the laws of human magnetism. The reason why a Hindu before taking his meal washes his hands and feet is based on the laws of electricity. Instead of propagating the knowledge of philosophical and scientific reasons of our so called superstitious acts which are daily per
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________________ 81 formed in India, do you wish to convert the three hundred millions of the people of my country to a faith which depends for its very existence on vicarious atonement and fall of main principles which are against, not only Hindu rea-on but human reason. But my missionary friends say they are educating the people of India. I ask them--with what object. It is only a bait ofiered for the purpose of catching the Hindu fish into the Cliristia 1 pet. The mission schools are Christian schools established with the avowed object of perverting the Hindus to Christianity. The education is given there from a Christian or rather a theological sta:dpoint. Educate a child in the Christian religio:1 and the child will profess that religion. That is 10 sig:1 of christian success. The secular educatio:giveri either in these schools or Government Engliso schools has, instead of develope ing our youths, suppressed their intellectural progress and wrested them violently into unnatural directions. This is the result of the Christian educational policy. And how is that educational system supported ? It is supported out of the revenues derived from taxation. The taxes levied on Hindus also go to support the inissionary institutions to which government gives grants-in-aid. When the East India Company got possession of India, they posed as friends of the Hindus against the Mahomedan oppressors and they remained the friends of the
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________________ 82 Hindu's religion until these missionaries landed in India. From that time instead of the government supporting the Hindu's religion the Hindu is forced to support the Christian's religion out of his own pocket and to look at his own expense at the solemn farce which is carried on in the mission schools. Bishop Thoburn in his work on India honestly admits that stratagems had to be used in getting children into the secular and Sunday schools; he mentions how successful the missionaries were in establishing a dozen or so Sunday schools in Lucknow in 1877, but he omits to mention that before that time there was not one drinking saloon ip that city, but now there are more than a hundred. My brothers and sisters of America, there is not a shadow of hope of christianizing India. You send the missionary to my country to make converts but every convert he makes he transmits an industrious tiller of soil into an idle worthless loafer and frequently a drunkard and he becomes a charge on the contributions which are yearly sent by English and American Societies to convert the heathens to christianity. After two hundred years of spending inillions of dollars, with the prestige of a conquering religion and with the British bayonet to back, with a conquered nation forced to support it even when they are starving themselves. Christianity in India is not supported by the converts
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________________ 83 themselves. Every bit of Protestant Christianity in India is maintained by the money flowing from England of America. If you mean that three hundred millions of our people are going to be converted, that is to say, to be bought off by American or English money, I gladly wish for that day: only I would beg of American men and women to send agents in different parts in India so that they may advertize and buy poor needy Hindus at a thousand dollars per bead, so that the Americans would have more Christians and the Hindus would have more money and there would be an end to the present horrible system under which the greater part of the money you send to buy the people is swallowed by the machinery. In one word, send more money and less men. I do not think that the missionary has a realisation of the enormity of his stupendous undertaking when he attempts to christianise the teeming multitudes of India. There are many factors which stand in his way. The people of India as a whole are saturated in religious and spiritual thought; they think and contemplate on spiritual matters from childhood to death; even the average streetsweeper is frequently more profoundly versed in the subtle metaphysics and divine philosophy than the missionary sent to convert him. The Aryan Hindu will not change bis religion simply because some one tells him to do. He has an active brain and an
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________________ 84 intellect that will not blindly bend at the will of any man; there must be reason; there must be philosophy; mere assertion is valueless, Besides thiis, there are popular reasons why Christianity has made itself disagreeable to Hindus. Christians being meat-eaters and wide-iinbibers seem to the Hindus to represent a religion devoid of humanitarian or spiritual principles. You do not know what disgust and horror the meat-eating produces in the eyes of the simple-minded Hindu. The very practice of using wine at your Lord's Supper Sanctions toe use of wine at any other time. The Hindu cannot and does not want to accept such a religion. This is the reason why certain sects in India excommunicate their members who go to foreign countries and use there meat and wine. That the representatives of a nation who fatten and kill hundreds and thousands of hogs and steers every day for self-gratification should go to a mild and humane people and preach humanity to them without ever practising it is beyond the comprehension of the Hindu mind. Sitting at a distance of ten thousand miles, Ladies and gentleinen, you cannot have any ideas of the conduct and acts of the missionaries in India. Englishmen as conquerers of India claim extra-terri. torial right throughout the whole of India. They make a small colony in each city and live there. The
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________________ 85 missionary goes and lives in that little colony and keeps himself steady. He is bound to fawn and flatter these Anglo-Indian officials and condone, and directly or indirectly sanction all the horrible brutalitties which the anglo Indians perpetrate. Like other missionaries Bishop Thoburn has devoted one chapter in his work on India in toadying to the English officers and their conduct. Ladies and Gentlemen, you have heard all your lives from your missionaries who claim to be the messengers of God how ugly, wretched, immoral, and vile the heathens of India are; you have heard it over and over till it has become the national idea of your people. Your children are taught these ideas as they take in the mother's inilk; but did you ever hear from these missionaries--the messengers of love to all mankind, of the tyrannies that are perpetrated over the Hindus in India; government have abolished duties on fine dry goods from Liverpool and Manchester for the purpose of finding a good market in India and have levied a 200 per cent, tax on the manufacture of salt in India to maintain a costly government. Did they ever tell you about all such things ? If they have not, whose messengers would you call these people who always side with tyranny, who throw their cloak of hypocritical religion over murderers and all sorts of criminals who happen to belong to their religion
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________________ 86 or to their country? You may think these men to be messengers of God; they may cheat with their smooth tongued words the men and women of America into subscribing largely to misson funds and thus bribe their passage to heaven. But India knows them, The many learned missionary gentlemen who have written or who have exhausted their oratorical powers in denouncing India can only prove their claim to be an authority when they show their knowledge of the Hindu religion, and this can only be proven by their knowledge of Sanskrit. No man can know a bit of Hindu religion until he knows perfectly the Sanskrit language. When they can converse with me in this language, I shall consider their words worthy of consideration and not before. And if they cannot do this I would ask-what have they been doing so many years in India. These missionaries pose as friends of the poor; but did they ever tell you that the average income of a Hindu is about fifty cents per month ? One half of the population of India have only one meal per day and with all this the pressure of taxation is increasing every day till the nation is almost driven to the verge of dispair. Millons live habitually upon wild flowers. The year in which Queen Victoria was proclaimed the Empress of Iudia and whilst the government was
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________________ 87 spending thousands and thousands of dollars to proclaim to, & downtrodden and suppliant face the power of the Christian government, five millons and a half of men, women and children died of actual starvation. Did the missionaries ever raise a voice for this? No. There never has been a commission to inqire into these horrible things to find out a remedy. But these missionaries and their co-adjutors started a commission to inquire into the evil of opium-eating in India, as if inen who had not money enough to buy bread would indulge in the luxurise of opium eating. Indeed there is no height of absurdity which hypocrisy does not dare to climb. The whole secret of that opium-commission and all such non-descript agitations is that these missionaries want more money "and by soine such method they begin the agitation and the money flows in ; honor comes to the wealthy donors but their dollars all roll into the missionary pockets, Citizens of New York, your agaitations against a corrupted city government, your determined attempt to destroy all bossisin has elicited the praise of the whole world; but do you know that an organization ten thousand times inore powerful than Taminany could ever be, a hundred thousand times more vile and baneful in its influence than Tammany can ever hope to be is that clique known in America as the foreign mission board. The Tammany-tiger aims at
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________________ 88 the pocket of men, but this terrible monster is sucking the blood of your people to spend it in good living in foreign countries and all this is done in the name of religion. The claws of Tammany reach only to a very few, but this tremendous wheel of cheating black-mailing and damning reaches the rich and the poor alike; it crushes under its weight old and young alike ; it has no mercy for the poor or the miserable, the schoolboy or the servant-girl, the millionare or the workman. Cheat one and all alike ; this is its motto. These saints talk of the caste in India; here is a caste of missionaries springing right amongst you; I have found there are hereditary missionaries for three or four generations and missionary bosses who control the appointment, the pay and the promotion for which the hungry hundreds of missionaries wait at their door. These holy men talk of the Hindu superstitions. They had better examined their cwn religion. A religion whose beginning is in blood, whose salvation is in blood, whose purity is in innocent blocd, whose hope of Saintship is in a dream of a see of blood, whose ravivals are brought about by a preaching and a vision of the sea of blood afresh, would do better by talking less of the superstitions of other nations. My Christian brothers and sisters of America, your missionaries often glory in having taken upon themselves the task of educating the poor outcasts of India. In a lecture which I have had the honor
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________________ 89 to deliver before thousands of people of this country I said:--" What I have learned of your great system of the education of the masses which I admit cannot be very great or particular for the reason that my observations have been neoessarily limited, is to me an encouragement beyond words to express if my impressions are just and true." Since delivering that lecture I have observed much controversy among the people of this country in relation to the character-I may say-the religious character of the common school. A large class of citizens, believers in certain form of religion oppose and even go so far as to denounce the school system, because of its "Godless character", while the majority sustain this great system of education, because of its secular of neutral character as to religion; and this fact, namely the secular character of the common school system is in the estimation of the wisest people of all religions its chief glory. If you should undertake to teach in your common schools the distinctive dogmatic doctrines of Christianity, would not you put in jeopardy the system itself by inaugurating a revolution ? But now, in my counry your missionaries insist upon doing that for us as necessary to our civilization and education which you do not dare advocate or defend at home, I must repeat that we Hindus hail with unfeigned satisfaction any movement looking toward the real advancement and education of the masses but we
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________________ 90 cannot but protest with all our soul against using the privilege and necessity of education as a means of propagating religious tenets, repulsive to our conscience and to our sense of moral obligations and relationships. I beg that I be not misunderstood. I would plead for tolerance, before you for my brotbren and their religion and in the same breath beg of you secular education and the means of that education. When you suppress and limit your common school curriculuin by imposing upon it the catechism, with the approval of the populations of your great country, it would be time enough to make it the shibolleth of your onslaught upon the "benighted Hindus under the white banner of education." Because I dispute the correctness of the Christian inissionary method and deny its value, I must not be understood to dispute the right or to deny the importance of missionary labor along right lines and inspired by the true spirit of universal brotherhood. The possession of truth implies responsibility for its distribution, Truth is not sectional-I mean, essential truth. It belongs to the world, to all mankind. The spirit of truth is the right inissionary spirit and carries with it credentials in that language which is understood by universal intellect and universal reason. The religious community to which I have the honour to belong has from its beginning been a missionary conserving influence, on the one
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________________ 91 hand protesting in brotherly love against all forms. of conceived error in thought and practice and on the other hand seeking to reconcile all men with the truth. The grievous blunder as I conceive of the Christian missionary movement lies in the fact of dogmatic aggressiveness--a spirit of antagonism to all other religions, which soon graduates into bitter denunciation. It first declares that all me kind--all human souls--are under the ban of divine; displeasure. It declares that all men are conceived in sin and born in iniquity, and denies to human nature every good thing. In this view all iner breathe naturally only corruption. The universal inind is a machine of evil and only evil. Its capabilities are toward destruction. Its capacities are reservoirs of darkness and sin. Its aspirations are downward toward perdition; its hopes, ill-founded, are blasting vagaries of corruption. It comes and goes eternally dooined. It cannot help itself and knows no source of help. This, in my view, is the Christian missionary's first postulate and ground of effort for the so-called redemption of mankind. Its second declaration contains a scheme of redemiption-a plan of salvation, which to my thought (and not to mine alone) is as unreasonable and repulsive as its first proposition. It is that, meir must be saved through the merits and blood vicariously shed of a saviour. It declares that acceptance of that saviour and reliance in that
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________________ 92 vicarious atonement are essential to human deliverance. Without the knowledge of this plan of Salvation, it denies all moral possibilities and spiritual regeneration. Ignorance of the name of that saviour is no excuse and refusal to accept the dogmatic terms of salvation serves only to intensify the damnation which is already the birthright of all human souls. The spirit of this Gospel refuses to recognise natural goodness, moral aspirations and spiritual worship emanating from any other source. On these grounds, not to go into further detail, Christian propagandism is founded. In the face of these declarations, is it to be wondered that the enlightened thought of mankind within and without the Christian fold has begun to question the virtue, the divinity, the humanity even, of such a propagandisni ? Can one wonder that the question is propounded "Is Christianity a failure," " Are missons failures " and why does the world refuse to accept the Salvation thus offered ? I have no word to say in depreciation of the supposed personal character and life of him who is claimed by these dogmatists to be the saviour of the world. I honor and respet all efforts for the uplifting of mankind, no matter under what name. But to claim for hiin and for his devotion the exclusive virtue and saving grace which these false interpreters of his life declare is, in my view to rob him
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________________ 93 of his real glory and rob mankind of the legitimate infleunce and uplifting virtue of his devotion, and consecration. Admitting the purity of his life, the grandeur of his devotion, the beauty of his character and the truth ot hls ethical teachings, it yet remains to be said that thousands of years before his birth ainong men, similar masters appeared who taught the same truth, achieved eqral character and injected into the philosophies a:id thought of mankind the same inspirations and many of them sealed the genuiness of their devotions with their own blood. Referring to the religio1 and philosophy of my OW! people and to the history of the lives of the illustrious prophets and regenerators, whose names are sacred in 0:1r thoughts, I have to say that no Christian ininistar can point to a single moral truth or ethical statement in his new testament of Jesus the Christ that I cannot duplicate a thousand times with even greatar emphasis froin the sacred books and teachings of our religion aatidating as they do the Christian era by thousands upon thousands of years. They have answered for our tnstruction in spiritual worship, in the moralities of life and in all outward expressions of brotherhood, to this day evolving among us and before our eyes devoted lives, spotless characters, gifted prophets, tireless regene. rators, about whose names the white light of glorious immortality ceaselessly shines. I ask you, my
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________________ 94 Christian brothers and sisters, to explain to me this truth of history; I ask you to account for all this in the absence of your Christianity on the basis of your fearful dogma, that without the knowledge of your Christ and of your religion no good can come out of any Nazareth. What then is the proper missionary method ? It speaks itself. It is to recognise and build upon the undoubted and unquestionable truth which is found in all religions--the wide world over, even our heathen religions of India. Instead of affirming universal depravity, change the diction and declare for universal goodness at bottom and truth the natural aspiration, looging and desire of every human soul. Instead of basing regeneration deliverance and liberation upon the vicarious atone ment of one or more Christs, affirm the right, the power, the privilege, the opportunity of every soul to assert itself by its own exertions, devotions, austerities and worship of the good, begin the ascent toward holiness, happiness and heaven. Dignify the present life by teaching its laws, its opportunities and its possible destinies. Exalt its worth by showing its origin in infinite wisdom and infinite goodness. Increase its pleasures by cultivating its intuitions, its intellectual and morel faculties. Lessen its burdens by recognising its worth, by encouraging its worship of that which is good and by pointing it toward the assured ultimate
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________________ 95 goal of triumph and perfect bliss. Induct it into the repose and blessedness of pure thought by educating the thinkable nature the intellectual faculties. Bring to it the knowledge of truth, of power. of right of good, by revaling and declaring by such methods the possibilities of its own selfhood. In one sentence, the method I advocate is that of self-recognition-the education of all the faculties of body and of soul, devoutly recognising responsibility to the Infinite or universal good. Such propagandism, whatever it may be supposed to lack, would never want success, would never fail to nieet with responsive co-operation in all lands among all people and would from the start and for ever make the world better and better, SYMBOLISM. A LECTURE DELIVERED AT WASHINGTON, D, C. Before proceeding with the illustrative part of the lecture I shall say something generally on the science of symbolism. The ordinary idea of the Western scholars, with regard to symbols and mythical writings, is that the origin of these things is due to the primitive state of the human mind, that people began as children, in the beginning they formed their thoughts on pictures, and, later on,
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________________ 96 came to abstract ideas. Really speaking, this theory has no basis in fact. There cannot be any nation which gives pictures, unless they have a clear idea formed of them. Therefore, the idea comes first, then they illustrate it by the picture and symbols. . There are reasons for using symbols. Why should they not use ordinary sentences in order to covey the higher truths or deeper sciences ? I think there are four reasons. One reason is that there are many deeper truths which ought not to be thrown away, as we say pearls should not be thrown to swise. There are many who do not appreciate these truths, and therefore they should be stated in symbolic language. So, secracy is the first reason. The second reason is that if they were expressed in ordinary language, certain people inight get hold of them and use them for injuring other people, and themselves also. So, protection is the second reason. The third reason is permanency. If anything is expressed in ordinary language, after a certain time we are liable to forget it, but if it is in the form of a picture we can remember it longer. The fourth reason is that the effect produced by the symbol is more intense than the impression made by ordinary language. These are the four reasons for mystical words and symbols. All ancient nations a sed them; Romans, Egyptians and Greeks used
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________________ 97 thern. The Hindus, Persians and Egyptians are noted for their use of symbols. The Rosicrucians, Masons and other secret societies used them. No doubt later on they forgot their real meaning. The Hindus from time immemorial have been using the symbolic syllable Om which is now interpreted by some to mean the creative, preservative and destructive principles. They even think that the pronounciation of this syllable has a very mystical effect on the occult powers of & inan. But the true meaning bas been lost sight of by the Hindus, althougb it is still preserved by my community-the Jain community. In the same manner the cross or Swastika is mis interpreted by the so-called western expounders of our ancient philosophy. The original idea was very high, but later on the people thought the cross represented only the combination of the male and the female principles. While we are on the physical plane and our propensities are on the material line we think it is , necessary to unite these principles for our spiritual growth. On the higher plane the soul is sexless and, therefore, those who wish to rise higher than the physical plane must get rid of the idea of sex. of the Jain I sball now explain the meaning Swastika by illustrations.
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________________ o . 0 0 0 celestial human 3. A. B . archaeic or planic 1, proto - 2, lower life These two lines, A-B and C-D ( the horizontal and vertical) without anything alse would be the Greek cross. We add four other lines as represented in the illustration. Then we add three circles and the crescent, and a circle in the crescent; now the cross is complete. Then expressed partially an idea is misinterpreted. I will give an example. There is a verse ( among the Jains ) of to lines, the meaning of the second being connected with that of the first and these two lines must be interpreted together. The Brahmins, who had been at cretain epochs in the history of India inimical to the Jains, got hold of the second line only, which they interpreted to mean "Even if a person is going to be killed by an elephant, he ought not to go into the Jain temple." The idea conveyed by the Brahmin interpreter is that the Jain temple is so bad that one ought not to seek protection in it even if he is on the point of being killed by an elephant. If you take tre first
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________________ 99 line with it then the whole meaning is changed. It is this:--" When a person has killed an animal, or any living thing or has returned from an immoral house, or a vicious place, or if he has drunk wine, then he ought not to pollute the Jain temple even if he is followed by an elephant. So, in the 'case of the Swastika--if you take only the cross and side lines you cannot have the full meaning, while if the circles and crescent are added you have the whole before you. The idea is there are four grades of existence of souls in the material universe. The first is the lowest state. When the soul evolves from that state it comes to the next stage--the plant, the earth, the animal life which is lower than the human life, then evolves to the third stage, the human life. Then the fourth stage, the celestial. I use the word celestial, to mean the life of other worlds than our own. All these graduations are combinations on different scales of matter and soul, The spiritual plane is that in which the soul is entirely freed fro:n the bonds of matter. In order to reach that plane you must strive to possess the three jewels (the circles) right belief, right knowledge, right conduct. When you get these you are on the right path. Otherwise, there is no settled course for you, you are, as it were, tossed indiscriminately in a large river and do not know where you are going. If you bave possessien of the jewels your basis is sure. When you have these three things, right belief, right
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________________ 100 knowledge, right conduct, you will certainly go up wards higher and higher until you reach the state of liberation. That we represent by the crescent. Why? Because the crescent is the first form of the rising moon, it is the representation of a form which is go ing to grow larger and larger. When the soul has reached this stage it is omniscient. When it has reached its full consciousness its horizon becomes larger and larger. The interpretation, according to the Jain view of the cross has nothing to do with the coinbination of the male and female principle. Worship of the male and female principles-ideas based on sex lowest even on the emotional plane can gever raise us higher than the male and the female. We go to the teinple every day in the morning, we make such symbols ( Swastika ) when we enter the temple. The object of doing this is fhat this sign must remind us of the great principle that in order to avoid the round of mundane existence one must have the three jewels and then reach the ultimate good. These symbols intensify our thoughts and make them more permanent. lines would The horizontal and perpendicular represent spirit and matter. The circle in the crescent represents the state the soul reaches; when it has full consciouness and lives apart from matter it is liberated.
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________________ 101 I visited the Smithsonian day and Saw many of these Institution the other crosses. It is called Swastika. That literally means a sign of good luck. Several of those I saw, Dr. Wilson told me had been found in he Southern States. These signs are found made on pottery, and on articles of daily use. The idea is that people believe this sign will give them good luck. The implements they use to obtain their livelihood are indeed sources of power to them, and therefore, the natural desire would be to put marks on them which, in their belief, would give them prosperity and health. In India they have this kind of a cross on their implements as a sign of good luck. There are other signs of the Jains. The sacred thread. This is used by the Brahmins as well as the Jains. The Brahmins always connect philosophy of the sacred thread with inaterialistic views. They say the three rounds represent activity, passivity and grossness, the three properties of primordial matter. We Jains Say the three rounds represent the three sets of prophets that have flourished in all ages. There have been innumerable prophets but we take three sets immediately connected with our time-the past, the present, and the future. In the immediate past we had 24, in the present 24, and in the near future there will be 24. Therefore, the three rounds of the sacred thread represent three sets of
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________________ 102 prophets who have left their sublime teachings as our heritage. We carry it on our shoulder. It means we carry these teachings on our shoulders and practise them every day. It is a syinbol of your willingness to practise and obey the teachings given us by our prophets. There is another symbol of the Jains, and that is the picture pf the elephant and the seven blind man. The Jains have many lecture halls in all parts of India. In towns and cities where numbers of the Jains are living they build balls for the teinporary residence of Monks who go about teaching, On the walls of those bouses you will find several Pictures; one is the sawe as that on iny class catd. When a sinall boy about eight years old, I was accustomed to attend with my father the sermons of the Jain inonks who visited our town from tiine to time in those days. The serinons were delivered in the lecture hall built especially by our community. On one occasion we went to the ball balf an hour earlier than usual, which gave me ample time to look around, which I did with much interest and some curiosity at the paintings on the walls, one picture in particular iinpressed ine and interested me more than all the others. It was a picture of a man sus pended in the middle of a well by holding on to a branch of a tree which grew by the side of the well (many of you will recognize this picture as the same
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________________ 103 on my class card.) A buge elephant stood at the brink of the well and not being able to reach the man with his mighty trunk, was trying to shake the tree and thus force the inan out. Down in the walls of the well were four snakes in an attitude of hissing at the nan, as if about to sting him, lower down at the bottom was a huge serpent reaching up towards the man with his great open mouth. Two rats, ore black, one white, were knawing at the trunk of the tree to which the man was holding on. Higher up on the branch was honey-comb and a swarm of bees. The efforts of the elephant to chake the man loose by swaying the limb had caused the honey to trickle down in drops, which were falling on the lips of the man. A monk, a teacher of religion in his white monk's garb stood on the opposite side of the well from the elephant, as if offering assistance to escape to the man from the many dangers surrounding him. I could understand all the dangers to which the man was exposed, but I felt assured that there was a deeper meaning to it all, and after gazing a long time at the picture trying to solve its meaning, I appealed to my father. At once he said, "My son, will you be able to understand the meaning even if I explain to you ?" "I think you will," he said, "once upon a time several men were travelling in company through a great forest infested with wild beasts. When in the midst of the forest they were attacked by a band of robbers, they all fled for their
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________________ 104 lives, running in different directions. This man whom you see suspended in the well was one of the perty. He became lost in the forest and could not find bis way out. At this juncture, he suddenly saw a huge elephant chasing after him. He knew that unless he found immediate shelter, he would be instantly killed. As he ran, he saw at a short distaoce ahead of him an open space in the forest and in this was a great well (some of our wells in india are 30 to 40 feet or more across). He saw his situation and knew the only possible escape from instant death by the elephant was to take refuge in the well so he leaped in, but as he did so, he caught on to the limb of the tree which overhung the well, here he hung to the branch, with the honey dropping into his mouth when the monk came by and offered to assist him to escape the certain death that threatened him from all sides, but he refused the assistance of the nionk saying I am quite content now. The elephant cannot reach me, I shall not fall, I have a firm hold on this branch, and do you not see the honey dropa ping into my mouth Pit is very sweet and I am quite happy. Leave me to enjoy this sweet in my own way." The monk showed the man the folly of holding on to a limb that two rats were knawing apart, and the huge serpent at the bottom ready to to swallow him; but the man persisted in remaining where he was, Safe from the great elephant. Saying it would take a long time for two small tits to knaw
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________________ Madhu-Bindu pusa viSayasevAdhAmasApa srvpaadpi| isa nudehinaH prAjyaM madhu vinaadipuNsvn| The Jain Philosophy Page 102-106.
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________________ 105 off a trunk of a tree, that he was not alarmed at such small things; besides, he wished to enjoy the delicious honey. And this is the whole drama represented in the picture," said my father. This was very interesting to me, but I was not satisfied, and I said to my father--"Surely there must be a meaning to this drama. Will you not tell me the meaning ?" And he did when he saw I desired so earnestly to know. He said "The picture is symbolical. The great forest is the world. The man in the well is the ordinary worldly man. The well with its dangers is the life of that man, over wbich all men are suspended who care for nothing beyond the present life. The elephant after him is death. The great serpent at the bottom of the well is the lowest existence to wbich those go, who will not make an effort to escape and who waste their forces in a useless or evil life with no effort or desire to rise to a higher life--who live for the present life only. The four snakes in the walls of the well are the syinbols of Anger, Vanity, Deceit and Greediness. The trunk of the tree represents the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, black and white, represent time (our month is divided into the light half and the dark half) which exhausts our earthly duration. The bees in the boney-comb are the organs of senses-the honey drops represent the sensuous pleasures, and the
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________________ 106 monk represents the Truth-Religion. So the whole symbol means this that the ordinary man of the world thinks he will not be cut of from life at once, satisfies himself by enjoying the sensuous pleasures derived from the senses, and does not care to receive the truths offered by true philosophy; he being influenced by sentiments of anger, vanity, deceit and greediness represented by the four serpents." I was quite astonished with this explanation of the picture and this is the view of life taken by the Hindus. I was not 8 years old then. Twenty years later (only a few months ago) I read one of Prof. Max "Muller's works and was more astonished to see that he also expressed himself in very nearly the saine terms. Here are his words:-"Our idea of life on earth has always been that of a struggle for existence-a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of all nations whose history is known to us." The other symbol is that of seven blind men and the elephant. The seven blind men wanted to know what kind of an aniinal an elephant was. They went to gether to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands on the ears, another on the legs, another on the tail of the elephant, and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an animal it was one of the blind men said: "O, to be
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________________ 107 sure, the elephant is like a big winnowing fan." Another blind man said: "No, my dear sir, you are wrong. The elephant is like a big round post." The third: "You are all mistaken; it is like a tapering stick." The rest gave their different opinions. The proprietor of the elephant said: "My friends, you are all mistaken. You have not examined the elephant from all sides. Had you done so, you would not have taken one sided views." In that symbol the Jains show that no one should preach that a ceatain religion is the whole truth. There is a Jain saying which means that the six schools of philosophy are part and parcel of one organic whole, but if one is taken by itself it becomes a false doctrine. There is another symbol of the Jains, and that is the mango tree and six persons. They were members of the same club. They wanted to taste the mango fruit, and went to a mango grove. They approached a ceration tree, and one said: "These are very beautiful and very delicious, and we must cut down the tree." Another said: "We don't want all the mangoes, let us cut the principal branch. And another said: "Let us take a smaller branch." And another "We don't want even so many, we will take one minor branch, that will be enough for The last said: "We don't want even so many. What is the use of destroying or cutting the tree: us."
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________________ 108 it is a part of nature, and if you can have sufficient number of mangoes that have fallen to the ground let us take them only and not cut the tree." Some think this to be the symbol of laziness, but it is not, It is teaching the saving of life. It teaches also not to sacrifice too much for a limited purpose, If you bave an obiect in view the the means resorted to ought to be coinmensurate with the end, I could give you more Jain symbols, but it would take all our time on one line. We will take some Brahinin sy mnobls. Some are common to the Jains too. The Syinbol common to all religions in India is "Om". Which in Brahinin philosophy consists of three letters, A, U, and M. When these three letters are joined together, by the rules of euphony it is sounded OM. The Brahmins explain this symbol to mean the creative, the preservative and the destructive principles. When the letter A is pronounced, the breath comes out from the throat, which signifies emanation or creation. The letter U, keeps the breath in toe mouth for a time and, therefore, is the symbol of the preservative principle. The letter M, stops the breath for a time and lets it out through a different channel the nostrils, and symbolizes destruction and regeneration. Instead of dividing this symbol into three letters we Jains divide it into five: A. A. A. U. M.
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________________ 109 Of these five letters, four are vowels, the fifth being a consonant. The whole combination is sound ed OM. These five letters are the first letters of five generic names of great personages. The first letter A, is the first letter of Arhut, the highest and perfected prophet, the living human being in the perfected state. While living in this world be acts as the spiritual master of his order. The second letter is the first syllable of another generic word. It signifies bodiless, liberated souls. While the Arbut is living, acting as spiritual master, these are liberated beings after human existence. ( Not earthbound spirits). These are liberated souls. The third is the first letter of a class of religious masters who do not stand on as high a level as the others, but are leaders of an order who may reach a higher state. The fourth is the first letter of the class who are disciples, students under religious masters who are going to reach that higher state. The fifth is the first letter of the class which means holy men or holy women. It is sounded OM. When we sound that word we bring before our minds these five classes of beings. We attach spiritul meanings to this symbol, while the Brahmins attach physical energies. If we keep the holy men and women in our minds, then we will rise step by step. These five personages have pecular virtues and characteristics. The first bas 12, the "second 8
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________________ 110 qualities, the third 36, the fourth 25, the fifth 27. If you find the first 12 in a buinan being, then he is 40 Arbut. If you find the fourth 25 he is of the fourth class, and so on. It he have the fifth 27, then he belongs to the class of holy men and women. All these qualities put together inake 108. There are 108 beads in the rosaries we use. The reason is that when we use the rosary, reciting sacred texts and contemplating on the ideas expressed, we keep before our minds these personages these qualities, which assist us in our journey to wards the perfected state. We have in the temples of the Hindus many figures of gods and goddesses. In Calcutta, you have heard of one where wany animals are sacrificed. That practice has not yet been exter ninated fron that city. The figure to the ordinary observer is very terrible. The goddess is horrible with a red tongue protruding from her mouth. With little gods and goddesses on each side. On top of the figure is Siva. This is to be explained from the spiritual and material standpoint mixed together. She has 10 arms, all are creative energies, five positive, five negative. These are called creative powers. Those on the right represent the positive aspect, those on the left the negative aspect of the energies. On the right is the figure of the god with a human forn and head of an elephant. The goddess on the
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________________ 111 goddess of wealth. must be considered a man with an man with animal his side the god was not right is the animal head propensities, therefore he has by dess of wealth. On the left the negative side is represented, the spiritual part, and the human form is perfect. The goddess on this side is the goddess of wisdom. She has no necessity for wealth. Even this picture connected with material ideas, in certain ways is a beautiful picture. Later on when people forget the real truth and become engrossed in the external world they thought the energy of the world an abstract idea bul it was a person they wanted to propitiate those energies, and so they sacrificed animals to the goddess that represented distructive energy. It is continued there. It is a great blot on the peaceful and humane character of the Hindu. The truth has been forgotten by them. Fven the sacred writings have been mutilated by them. Many passages are altogether new. The Sattee, burning of widows on the funeral pile of their husbands, came to be sanctioned by a passage that has been changed by substitufing one letter for writings are inter another. In this way the sacred preted as sanctioning those rights. reds of thousands of people who interpret the Vedas in the most exoteric sense. There are hund All the different sects and communities of India have different marks on their foreheads. They make those marks with some kind of paste that is fra
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________________ 112 grant. The Jains use sandal wood. They make forms which represent different ideas. Very few people understand the original meaning of these marks. The mark the Jains nake on the forehead is of the form of the heart. It is made just between the two eyebrows, in the center. Our physiology tells us thers is a center of nerves there, a plexus, which becomes a source of light, or inner, sight. when we go through a course of discipline, moral and spiritual, we see many things through this center which we cannot see by the ordinary vision. When we make that sign we mean it is through this center we are going to have great power of light. Our object in worsping in the temple is not to acquire wealth, but to acquire that power by the aid of which we can see and know more. We want spiritual possessions. As the people have different doctrinal beliefs they are represented by different signs. The Brahmins have different signs. They make three streaks = on the forehead. The Jains mean by their heart-sign the religion of the heart. The Brahmins say it represents the three energies, the creative, preservative and destructive. Instead of representing, or keeping in mind the material energies of the world, the Jains say it is the heart that is going to raise us by right living.
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________________ 113 Sive, the third in the trinity is a representation of the destructive power and is represented by certain signs in Southern India. The people make signs on their foreheads representing the the ideas of creation or generation. V There people think that by their inaterial energies they will rise. In our temples at the time of performing cere monies, we make marks on tables of wood, marble or metal, one is of an eight-petaled lotus. 5 ci3 We locate certain great principles or ideals in all these petals. I gave you the generic names of five great personages. The first (1) is put in the middle, Arhut. The second, the liberated, at the top (2), the right of the center (3) the master; the fourth, the religious student, (4) at the bottom, the fifth, the holy man (5) at the left of the center. In the corner petals we locate right knowledge(K), right beliet, (B), right conduct (C) and right energy (E). When we have the rosary in our hand we think of the Arbuts and contemplate on their peculler
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________________ 114 qualities; then we think and contemplate on the principles and qualities of the second, and so on. When we think of these qualities, we cannot think of other things and the mind receives help. There are symbols of various kinds among the Persians, the Greeks and Romans. The Egyptians have the symbol of the serpent, meaning eternity and the cat meaning the moon. The Romans and Greeks had crosses also long before the crucifixion of Jesus. It must have some deeper idea connected with it. These crosses are found in all countries. The Rosicrucians have also the cross. They represent the meaning in a different way as follows: Love Faith Hope Patience The Rosicrucians do not say it is a combination of the male and female principles meeling in the center. If a person practise love, hope, patience, and faith, be will reach the center. It can be interpreted as the crucifixion of the outer self; that was the original meaning. The Zoroastrians also have their symbols. They are supposed to worship fire. Fire has its origin in
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________________ 115 the sun. The sun was the symbol of Spirituality. It was considered the source of spirituality. According to the views of Hindu scholars the follower of Zoroaster and the Parsees did not agree with the Hindus on certain points and went to Persia and then followed a different religion. The Brahmins used an intoxicating plant and sung beautiful hymns. The Brahmin ceremony is the origin of the Bacchic custom, or ceremony of drinking wine. It is to protest against this ceremony that the fifth rule of the Buddhists is not to partake of intoxicating drink,
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________________ WONDERFUL FEATS OF MEMORY. The late Professor Max Muller, in his "Psychological Religion " says:---"To those who are not acquainted with the powers of human memory when well disciplined, or rather when not systematically ruined, as ours has been, it may almost seen incredible that so much of the ancient literature of India should have been composed, and should have survived during so many centuries, before it was finally consigned to writing." It is difficult to believe in the wonderful possibilities of human inemory, as our modern psychology does not teach any method of cultivating this faculty, to an extent which we may call miraculous. Now and then we see advertised in literary magazines methods of cultivating memory by artifical means. Oftentimes, they are found to be more tedious than the ordinary methods of repetition. And when one tries the advertised method for some time and fails to accompolish anything he begins to doubt the possibility of training the memory to such an extent that he could perform wonderful feats.
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________________ 117 Many wonderful instances of the feats of memory are forthcoming in the history of India. Pre-eminently the literature of the Jain sect, an old religious cult, has chronicled such instances. famous Jain encyclopaedist, is many Hem-chandra, the one of them. He lived in the He was born in middle of the the northern when he was six eleventh century. part of Western India. His parents were Jains. His mother once took him with her to a Jain monk, years old. The monk was seated in the monastery on a table-like raised seat with a blanket spread over it. He looked at the boy with some interest, but the latter instead of performing the usual obeisance to the monk made himself comfortable on the seat by the monk's side. This the monk took to be a sign that the boy was going to be a great man. So he asked the mother if she would not give her child to him as his disciple and explained to her the reasons of his proposal. The mother oscillated for some time between parental love and a desire that the boy should be a great benefactor of the Jain sect. Ultimately reason triumphed over emotion and she gave her child to the monk to be initiated as his disciple. Hem-chandra thus entered the life of monkhood at the early age of six. As years went on, he became proficient in the sacred lore and at the age of twenty-one he became the spiritual head of the Jain people. History further tells us that he converted Kumara-pala, a prince
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________________ 118 of Gujrat, to the author of many Jain faith. He also became the works, the estimated bulk of which is 35,000,000 couplets, of 32 syllables each. He lived 84 years. One wonders how he was able to compose such a large quantity of new literature. Tradition tells us that it was the usual practice of this great scholar to keep about him several scribes. After breakfast, he would ask about forty of them to take their seats around a tank of ink, with pen andpaper. He would then walk round the tank and first dictate to scribe No. 1 the first verse of a work on Grammar which he would be No. 1 is writing it down, on, go to scribe No. 2 and then composing. While the monk would move dictate to him the first verse of a work on Prosody. In this way, he would dictate to the forty scribes, one after another, the first verse of each of the forty new works which he would be composing at the same time. Having finished the first round he would come again to scribe No. 1 and dictate to him the second verse of the work on Grammar, without losing the thread of the plan of the work. Following this system, he would compose forty works on forty different subjects in a few days. The voluminous works, some puplished, others in manuscript only, of this scholary monk leave no doubt as to his capacities and the wonderful memory he possessed, in-days when there were no printed books, no system
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________________ 119 of spreading information and knowledge through the Press and no covenient mode of transport. . reand their were One Some Comming back to our own times, instances are not wanting of marvellous feats of memory. There is a Jain gentlemen in Bombay, Mr. Raichand Ravji, * about 35 years old, noted for the wonderful powers of his memory. At the request of his friends, once he gave a public demonstration of his feats, in & public hall before a large number of people. He was taken to the platform and blindfolded. Some thirty or forty books of various sizes were one by one placed in his hands and their titles mentioned. He was asked to remember them. Then a number of about ten figures was given to him, of which he was to find the cube root without using pencil or paper. He was further asked, with his eyes open, to play a game of cards with three gentlemen on the platform. He was also asked to compose, while playing the game, small poem of about thirty lines, giving description of a certein place in India, the condition being that he should bring in the poem in certain stated lines the names of certain foreigners and foreign places, that had nothing to do with the subject of the poem. Then a person who stood at the back of this gentleman at & distance of some twenty feet was to throw pebbles on his back, which he was to count while the game of cards was being played. Lastly, another person * This man died 2 years ago. Ed.
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________________ 120 was to ring & bell while all this was going on and Mr. Raichand Ravji was to tell at the end of the geme how many times the bell was rung. Then began the game, which took about twenty minutes. At the end of the game he recited his poem, bringing in the names of persons and places given to him. He found the cube root of the ten-figure-number. He told the audience also the exact number of Pebbles thrown at him, and also the number of times the bell was rung. He was then blindfolded again and the books which were placed in his hand, at the beginning of the demonstration, were again placed in his hands, but this time not in the same order as before; he gave the correct titles of all. What shall we call such a person, a giant or a genius? He claims that after reading an ordinary sized book only once he can repeat its contents without looking at it. Here is another case of the wonderful cultivotion of memory. Pandit Gattulalji who died only & few years ago was born blind. In his early days, there being no System or institution for teaching the blind to read, he never had that training. What he learned was through reading by others. But his momery was so wonderful that after hearing e passage once, he could reproduce it at any time. He became the head of the Vaishnava community in Bombay and received the highest respect from his co-religionists all over India. He gave many public
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________________ 121 demonstrations of what his memory could perform, He is the author of several works on the Vaishnava faith. There are a number of such persons in India whose feats of memory are .as wonderful as those related about. What is the secret in regard to the uncommon faculty of such persons ? The following is the most rational explanation that can be offered. The phenonera of memory obey the law of the indestructibility of force, of the conservation of energy, which is one of the most important laws of the universe. Nothing is lost ; nothing is annihilated ; nothing that exists can ever cease to be. In Natural Philosophy this an admitted fact. It is such a fundamental law that the whole of Natural Philosophy is considered but a commentary on it. In gorals, we are not in the habit of applying this principle : we are commonly so accustomed to regard all moral and mental occurrences as the results of chance, and as subject to no laws, that many at least admit the annihilation of that which once was a state of consciousness to be possible. Yet annihilation, absolute destruction, is as inadmissible in the moral as it is in the physical world; and but little reflection or reason is needed to see that as all phenomena are but states of some reality, of something that exists, the states may change into other states; but it is alike impossible for something
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________________ 122 to become nothing, or for nothing to become soinething. Such a miracle can neither be conceived by reason nor justified by experience. We may, indeed, state such a proposition verbally; but so soon as we passed from words to things, from vagueness to Precision from the imaginary to the real, we cannot form an idea of any such annihilation in the objective or the subjective world. Nor are the considerations in favour of the indestructibility of our perceptions, ideas, and other phenomena of consciousness merely of a theoretical nature ; there are also facts which, however strange they may appear at first sight, are very simple, if we bear in mind that in the mental world, as elsewhere, nothing perishes. Medical and psychological works cite numerous cases where languages apparently altogether forgotten or memories apparently effaced, are suddenly brought back to consciousness by a nervous disorder, by fever, opium, basheesh, or simply by intoxication. Coleridge tells a story of a servant-maid, who, in a fever, spoke Greek, Hebrew and Latin. It was found that this girl had lived with an old Protestant pastor ; that it had been the old man's custom for years to walk up and down a passage in his house into which the kitchen door opened and to read to himself with a loud voice out of his favourite books, passages
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________________ 123 from which were identified with those spoken by the girl in her fever. Erasmus mentions an Italian who spoke German, though he had forgotten that language for twenty years; there is also a case recorded of a butcher's boy who, when in sane, recited passages from the Phedre which he had heard only once. All these facts are so well-known that they need only here be cited; they, with many others, prove that in the very depths of the soul there exists many a memory which seemed to have vanished for ever. An idea that has passed away from consciousness is not destroyed, but only transformed. Instead of being a present idea, it becomes a residum, representing & certain tendency of the mind exactly proportioned to the energy of the original idea. The existence of ideas in an unconscious state might, therefore, be regarded as a state of perfect equilibrium. In other words, whenever any piece of information or knowledge comes to use like a flash, it is because that informaction or that knowledge was acquired by us sometimes in the past, it having done into a latent state in the mean-time. If such wonderful revival of a former consciousness or memory can be accomplished in an unconscious or unintentional way, there must be a science
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________________ 124 which can teach how to accomplish the same result consciously and intentionally. Electricity existed even before the science of electricity was formulated; only in those primitive days people did not know its laws. It is claimed by the Jains of India that they possess a perfect system of philosophy, which teaches how to cultivate and perform wonderful feats of memory. We may only hope that our psychologists would get hold of a learned Jain and find out from him the methods and secred of this wonderful science.
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________________ ESSENTIAL PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM BUDDHISM AND JAINISM. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, From the mystic philosophy of India, we pass to the everyday philosophy of the three great sects of the East, the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jains. When I was a small boy, about eight years old, I used to go with my father to hear the sermons of & Jain monk who happened to visit our town in those days. He delivered his sermons in a lecture hall specially built by my community. On one day, we went to the lecture hall half an hour earlier than the appointed time. After taking our seats, I began to look with curiosity at some paintings on the walls of the lecture hall. One of them struck me most. It was ths picture of a man holding steadfast the branch of a huge banian tree in the midst of a large well and an elephant standing at the brink of the well and trying with its mighty trunk to catch the man. At the bottom of the well there was a huge
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________________ 126 boa with its mouth open, ready to swallow the man. On each side of the well at the bottom there were four snakes with their hoods expanded, furiously hissing and ready to sting the man. Two rats-one white and one black were eating away the trunk of the ba nian tree. On the top of a branch there was a honey-comb with a swarm of bees. The elephant while trying to catch the man moved that branch to and fro and caused some drops of honey to fall on the lips of the map. A monk-the minister of religion stood on the opposite side of the elephant in his white garments, offering help to rescue the man from the well and from the attack of the elephant. And all this was in the midst of a forest. I could not understand the meaning of the painting. I gazed at it for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and still could not understand the meaning. Then I asked my father, "Papa, this picture seems to be very strange, what does it mean?" He at once said "will you be able to understand it, even if I tell you what it is; I think you will. Once upon a time this man whom you see in the picture hanging in the well was travelling from place to place with a party and they happened to pass through a thick forest full of wild beasts and robbers. While they were in the midst of the forest, some robbers attacked them. They all fled for their lives in different directions; this man too did the same but he lost his
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________________ 127 o Furio not firelephants track and while he looked back to see where he was, he Saw that this elephant was furiously running after him. He saw that if he could not find some shelter, be would be instantly killed by the elephant. He looked in other directions and saw this well. He thought--this elephant is sure to kill me, I may perhaps save iny self by jumping into the well. Off he jumps into the well and gets hold of one of the branches of the banian tree which you see in the well. At the bottom he saw that huge boa ready to swallow him; on the four sides of the well at the bottom he saw four snakes hissing at him. The two rats are eating away the trunk of the tree and from the honey-comb at the top of the branch some drops of honey are falling on his lips. Just at this time, . minister of religion (like our respected brother Jones] happens to come there and offers him help to rescue him from the well, but the fellow seems quite Satisfi. ed with his lot while having the sweet taste of honey drops. He does not realize the fact that the whole trunk of the tree will be eaten away by the rats and then he would have no support at all; he would have to fall down to be swallowed by the cobra. This whole drama is represented in this picture." I said to my father, " Well, but what is the meaning of all this drama," he said, "It is all symbolical. This man in the well in this forest is the ordinary wordly man, The elephant that ran after him is death; the well is
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________________ 128 this earthly life; the bor is the symbol of the lowest state of existence. The four snakes are the symbols of Anger, Vanity, Deceit and Greediness. The trunk of the banian tree is the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, white and black represent time, the light halt and dark half of the month which exhaust our earthly duration. The bees in the honey-comb are the organs of senses and the honey-drops represent the sensuous pleasures. And the minister represents the true religion. So the whole thing comes to this. The common man of the world, thinking that his life will be cut off at any time by death satisfies himself by enjoying the sensuous pleasures derived from the senses and does not care to receive the truths offered by true philosophy, he being influenced by sentiments of anger, vanity, deceit and greedmess represented by the four snakes." I was perfectly astonished at this explanation of the picture and of the view of life taken by the Hindus. This was when I was eight ears old. Twenty years after that, only the other day I hap pened to read one of Professor Max Muller's work, and I was much more astonished to see that he also expressed himself in pretty nearly the same terms. Here are his views:-Our idea of life on earth has always been that of a struggle for existence, a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of
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________________ 129 all nations whose history is known to us. Our own sympathies also are almost entirely on that side. But was man placed on this earth for that one purpose only ? Can we not imagine a different purpose, particularly under conditions such as existed for many centuries in India and nowhere else ? In India the necessaries of life were few, and those which existed were supplied without much exertion on the part of ma! by a bountiful nature, Clothing scanty as it was, was easily provided. Life in the ope: air or in the shades of the forest was more delightful than life in cottages or palaces. The danger of inroa is fron foreign countries was never drea:nt of before the ti.ne of Darius and Alexander, and then on one side on only, 0:1 the North, while more than a silver streak protected all around the far stretching shores of the country. Why s!10'ild the ancient inhabitants of India not have accepted their lot ? Was it so very unnatural for then, eodowed as they were, with a transcendent istallact, to look upon this life not as an arena for gladiatorial strife a:id coinbat, or as a market for cheating and huckstering, but as a resting place, a mere waiting room at a statio3 on a Journey leading theiu froin the known to the unknown, but exciting for that very reason their ut:nost curiosity as to whence they came and whither they were going. So in those palmy day of India a large class of people, not only the priestly class but the nobility also, not only men but women also
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________________ 130 never looked upon their life on earth as something real. What was real to them was the invisible, the life to come. What formed the theme of their conversations, what formed the subject of their meditations was the real that alone lent some kind of reality to this unreal phenomenal world. Whoever was supposed to have caught a new ray of truth was visited by young and old, was honored by princes and kings, nay was looked upon as holding a position far above that of kings and princes. I told you last Sunday that out of these rays of truth based on the Vedic literature of the Hindus six systems of philosophy arose. The first was the Nyaya system. The followers of that philosophy hoped by cultivating the instruments of knowledgeperception. Inference, Analogy, Testimony to reach final beautitude by right inquiry. They generalized from the phenomena of life to an extra cosmic Deity or superhuman powers commanding our homage and worship. The inanimate universe, including the soul and mind of man, they left to itself and believed to be the result of an act of divine creation. The Vaisheshikas accepted the generalizations of Nyaya but went a step further in analysing the nature of material existence. They acknowledged the existence of an extra cosmic Deity but like Gassendi nearly dropped the idea and busied them selves with the atoms and their nature. With them
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________________ 131 the universe began with atoms-infinite and eternal moved by the will of the divine power. Thus as Gautam, the author of Nyaya built up the metaphysics, Kanada the author of Vaisheshika supplied the physics of a philosophy which generally goes under the name of Dialectic philosophy. A philosophy built upon mere abstractions and generalizations from phenomena, which can in reality never be individually generalized from, must result in pure anthropomorphic Deism. Principal Caird atheism or Generalization, says in his philosophy of realigion. so far from apprehending reality is a process which takes us away from it, and the further it advances, the more abstract our thought becomes, the further do we recede from the real objective truth of things." If the Nyaya and Vaisheshika thus represent the positive side of the method of abstract generalization, the Charvakas the materialists represent the negative aspect. They were not far from the modern materialists when they maintained life, thought or energy to be the result of material organization, but their philosophy made few disciples and converted none. All experience is in favour of declaring that dead matter is never capable of producing life and even the best representatives of modern physical sience stand confessed of their ignorance of the real nature of matter and energy per se, at the altar" of eternal truth. Even Mr, Huxley says, In perfect strictness it is true that chemical investigation can tell us little 4.6 <<
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________________ 132 or nothing directly of the composition of living matter and it is also in strictness true that we know nothi:ig about the composition of any body whatever as it is." Observation has proved that every atom of watter is tull of energy in one form or another. So tirat instead of postpoing the appearance of mind to the last stage of material organization as the modern evolutionists have done, it is more consistent with reason to regard it as co-existent. The Nyaya philosophy regarded it as the very beginning buf the intermeddli:ig of a God isolated from his creation did not satisfy subsequent reasoners, such philosophy bii:ng subversive of that real knowledge which wst by the very conditions of knowledge or tho:ight loo's upo:) thought and intelligent being as inszparable. It is i: so 119 Such train of reasoning that wa Grd an exp'a:natio'i of Prakriti' and Purusha of Kapila's Sarkhya. The Sankhyas bad advanced further, if advance it inay be calleddthan the Vaisheshikas in their analysis of matter and had demonstrated a theory of euolution, anything more entirely novel than which eve: the Vedanta has not to teach. They postulated Prakriti or undifferentiated cosmic matter as the eterual basis of cosmic evolution; and they definitely enumerated the various evolving stages of this matter with its properties, being here upon called the Saukhyas. They however thought it would be inupossible to postulate inatter without mind and they therefore laid down an eternal union anal
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________________ 133 between Purusha or the eternal mind and Prakriti in all its stages of evolution. They attributed no functions to Purusha and regarded the evolutions of Prakriti for this Purnsha wbo was ever in it but never of it, trying in this inanner to satisfy the necessity of philosophic thought. The Sankhyas will thus be nearer the truth, nearer because they were, by postulating two entities in the form of Prakriti and Purusha, both interdependent so to speak, indirectly precluding the possibility of Moksha, salvation and initiating a principle whioh would lead to false results in practical ethics. Satvagana or purity the first of the three properties of matter is after all a kind of inaterial purity in as much as that property in inseparable from Prakriti and to set this up as a standard to which men should even try to reach is only to point a way to re-incarnation or fresh evolution (of the individual self) and misery contemplation of Prakriti can raise the contemplation no higher than Prakriti, the source of all inundage existence and misery. Patanjali not satisfied with the practical side of Sankhya set up a kind of training, generally known as Yoga for attaining the state of eternal bliss and postulated a kind of God, for purposes of com. templation. His Yoga led to marvellous physical results but nothing more. It again landed the student in Prakriti only on a higher stage of it. The Vedanta philosophy while trying to meet this diffi
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________________ 134 culty, wear off at a tangent in a region to be cons cious of which is an utter impossibility. Of Buddhisin and Jainism we shall judge later on. The details of these philosophies will interest none but a student of metaphysics. My purpose therefore lies in giving you the essential principles which make up what are known as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the first place, therefore, let us see what Hinduism says as to the existence and nature of soul for the theory of soul must be the foundation of every religion which deserves . name. In all ages it has been supposed that there is something divine in man; that there is in him the non-phenomenal agent on whom the phenomenal attributes of feeling, thinking and willing depend. To the Hindu philosophers this agent was self-evident (Svayamprakasha). Of course, this agent, which they called Self was not discovered in a day. We see in the Upanishads many attempts to discover and grasp it. I shall give you a kind of allegory representing the search after this Self from the Chhandogya Upanishad. It is a dialogue supposed to have taken place between Prajapati, the lord of creation, and Indra, as representing the Devas the bright gods and Virochna representing the Asuras, the opponents of the Devas. Prajapati is said to have uttered the following sentence. "The Self (Atman) free from sin, free from age, from death and grief, from hunger
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________________ 135 and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire and imagines nothing but what it out to imagine, that is what we search out, that is what we must try to understand. He who has searched out that Self and understands it obtains all worlds and desires--that is final beautitude. The gods and the demons both heard these words and said :--"Well, let us search for that Self by which if one has searched it, all worlds and all desires are obtained." Thus saying Indra went from he Devas, Virochana froin the demons and both without having cominunicated with each other, holding fuel in their hands as is the custom with pupils approaching their master. They dwelt there as pupils for thirty two years and served Prajapati. At the end of 32 years Prajapati turns his face to them and asks:-" For what purpose bave you been both dwelling here?" They replied that they had heard the saying of Prajapati and that they had both dwelt near him because they wished to know the Self." Prajapati like many of the ancient sages does not show himself inclined to part with his knowledge at once. He gives them several answers which though not exactly wrong are equivocal and open to a wrong interpretation. He says first: "The person that is seen in the eye, that is the Self. This is what I have said ; this is the immortal, the fearless, This is Brahman." If the pupils had understood this as meant for the person
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________________ 136 that sees through the eye, or out of the eye, they would have received a right though indirect idea of the Self. But when they thought that the reflection of man in the eye of another person was meant, they were wrong. And they evidently took it in the latter sense, for they asked--"Sir, he who is perceived in the water and he who is perceived in a mirror, who is he?" Prajapati replied:-He, the Self himself indeed is seen in all these. Look at yourself in a pan of water, and whatever you do not understand of yourself, come and tell me. They looked in the water pan. Then Prajapati said "what do you see." They said: " We both see the Self thus altogether, a picture even to the very hairs and nails," Praja pati then said: "After you have adorned yourselves, have put on your best clothes and cleansed yourselves, look again into the water pan." They did so and looked into the water pan. Prajapati says: " what do you see?" They said: "Just as we are, well-adorned, with our best clothes and clean, thus we are both there, Sir, well a lorned with our best clothes and clean." Praj: pati said: " that is the Self, that is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahman." They both went away satisfied in their hearts. Prajapati thought: " they both go away without having perceived and without having known the Ser and whoever of these two whether gods or demons
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________________ 137 will follow this doctrine will perish." Now Virochona satisfied in his heart went to the demons and preached that doctrine to them, that the Self alone is to be worshipped, that the Self alone is to be served and that he who worships the Self and serves the Self gains both worlds, this and the next. Therefore they call even now a man who does not give alms here who has no faith and offers no sacrifices an Asura, a demon; for this is the doctrine of demons. They deck out the body of the dead with perfumes, flowers and fine raiment by way of ornament and think they will thus conquer the world. But Indra before he had returned to the gods Saw this difficulty. As this Self (the shadow in the water, is well adorned when the body is well adorned, welldressed when the body is well dressed, well cleaned when the body is well cleaned, that Self will also be blind if the body is blind, lame if the body is lame, crippled if the body is crippled, and perish in fact as soon as the body parishes; therefore I see no good in this doctrine. Taking fuel in his hand he went again as a pupil to Prajapati. Prajapati said to him "Well, Indre, you went away with Virochana, quite satisfied in your heart, what has brought you back ?" Indra said "Sir, as this Self is well adorned when the body is well adorned, well dressed when the body is well dressed etc., that Self will also be blind when the body is blind? Therefore I see no good in this
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________________ 138 doctrine." So it is indeed, Prajapati said but I shall explain the true Self further to you. "Live with me another thirty two years." He lived with him another thirty two years and then Prajapati said, "He who moves about happy in dreams, he is the Self, this is the immortal, the fearless, this is Brahinan." Then Indra went away satisfied in his heart. But before he had returned to the gods, he saw this difficulty. Although it is true that that Self is not blind even if the body is blind, nor lame if the body is lame though it is true that that Self is not rendered faulty by the faults of the body, nor struck when the body is struck, nor lamed when the body is lamed, yet it is as if they stuck himn the Self in dreams as if they chased him. He becomes even conscious as it were, of pain and sheds tears in dreans. Therefore I see no good in this." Taking fuel in his hands he went again as a pupil to Prajapati. Prajapati said: "Well Indra, you went away satisfied in your heart, what has brought you back?" Indra told him his difficulty. Then Prajapati said: "So it is indeed, Indra. But I shall explain the true Self further to you. Live with me another thirty two years." He lived with him another thirty two years. Then Prajapati said: "When a man being asleep, reposing and at perfect rest, sees no dreams, that is the Self, this is the inmortal the fearless, this Brahman." Indra wept away, quite
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________________ 139 pleased; but before he had returned to the gods he thought: "Truly, in this dreamless repose he does not know his Self that he is I, nor does he know anything that exists. He is gone to utter annihilation. So I see no good in this." Taking fuel in his hands he once more went to Prajapati as his pupil. Prajapati again asked: "Well Indra, what again has brought you back?" He again told him his difficulty. Prajapati said: "So it is indeed, Indra; I shall explain the true Self further to you and nothing more than this. Live here another five years." He lived there for another five years. This made in all 101 years. Prajapati then said: "Indre this body is mortal and always held by death. It is the abode of that Self which is immortal and without body. When in the body by thinking this body is I and I am this body, the Self is held by pleasure and pain. So long as he is in the body he cannot get free from pleasure and pain. But when he is free of the body, when he knows himself different from the body, then neither pleasure nor pain touches himn. The wind is without body, the cloud, lightning and thunder are without body (without hands, feet etc). Now as these arising from the heavenly ether appear in their own form, as soon as they have approached the highest light, thus does that serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light-the knowledge of
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________________ 140 the Self. He in that state is the highest person. He moves about there laughing, playing and rejoicing, be it with women, carriages or relations, never minding the body into whicb he was born. Like a horse attached to a cart, the spirit is attached to the body. Now where the sight has entered into the void, there is the person of the eye, the eye itself is but the instrument of seeing. He who knows let me sinell this, he is the Self, the nose is but the instrument of sinelling. He who says-let ine say this-He is the Self, the to:igue is bat the instrument of saying. He who knows, let me hear this-be is the Self, the ear is but the instrument of hearing. He who knows let me think this, -he is the Self, the mind is but the divine eye. He is the Self, seeing these pleasures (which to others are hidden like a buired treasure of gold) through his divine eye i. e. through the mind rejoices. He who knows that Self and understands it, obtains all worlds and all desires." Indra was satisfied by this explanation, went to the gods and taught them this doctrine. This dialogue is so plain that I need not explain its esoteric meaning. It is on this dialouge that the various sub-divisions of the vedantic philosophy have offered different interpretations. We will take the interpretation of the most prominent Vedantist, Shaukara. Shankara says that is quite true as Prajapati said that the true Self has nothing to do
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________________ 141 with the body. For the body is mortal but the Self is not mortal. The Self dwells in the body and as long as he thinks that the body is I and I am body, the Self is enthralled by pleasure and pain, it is not perfect, it is not the immortal Self. But as soon as th: Salf knows that he is independent of the body and bacones free froin it, not by death but by knowledge, then he suffers no longer, neither pain nor pleasure can touch him. When he has approached this highest light of knowledge, then there is perfect serenity. He knows himself to be the highest Self and therefere is the highest Self, and though while lifa lasts, he moves about a nong the pleasant sights of the world, he does not mind them, they concern his body only, or his bodily Self, his ego, not his absolute Self. He goes a step further and lays down that it is not the invidual soul that is the highest self, the higbest Self is rot different from Brahma ; the interposition of ignorance, rescience or illusion leads the individual Self to believe that he is separate from Brabma; as soon as ignorance is removed, be is Brahma. He does not becoine Brahma, for really he was nothing less than Brahma. A post in darkness may seem to be a thief to a person but when the darkness is removed he realises that fact that it is a post and not a thief. On the disappearance of darkness, the object which was seen does not become a post but the fact is realised that it is and has ever
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________________ 142 been & post. In the saine manner, the individual Self does not become the highest Self; only the truth comes out that it is the highest self. This is the doctrine of the Highly philosophical Hindu. Let us now turn to Budddha and see what he says as to the existence and nature of soul. Buddha's merit consists not in promulgating a special theory of his own as to the nature or existence of soul but in avoiding the metaphysical and subtle disputation of the Brahmans. His sarcasm against this sort of discussion appears to be very bold as be read it in the Tevija Sutta. He says to a Brahman named Vasettha--"Then you say, Vasettha, that not one of the Brahmans. or of their teachers, or of their pupils have ever seen Brahma face to face. And that even Rishis of old, the utterers of the ancient verse which the Brahmans of to-day so carefully intone and recite precisely as they have been banded down even they deed not pretend to know or to have seen where or whence or whither Brahman is. So that the Brahman versed in the three Vedas have forsooth said thus: " To a state of union with that which we know not and have not seen we can show the way and can say; "this is the straight path, this is the direct way which leads him who acts according to him, into a state of union with Brahman." "Now what do you think, Vasettha ? Does it not follow, this being so, that the talk of the Brab
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________________ 143 mans, versed though they be in the three Vedas, is foolish talk ? Verily Vasettha that Brahmans versed in the three Vedas should be able to show the way to a state of union with that which they do not know, neither have seen-such a conditon of things has no existence. As when a string of blind men are clinging one to the other, reither can the foremost see nor can the middle one see, nor can the hindmost see, just so is the talk of the Brahmans versed in the three Vedas." What explanation then does Bouddha offer as to the nature of man and his relation to the world around him. In fact, Buddhism does not attempt to solve the problem of the primary origin of all things when Malunka asked Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or not-eternal, he made him no reply: the reason of this was that it was considered by him as an inquiry which tended to no profit. Buddhism takes as its ultinate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings living within it and it holds that everything is subject to the law of cause and effect, and that everything is constantly though imperceptibly chainging. The whole cosmos-earth, heavens and bell is always tending to removation or destruction; is always in & course of change, a series of revolutions, or of cycles, of which the beginning and end are unknowable and unknown.
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________________ 144 As to the nature of nan, Buddha's teaching is that it consists of an assemblage of different properties or qualities or aggregates none of which corresponds to the Hindu or modern nation of soul. These are Rupa, forms or material attributes, Vedanta, sensation Sangiz notions or abstract ideas, Sanskara, tende:1cies or potentialities and Vignan2 i, e., conscious less or nental powers. These aggregates along with hundred and ninety three sub-divisions exhaust all the elements, all the inaterial, intellectual and moral proparties and attributes of the individual. There exists nothing apart fro.n these, eitaer fixed principle or soul, or sinple or permanent substance of any kind. They unite and ar:auge themselves so as to form a separate being, undergo incessant modification along with it and dissolve at its death; the individual being throughout a compo:ind of compounds entirely parishes. The influence of its Karman alone of its acts survives it and through this the formation of a new group of Skanathas or aggregatas is immediately effected; a new individual rises into existence in sone other world. and continues in soine degree the first. The Buddhist strictly speaking does not revive but another if I may say so revives in his stead and it is to avert fro.n this other, who is to be only the heir of his Karma, the pains of existence that he aspires to Nirvan. Let us now turn to Jainism and see what ex planation it offers as to the nature and existence of
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________________ 145 so:11. While Vedantisin says that in reality nothing exists apart from Brahma, that the phenomenal world is an illusory phantom, that the only reality is noumenon-the Brahina, Jainisin says that both the noumenon and the phenomenon are real, the one cannot be separated from the other. Reality is not in the one, if considered alone and by itself, nor in the other if considered alone and by itself. The one as well as the other is a part of the reality. So in the Jain philosophy, the existence of both spirit and matter is postualted-both of them existing as separate entities so far as both of them exist as entities, they may be classed under one category of existence, the substance--one the inaterial, the other the spiritual. Both of them have their qualities and modifications. But while the Vedantist says that the nodification of a substance is a phenomenon and therefore unreal and the substance itself is the only reality, a Jain says that substance and its modification are inseparable. Though a substance is different from its modification, neither of them can exist without the other. Though gold may be said to be in a sense different from gold ring, the gold ring does not exist apart from gold, nor do you find gold existing separate from some modification or form. When an old form or inodification is destroyed, a new one is produced and in both cases we have the same substarice. This leads us to the Jain theory of the origin of the Universe. Jainism has two ways of looking
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________________ 146 at things-one called the Dravyarthika Naya and the other the Paryayarthika Naya. The production of a gold ring is the production of something not previously existing ( at least not as a ring ), if we think of it from the latter point of view i. e, as a Paryaya or modification; while it is not the production of something not previously existing, when we look at it from the former point of view i. e, as a Dravja 'or substance. So the Universe looked upon as a totality is eternal; when looked upon in its several parts and modifications there is in it creation and destruction every nioment. The Jain philosophy classifies the whole cosmos under two heads Jiva and Ajiva-sentient or conscious, and insentient or unconscious. The sentient or conscious being sullied by its contact with the insentient or unconscious travels from body to body. When this unnecessary contact is removed, the conscious will shine forth in its bliss and that state is its final emancipation. This brings us to the doctrine of re-incarnation and Karma, Although this doctrine is rejected throughout Europe and America by the Christians, it is accepted by the majority of inankind at the present day. It has been held as true by the mightiest Eastern nations. The ancient civilization of Egypt was built upon this doctrine and it was handed over to Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid who scattered it through Greece and al
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________________ 147 Italy. It is the keynote of Plato's philosophy when he says that all knowledge is reminiscence. It was wholly adopted by the Neo Platonists like Plotious and Proclas. The hundreds of millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains have made that doctrine the foundation of their philosophy, religion, government and social institutions. It was a cardinal point in the religion of the Persian unagi. The doctrine of Metenpsychosis was an essential principle of the Druid faith and was impressed upon your forefathers, the Celts, the Gauls and the Britons. Among the Arab philosophers it was a favorite idea. The rites and cereinonies of the Romans, Druids and Hebrews exoressed this truth forcibly. The Jainis adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. John the Baptist was to them a second Elijah. Jesus was thought to be a re-appearance of John the Baotist or one of the old prophets. The Roman Catholic purgatory seeins to be a make shift, co`itrived to take its place. Philosophers like Kant, Schelling and Schopenhauer have upheld this doctrine. Theologians like Julius Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. And to-tay it reigns over the Burnan, Sia nesz, Chinese, Japa lesz, Tartar, Tibetan East Indian and Ceylonese including at least 750 millions of mankind and nearly two thirds of the human race. It is not wonderful then that this great and grand philosophical deduction which the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains gave to the world centuries
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________________ 148 and centuries before the Christian Era should or could be blotted out of existence from the Western and European world by the soul-blighting and absurd dogmas of the dark ages that supervened ? By fhe persecution of wise men and destruction of innumerable works in the library of Constantinople, the Church hierarchy managed to plunge the whole of Europe into inental darkness which has given the world the black record of the inquisition and the loss of millons of human lives through religious wars and persecutions. What is re-incarnation ? Re-incarnation is the doctrine that souls enter this life not as a fresh creation, but after a long course of previous existences and will have to pass through many before it Teaches its final destination. Our age is the age of opinions. Instead of thinking ourselves, we allow others to think for us. If I can quote passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson or from Lord Tennyson's poems or from the Bible in favour of a cerfain theory no argument will be necessary to prove it. But if I quote a passage from my Bible, you will say you wont believe in its truth and will ask me to prove my position logically. I will accept the challenge and prove the truth of my theory, not by a quotation from my Scriptures but logically. We know that the human body is a mechanism not a mechanism like a watch or a steam-engiue but a knowing mnational
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________________ P 149 mechanism, able to control itself. It is controlled not by any external power but by a power within, which we call mind, soul, spirit or ego. The existence of this central power is disputed by none, Materialism declares this central power to be the property of matter, to be the product of molecular activities going on within the brain. This theory only explains how mechanical motions are produced in the brain cells. But machines only produce motions, not judgments. An amaba in search of food pursues po haphazard methods but makes most careful selections of the kind it wants. It will send out its pseudopodia, catch, Swallow and digest 4 struggling infusorium or other nutritious germ; but a mere touch of a grain of sand satisfies it as to its character, when it thrusts it from it in a way that plainly says. "That is not good." Oxygen consuming bacteria will cluster around graius of chlorophyl, if exposed to direct sunlight but pay no attention to them in the shade or darkness. They know when the oxygen is being given off Infusoria guide theniselves in hunting their food with apparently as much precision as fish. They avoid ostacles and sometimes undertake to move them out of the way. They reject the innutritious and take the nutritious. These facts, evidently teach that the central energy called the soul power is not the result of a nervous system but vice versa. In man this fact becomes most
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________________ 150 potent, what particular motion among the molecules of the brain can be postulated as the phisical equivalent and causal antecedent of our conceptions of justice, of truth, of moral obligation? The physical brain is limited to motion only, it cannot choose its own mode of motion even. What possible motion in the brain causes the idea I am I? This recognition of a real unit does not vary from the cradle to the grave. From childhood to old age, during the whole course of the total change of all brain molecules I am I is undisturbed. This I am I is the soul. It is this soul which makes memory possible. It has its own consciousness and not the consciousness of any one else, therefore it is a unit existing by itself. The law of the conservation of energy is true in the physical as well as in the spiritual world. Therefore as no atom can be created or destroyed, So also no soul-entity can be created or des troyed. What becomes of soul then after what we call death? No power in the universe can anuihilate it. It inust exist somewhere. In what state would it exist ? Does it at once pass into spiritual existence ? If so, there is no justice in hurling all the egos, good, bad or indifferent into spirituality without distinction. Spirituality itself means the existence of spirit pure and simple and there is no sense in asserting that all egos after death live in that state, when we know for a certainty that all of them have lived on this physical
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________________ 151 ysical plane tself after death the sout plane different kinds of life. Effects of good or bad acts committed on the physical plane must manifest. on the physical plane. The force created by the ego on the physical plane in this life must in some way or other manifest itself after death on the physical plane-be in future life. And if the soul has to pass through other future lives, is it unreasonable to say that it has passed through past lives also? If the soul was created at a time it must also die at death. Whatever begins in time inust end in time, If the soul is immortal, it must be immortal at both. its ends. It cannot be immortal at one end without being immortal at the other. The idea of special creation at birth implies the correlative of annihilation at death. It does not stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul enters this world for its first and only physical existence and then shoots off into an endless spiritual existence. As Einerson Says:-We wake and find ourselves on & stair. There are other stairs below us which we seem to have ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one which go upward and out of sight. Re-incarnation is the only doctrine wbich gives a complete solution of the much-disputed question of original sin. There cannot be greater injustice in the world than the fact that I am suffering for the transgression of iny ancestor. Adonis responsibility for our sin is only & make shift of the theo
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________________ 152 logions. No one but the individual himself can be blamed for his wrong doing. Are not the courts of Law of your United States founded on the ideas of justice? Will any Judge sitting on she throne of justice be justified in accepting the death--the voluntary suicide of Mr. B. as the proper retribution for the murder committed by Mr. A? And if he does that, will not the same Judge be arraigned before a superior Court having knowingly abetted the suicide of B? And still we are asked to believe that the guilt of one man can be washed by the suffering pf another. But the doctrine of re-incarnation assists us most when we look at the inequality and injustice and evil of the world and seek for solution. Why is one man born rich and the other poor. Why is one man born in Central Africa among the cannibals and the other in the peaceful part of India. Why is Queen Victoria born to rule over territories on which the Sun never sets and why is a labourer of Burma born in Burma to work as a slave in an Englishman's tea-garden. What is the cause of this apparent injustice ? Even those who belive in the personal creator of the universe must belive in this doctrine of re-incarnation in order to exonerate God from the charge of maliciousness. And now let us see if the Bible of Christendom assists in upholding this doctrine. In the proverbs of Soloinon we find
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________________ 153 this passage---(Proverbs VIII. 22-31). Here all the passages except the last two prove the pre-existence of soul, and not the creation at a certain time. The last two passages even prove a prior physical life. Let us turn to Jeremiah I 5. "Before I formed thee in the belley I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." This shows that the proehets too had existed before. Even in the New Testament there is sufficient evidence for re-incarnation. In John IX 2 a question is put to Jesus by his disciples-Which did sin, this man or bis parents that he was born blind ? This refers to two popular theories of the time-one that of Moses who taught that the sins of fathers would descend on the children to the third and the fourth generation and the other that of re-incarnation doctrine. He merely says that neither that man's sin nor his father's sin was the cause of his blindness; he does not deny the pre-existence of that man. For in Galatians Ch. VI 7 we fiad for whatever a man soweth that shall he also the reap. Paul does not here mean that what a man soweth in this physical existence that he shall reap in spiritual existence. For in the next passage he says: -For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life ever lasting. Even the words of Jesus confirin the doctrine. In St. Mathew Ch. XI he says: Verily I
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________________ 154 say unto you among them that are born of women. there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom. of heaven is greater than he. And from the days. of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if ye will receive it this is Elias, which was far to come." Does not Jesus mean that John was re-incarnated Elias. It is useless to multiply * instances taken from the Bible. For every candid Christian student must acknowledge that the truth of the doctrineof Re-incarnation does not depent on a scriptural mention. But some people may say--If this doctrine is true, how is it that we do not remember our past incarnations. I will ask such people--In what way do we exercise the faculty of memory ? Certainly, so far as we are living in a body, we exercise it through the brain. In passing from one incarnation to the other, the soul does not carry its former brain in the new body. Even during the course of one life, da
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________________ 155 we always remember our past doings ? Can any one remember that wonderful epoch the infancy ? is common to This doctrine of re-incarnation Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Out of these ideas, all of them have constructed high codes of morality pretty nearly similar to one another,
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________________ 156 THE TRUE LAWS OF LIFE. The subject of the True Laws of Life is a very wide one, because these laws cannot be ascertained from a limited observation only of a few facts. We may collect a few facts on the physical basis, we may collect a few facts on the domain of the animal kingdom, and some others which concern homan development, but the deductions drawn from these facts must be limited because we do not take into consideration the fact that there are many other planes of consciousness and of existence, and to derive laws concerning life on only a few stages would be altogether insufficient to establish a general rule for our life as human beings. If human beings were totally separated from others beings, if they were to live on a planet without any other life than the human life we might make laws of life after observations only of the human species. Scientists have derived very limited conclusions, right only so far as those limited observations are concerned, and they cannot derive conclusions froin the facts beyond the horizon of their observations. Suppose a being
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________________ 157. living in the sea and having only one organ, that of touch, to be suddenly developed into a higher being with. five senses and placed on the shore. It sees and hears many things which it has not percieved before, having no eyes and ears; how can it understand these things ? It will not believe its own senses. Such has been the case with those huinan beings who have only had limited observations from which to draw their conclusions, when their area is extended to the whole. But if we extend our horizon, if we take into consideration the fact that life is eternal, did not begin at any time, and is not going to end at any time, and that it is going to exist in soine state or other at all times, then we can be in a position to derive conclusions valuable to all lives and to all living beings at all times. That is the way in which our philosophers have looked upon life. There is another difference with them, and it is this: you have another idea of life that is, the object of life itself is different from thier view. Their view may apper mystical to soine of these scientists and philosophers, but I only wish to put before you the two views and you can derive conclusions for yourself. As Max Muller has stated in his latest work, the idea of life in all the Western countries is that of a struggle for existence. That has been the idea of life in all the nation with which Europeans and Americans have become acquainted; that is also the idea of life of the Eu
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________________ 158 glish people. But he also says that that is not the only object to, which human beings were plaeed on this planet, and then he refers to the Hindus, and explains some points of the Hindu religion. Our idea of life has always been different, even in the times of foreign rulers; the idea has been unchanged; even to-day, among the masses, that idea is to be found. The street-sweeper knows that the physical life is only a station in the journey which he considers to be etertial. So far as the state of the soul is concerned it is eternal, that is to say; so far as the physical life is concerned it is non-eternal. He understands that the character depends on the effort of the soul. This idea is to be found in all the philosophies of India. If the idea of lile is different and the object is different, then the laws which such a people would establish for their life would also be different. The Hindus have passed through many stages, There is a stage in which we are always attracted by everything material. The Hindus have passed that stage. There is a stage in which the eye is attracted by anything beutiful and attractive; in fact, in that first stage, in order to attract the attention of such a person a picture is necessary. Even in advertising the attention of people can sopatinis be drawn only by showing pictures. But further on, when they think that that is done only fron a selfish motive, it does not depend
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________________ 159 only on the sight, the person wishes to hear something, and then he begins to reason. In this country indeed there was a time and among ordinary people this is still a time when they are attracted by pictures; but the intelligent, thinking people have passed beyond that stage and wish to hear as well as to see something. This fact is true in this country as in any other, in India as in America. The very fact that we pass from that stage of attraclion of the eye to that of the ear is a sign of real progress. Today in India, if a person is given any newspaper in which there are pictures in connection with the advertisements, and is asked to purchase something from the store, he will say. "That person has spent so much money in advertising that his charges will be higher," and in that way he will settle the business. He has passed from the stage in which the eye is attracted to that in which the ear is attracted. Later still we hear eloquent people, and they electrify us as it were on account of their pover of speech, and so neti nes we come to conclusions while heariug them which would not be our conclusions if it were not for this power. But if we have passed that stage, when we come hone we reason on those points and decide then for ourselves. Progress is, really speaking, the object of life. If the object of life is determined we can deal with the laws. First of all we know that life is eternal? second, we know that our object is progress and the
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________________ 160 achievement of happiness. The question arises, "What is happiness ?" The solution of this question depends on the idea of life. If life ineans only the organization of the body, the health of the body in this life, then the object of that life would be to keep the budy in a healthy condition, and to use all possible means for that purpose. I have said that as we pass froin what attracts the eye merely to that which attracts the rear, the reasoning faculties awaken, and we pass from this stage to that in which we are attracted by these things which appeal to the reason. But we know that there are other parts equally necessary with the physical organism to the life of a human being, and that the laws connected with all these factulties are real laws and those which advance happiness, but those which advance the happiness of only one factulty cannot be the right laws. If the object of life is merely happiness for the time being we can derive such happiness froin the use of intoxicating liquors; but all people agree that there is no real happiness in this. Sometiines bappiness is defined as the greatest good of the greatest number, and there the question comes in, "What is the good, after all ?" Most of the professors of political economy think that happiness consists in meterial prosperity of the people, and a fanious English philosopher says that a country may be very progressive, but if there is no philosophy there, if the people do not think on higher
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________________ 161 thliin ilill sujects than material and physical welfare, then though its granaries may be full, although there may be hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds or rupees among the people, if philosophy is not there it is a sign of the beast. He says that because only one side of the human nature is advanced, this must be so, but if all sides are taken into consideration and simultaneous progress is made on all, there is real advancement. For this purpose we must progress in the physical, mental and moral nature, and in the spiritual. These are so many different natures of the human being, and when we wish to progress on all these differeni planes we must consider that there are other living beings besides ourselves, who are related to us, and no laws can be established which do not take into consideration the welfare of these living beings. First take into consideration the physical developinent. We know that the body must be healthy, that the right kind of food must be taken, the right kind of exercise and nourishment, and the right kind of clothing worn; all these laws we know, and nothing need be said on that subject; but the real laws he have to learn, even in connection with these things, are to help us to understand the deeper meanings of life. Is it only for our health that we are to have a peculiar kind of diet? Has out that something to do with the mental and moral nature ? This is where our Hindu philosophy lends us some help. We divide
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________________ 162 food into three kinds, and not, as Western scientists do, into two, saying that there is one kind which is nitrogenous and another which is non-nitrogenous, meaning simply the elements necessary for the support of the human body. We say that there are three kinds, one having the property of passivity aud purity, another having the property of activity, and the third having that of grossness; and we make these three divisions because we wish to take into consideration the moral influences of the food. When we eat of a certain kind of food, it may be nutritious so far as the physical part of the body is concerned, but at the same time it may create peculiar enanations from the body which would lower us so far as our moral nature is concerned. Therefore, notwithstanding its nutritious character, we will avoid that kind of food because it is according to our philosophy, of the third kind, having grossness. It may be nutritious, but it may excite the passions, may stimulate and therefore hurt us. The scientists also will say the same thing, but they would say that we should eat that kind of food because it stimulates the palate and therefore does not injure health. Everything is to be judged, from your standpoint of healthy food, simply by its effect on the physical organism. But when we take into consideration the influence of that food on other beings besides ourselves we must take into consideration the nature
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________________ 163 : of the animal. It is said that there are many elea ments in animal food which would be nutritious and would help to support the huinan body, and which are as good as those found in vegetables. Certainly, in fruits and nuts and other things which do not come from the animal we may find these same elements. Still, we say that there is a maral and ethical reason against eating that kind of food, and not only moral but also spiritual reason. In the first place the moral philosophy of our religion says that we have no right to destroy life in any being if we cannot give it to any being. That is the funda mental proposition of our religion. If we follow that rile then any destruction of life is surely to be avoident. But the question may come in. For any kind of food destriction of life is necessary; even in the vegetable there is life, and one must destroy that life in order to prepare foot fitted for our diet. We adinit that we have to destroy life in order to live, but life is of so many grades, so many classes one higher than another, and if that argument is to be applied, that it is the same to destroy life, whether animal or vegetable, we can also apply the argu nent to the destruction of hu:nan beings; but we all make a distinction there. Why do we not destroy h:1'nan beings, then? We say that they have souls. B:1t we can never destroy the soul; they only leave the body and go to some other place or into sona other body, but according to the opinion
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________________ 164 of all religionists the soul is not destroyed with the body, only the relation is broken. The relation is higher and more coinplicated in the case of the human being than in that of the aniinal, and higher in aninals than in vegetables. We apply this rule to our business affairs; we follow that rule when there are two kinds of business, one more and the other less profitable; we follow that which is mora profitable, and we will abandon that in waich wa suust lose a thousand dollars before that in which we lose a less sum or nothing at all. We also apply this to the case of diet; there are spiritual reasons for avoiding that diet in which certain kinds of feelings and emotions are created. When we consider the mental state in animals, especially when they are prepared for death, just imagine the state even of a chicken at the time of being killed, and its nental condition, - our philosophy in this matter even analyzes this feeling, -we shall see that the mentality or emotion is only a peculiar state of vibrations of the physical matter of the body. If every thought, if every feeling, if every emotion causes a peculiar state of the body, such diet will certainly bave its effect on our physical and mental nature. Suppose a merchant dealing in cotton receives a telegram in the city of New York that the price of cotton has fallen fifty per cent. He opens the telegram and reads it, and if you feel his pulse you will find that there
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________________ 165 is a very great change in the state of bis pulse, although he has done nothing but read a few words on a piece of paper. If this is the effect of the mantal upon the physical state of the human being, what would be the effect upon th: animal of the knowledge that it was to be killed. Besides this, the animals which are etaten have only taken the elements which are in the vegetable and have assimilated them into their systems. We are in a sufficiently animal conditon without adding the animal nature to our own. The phisical impurities also and the injurious humors and ethers of an injurious na#ure are always present in animals which are especially raised for the purpose of food. The turkey is stuffed as it were with food, and is made to appear fat and plump. To try the same experiment with the human being would produce a state of body which you can all imagine. To keep our own body healthy we must take sufficient exercise; if we eat something which is not necessary for us we know that the result will be injurious, and that is the experience of all people in all countries of the world. In more ancient times the life was simpler, but now the discovery of all these different medicines for curing dyspepsia shows that people are suffering from this disease. In this country we know that there are so many kinds of pills and medicines used; we even have those in India now. These things show that not only in America but in all
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________________ 166 countries it is because people do not know the rules for diet that we have recourse to artificial means. It is better to follow the rules of diet in the beginning : and not have any kind of artificial medicines at all. We have to know so many things even in regard to food, and how much more in regard to the mental, moral, and further on the spiritual nature ! Take the mind in its ordinary conditon ; it can think on so many subjects, and many run in different directions at different times. After being fixed on one point the result is that the mind can be consentrated on one subject more easily. This may be the result either of food or of a different way of living, with regular hours of sleep, a proper amount of exercise, thinking of subjects which excite the mind. The general rule with regard to the develop ment of the mental nature is that we should be compelled some how or other to coucentrate our attention on one thing. A person employed in any department of life who is not able to center his thoughts on this department, on his duties, will be dismissed. Even in our business affairs that concentration is necessary, and if for the purpose of making a little money it is necessary that we should do this, how much more is it true in spiritual things ! It is not an easy thing if money is the object, which it takes so much time and labor to accumulate; it is much more difficult to acquire the spiritual knowledge. This brings us to the science of con
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________________ 167 centration. We have to observe the physical rules and mental rules of concentration. How can we concentrate our attention? In a sense all of us do concentrate; we only do not know that we do it. Many of us are fond of certain things and spend much time in the pursuit of those things. Those who are fond of books will always go to a book-store to see what new books have arrived and purchage and read thein. Those who are fond of newspapers will wait when the newspaper comes out of the press, to secure the first copy and read it. If we can concentrate our thoughts on these subjects why should we not be able to concentrate our thoughts on the right subjects? If our object of life is only to secure a few facts in each department, that is the right thing for us to do. If we desire to keep up with the times then we have to know all the things which are necessary for our information, and this can only be done by concentrating our thoughts. If the department of life in which we are engaged is such that our very maintenance depends on the knowledge of these things we must concentrate upon them. Will this really advance us ? The ordinary result is that we become fond only of unimportant things, later on, of sensational things and still later of those things which will satisfy our morbid appetites. That is the reason why there are so msny sensatinal novels written. All these things are really injurious. When a murder is committed and the in
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________________ 168 formation concerning it is published, people are, after the extra papers, and read the details with eagerness. Why? Because on account of the unnatural life they lead their propensities are such that nothing can satisfy them except that kind of information. The further result is that the mind being in a state of vibration and therefore in a state to transmit these vibrations to the ethereal matter outside of us, they are carried to other people and thus these propensities are also transmitted, We have even known that when a murder has been committed in one part of the country, just about the same time many othermurders are committed in other parts of the country. How can this be explained but on the hypothesis that the minds of persons Saturated with these thoughts are influencing others by means of the transmission of the thoughts to another place where they are received by a person in a similar condition of mind and translated into thoughts which act on the physical organism and produce the desire to commit the crime? From a physiological standpoint we know that the germs from small-pox and other contagious diseases are flying in very direction, and that we should not come into contact with persons who have these diseases. We must take even more care in matters of the mental and moral nature, and thought has indeed a wonderful power of acting on a person's mind, as we seen in our daily experience. When one person meets another, supe
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________________ 169 pose a conversation take place between them, whom we will call A and B. A says, well Mr. B. I think you are looking forty years old instead of thirty. How is that? There is a change in that perspn's mental organism which makes him actually appear forty years old for the moment. We are influenced in that way every day. If we call all people sinful they will feel always that they are considered so. and if they are not sinful they wil commit sins and be sinful to some degree from this suggestion. But if we say that man is divine, that we are a part of God, as Jesus said, then we rise higher and higher toward our ideal. Then another rule comes in, that the faults of other people ought not to be discussed or mentioned even, and this rule is practically put into force in India. One of the teachings given to us is that every person ought to cultivate four kinds of thoughts; one is friendliness, to consider all living beings as our friends and not our enemies at all. If any person injures 118, we must only think in this way, that he is injuring himself, and why should we injure him again in return. When I injure another peason I bave injured my spiritual nature, and if that person injures me in return he injures my body therefore that system is condemned by our religion and philosophy. The second kind of thought to be kept present in the mind is gladness. That is, to be gla'i at the happiness or prosperty of other people, that is, never to be jealous. If a person becomes rich,
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________________ 170 simply be glad of that. The third thought is con-- passion. If we see a person or any being in a miserable condition let us have some pity for hiin, have compassion for him, sympathize with him, but never think he ought to suffer, because it is a just punishment. Of course it is just that he should suffer, but we ought not to send any vibrations except those of sympathy, for that would inake our own nature hard and crued. The fourth thought is indifference. That is a very dubious word. Of course we ought not to be indifferent in a certain way, but we should be indifferent to the faults of other people. Our business ought not to be to find fault with any other person; with regard to that fault we should only say that he has that fault and it would be well if he sould improve his fault ; but never try to make that fault greater and greater. Be charitable with regard to this, as Jesus was in the case of the wonian who was taken in adultery. When we think that a certain per:on is guilty and that his judgment is left to us, always think that he is to be raised and not lowered. Avoid temptation even in thought. These four rules have always been taught to us; there is no hope of progress even until these four thoughts become parnanent in our minds. This state is a mental state, but when we come into contact with: other people we have to act towards them, therr something practical comes in; then comes in the moral nature. Morality is not to be practised only
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________________ 171 because by the practise of that inorality we are to rise higher, but because it is the life of the soul, the very essence of the soul. There may be some results to be derived from that kind of conduct, but that is not the object of the soul. No other life can conflict with it. Truthfulness, kindness, justice and universal love are only the features of the soul's life. There may be other results but from these the person's object in life is seen. A man may plant trees in an orchard, and at the same time other things, as grass etc, but his real object is not grass or other things, but fruit. In the saine manner there may by many occult powers which will come from the observance of all these rules, but that is not the object of the soul, and if this is made the object of the soul it is degraded to a certain extent. This will be the same thing as saying, "be good for the sake of goodness," and no other purpose with no idea of getting any other fruit or having iny reward. When we want to have a reward we really sell our soul power, and any possible price is very little in consideration or in comparison with the nature of the soul. Nothing can be considered but the power of the soul, the potencies which are these. These are the moral rules. I could at the same time tell you many things as to the results actually derived from the practise of the moral rules, but any one who practises them will find out that these results are facts, but when they are practised only for the purpose of gain of some
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________________ 172 kind there is no real value in them to the soul. The occult powers may be possessed, but if they are not used in the right way it is a loss rather than a again. If the object is ouly living the soul life the occult powers may come out, and there is real gain and not loss of anything. Take universal love and the result derived from the practise of this is freedom from danger of any kind. A person who practises universal love to the highest extent in all the relations of life has no fear of injury from any source; but we generally do not practise these things and therefore how can we expect to derive real benefit fro:n them ? Nothing can injure such a persou except on account of the Karma engendered in the past life which is not yet worked out. The actual result you will see in India. It has been said, "He shall give his angels charge over thee," but hunan beings are higher than angels. I have said in my other classes concerning the Hindu monks that when a person practises universal love his very being becoines Saturated with the vibrations of love, and the wild animals, which prey upon each other because they have no sympathy, in the case of these monks the vibrations subdue the aniinal natare and the monks can sleep in the jungle among the wild beasts with perfect Safety. I wouid say that India is not one country but a collection of many nationalities. and the Hindus are only one of these and therefore the whole of India is not Hindu India, but India is a co:nbination of Hindus, Jains,
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________________ 173 Mohammedans, Christians, Jews, Parsees, Turks and remnants of the aboriginal tribes or Hillmen. The Populalion is about three hundred millions, The statistics as they have been presented show that about twenty thousand persons were in a certain year killed by wild beasts, including of course serpents. and scorpians. This twenty thousand when compare ed to the whole population of India is not so very large. Even in the United States most of the crimes which are com:nitted can be traced to drink, and when we compare that state with the state of India the deaths froin wild animals are nothing in coniparison to the other statement; and when we also consider the fact that these people who are killed are not always Hindus, and that all of thein are not of the highest class in morality, who always practise universal love, we can see that there is really nothing in this to prove that universal love causes the couptry to be overrun with animals. It is probable that there is not a single instance in a community of Jains in which a person is known to have been devoured by any wild beast. No monk has up to this time been killed in this way. All these facts would prove that this practise of universal love tends to curb the wild nature of animals. We have said that these beasts have a ferocious nature. There is no real necessity for a ferocious nature in animals but there must be some reason for its existence, It is a result of some kind of feeling on the part of
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________________ 174 human beings. Where there is always a desire of killing there is always a great deal of passion and if the human being on account of his inventive genius has discovered many things for the purpose of destroying them, yet he does not diminish the number of these animals; they must be destroyed every year. There are many other things which destroy human life, and the means taken to destroy them simply increase them, because it is not the right means. Evil is not to be averted by another evil, but by good. Even in great wars, where people have fought with one another a comyromise has been brought about by word of mouth and in no other way.' I think that this was also said by one of your presidents in his message (Lincoln). Therefore we always prefer the inode of forgiveness and not of offending in return. There is another reason why such a report as this that I have quoted comes to this country, of so nany hunau beings having been killed. It is this, that when a person dies the dead body is taken to the coronar's and a certificate must accompany it; and if such a certificate is not produced inquiry will be made, which would take so much time and trouble for the relatives of the person, that so nati'nes poor people who have never been under treatment of any doctor, and are compelled to produce this certificate, when they are asked from what cause the person died, will say that he died of snake-bite, in which case of course no physician iniliniai
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________________ 175 could have been called. I myself have observed such instances. In that way the matter is disposed of at once. So it will be seen that such statistics . cannot be relied on. We may find in the reports of the missionaries that 72,000 people are waiting for bap tism in India, and there are not hands enough to baptize them. This was asked me, and I said that I myself had not seen the people who were waiting for this, but there is no difficulty in baptizing them; the Americans are a very inventive people, and they can easily send over a few fire-engines to India to solve the difficulty. Thus there are many reports in this country about India of which we in India have never heard. We Say, then that though we can derive many results, obtain many occult powers by the practise of these moral acts, that is not the object of the moral acts. They are to be practised for their own sake. Finally comes in the spiritul nature of the soul. What is really speaking the the spiritual nature of the soul? It may be said to have a center but np circumference, ani therefore cannot be described by any words; it can only be experienced by all of us, if we are living on that plane; but we can some times describe it by simile. The idea of the soul is always explained by the circle. Its having no circumference ineaus simply that there is a unit, a real soul, but it cannot be located. All oriental nations are fond of using similies, and in fact, in the ancient times there was no other way of explaining
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________________ 176 these things. The Egyptians often used the figure of a cat for representing the moon, and some mythologists have said that there was a cat behind the moon in their conception; but that was not the idea, The idea was that the cat can see in the night, and the moon is the source from which we obtain light at night. The idea of spirit and matter comming into conjunction has been represented by a cross. That does not mean that matter is always in a perpendingcular and spirit in a horizontal position, but only that this figure expresses the idea. So we have hundreds and thousands, of symbols which inay not be described by any words. The description which would be given of different things is just according to the idea that we derive through experience of our senses. As the soul itself is not a thing which can be perceived by the senses, no material description could be used for it. We say that the soul passes into Nirvana, but we express this idea in sentences, so that we may have at least sone idea of the condition which is called Nirvana though it cannot be described in language, We say that that condition is infinite existence, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss, and we must bear in mind that infinite conditions mean not material Sense-conditions having no end. There cannot be two infinities; there cannot be two things existing at the same time at all points, if we regard merely space; but infinite power does not require space; it is not a material ihing. Materil power may
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________________ 177 require a material edium and infinite material po wer must require and infinite medium; therefore there could Dot be two such material infinite powers existing. But knowledge tueans the power of know wing sounething, and is not inaterial; therefore that idea of the impossibility of the existence of two infinite things is really speaking a false idea because the reasoning it self is fallacious. It is a reasoning in which there is no iniddle term, because the word infinite would be used in the major and minor pre. mises in two different senses. We have therefore to discuss the physical condition, mental, moral and spiritual conditions of the soul, and the laws which B:e to be derived for the purpose of advancing the life of the soul must be based on the facts which are experienced on all these planes, and must also be based on the true ideas of the relation of the human being with other beings. Although in a theoretical sense we may divide the planes of life into different divisions, the lowest kind being the monad, along all the other planes, the vegetable, animal, etc., till we come to tne highest plane, that of human life, which we also divide into different planes, still we know that our own life is related to all other life, and certainly we must observe the facts with regard to all this other life. Physical life we can know by actual observation, in other forins of life, or in the human body itself. How is it maintained ? Let us observe in the case of the tree. It lives by gathering to itself
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________________ 178 Other particles of matter which it assimilates. At the same time, while it assimilates all these it destroys the life of these particles. If these particles lived their own life always independently of the life of the tree, there could be no growth. . Suppose in the human body so many living beings, each living its own life the human being cannot live. The physical elements must be assimilated. So in the physical life there is no possibility of existence without destruction of other life; at the same time we know that to a certain extent there is always gathering of inore and more particles every moment, but finally the organism collects less and less and at last it disintegrates and the life force departs from it and we call this death. This is the ordinary idea of the physical life, and most of us who have not studied occult sciences think that there is no life beyond this, and that all rules must be based only on facts observed in this life and that advancement in this life is the object to be gained. To a certain extent the destruction of the physical life is the deith of the soul, for it is a change in the condition of the soul; the relation is broken. In order to live the highest kind of life there ought to be the greatest amount of spiritual life, and this killing of other beings ought to be carried only to that extent necessary to support the body and not for any otner purpose. No act therefore ought to be done which would necessarily lead to killing other beings.
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________________ 179 A beautiful illustration is given in the Jain philosophy. There was a gentleman who was a great merchant, and for smuggling certain articles into his store was punished with a certain time of imprisonment. The next day his son was injured by another person who was also sentenced to the same time of imprisonment and was put into the same cell in the penilentiary and on account of the pectiliar lays of the city in which they lived both of them were prit in "he sto-ks, wooden instruments in which they cannot move. Sometimes they would be put into chains, and then also one cannot move without the concurrence of the other. For some purpose the one person, whon we call A. wished to go out of the cell, and said to the other. whom we will call P. "I wish to go out." B replied, "Y011 gave me none of the food which was brought to y011." A. Said, "Next time I will do so," and the next day when the food was brought he gave him a portion of it, and cotindued to do so every day. B. of course was obliged to stay in the prison one day longer than A, as he was imprisoner on the day after A. When A. was released he did not send for the food again for B. because there would be no necessity for sending it in the same manner. We say of the body and the soul that they are put together as these men were chained together, and as the soul requires the body to serve its purposed, food is necessary to sustain the borly in accomplishing this purpose; but if it is taken
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________________ 180 for another purpose there is a departure from the right reason, and instead of assisting the soul it injures the soul. We are to live just as A, gave the food, for a certain purpose so that he might leave his cell; in the same way the body cannot do any. thing unless it has food prepared for it; not that the food itself will be changed into some spiritual substance, but it is always to be used for a certain purpose. The soul lives its own life, not for the purpose of the body, but the body lives for the purpose of the soul, and every opportunity which the body affords to the soul for thinkng on higher matters must be taken advantage of; but if we believe that the soul is to be controlled by the body the soul misses its powers in this way. This is the way in which we understand the relation of the soul and the body.
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________________ 181 KARMA In the logical development of the Hindu philosophical systems, the doctrine of Karma occupies a conspicuous place. The earliest effusions of the Aryan people, when we first find them settling on the bank of the Indus, are prayers to nature-gods, invoking them to protect themselves and their flocks and to help them in conquering their enemies. Their ceremonial corsisted of offerings of oblations to the names of deceased ancestors, sacrifices to the powers of nature and paraises of the benign forces which they had personified. This the later Hindus called the Karma-marga, the path of works in contradistinction to the Gnana-marga the path of knowledge. The Upnishads and the Bhagavad-gita treatof Karma in the above sense and the sense of duty. The Dharma-shastra precribe many ceremonials and duties under the head Karma. The Vedanta sharply distinguishes the Karma-marga from the Gnana-marga.
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________________ 182 One of the truths of Philology, which strikes us more than others, is that a world continually develops in ideas with the advance of culfure and civilization. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus uses the word, "Logos" in the sense of the reason of the world. His analysis of the world ultima tely leads him to the principle of Becoining, Change. In this view, this change is accoulished in accordance with definite relations, and in a succession that remains always the same. This rhythin of events be calls by various na mes. Destiny, Order, Reason (Logos) is his First Principale. These predicates, in which physical, ethical and logical order in the world appear as still identified, -prove only the undeveloped state of thougbi wnich does noi yet know how to seprate the different motives. The Stoic's had a littie different view of the wogos. According to thin the entire universe formed a singie, unitary, living, connecied whole, and that al particular things were the deter uinate forms assuued by a divine primitive power which was in a state of eternal activity. In their view, the deity, as the actively productive and formative power, is a kind of Logos; also the rational part of souls is a consubstantial emanation froin the divine Logos. The Christian idea of Logos is largely influenced by the Stoic doctrine; only-there are added to it the appeal to and supremacy of authority. Right knowledge was therefore, not possible except--through
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________________ 183 divine revelation. All knowledge is, as Numenius. said, the kindling of the small light from the great light which illumines the world. Later Logos gets entirely personified. Origen teaches that God begets the eternal Son, the Logos, as the sum-total of his world-thoughts, and through him the realm of free Spirits, which, liinited within itself, surrounds the deity as an ever-living garment. I have given the above illustration simply for confirming the idea that a word, with advancing vilization developes in meaning. I need not go into the discussion of the various meanings that were attached to Karma at different periods of its history. My present purpose is only to present to the readers a coinplete view of the subject of Karma as the Jains have understood it. What is Karma? Before answering this question, it will be necessary to know what the philosophical veiw of the Jains is in regard to the Cosmos. They teach that the total reality koown as the Cos:nos had 10 beginning and will have 30 end. More corretly speaking, the Cosmos did not come out of nothing and will never be annihilated. The substance, in the abstract sesnse, of the Cosmos is permanent; its activities are changing every moment. If Reality ineans the highest generalized idea we can from of whatever we come to know, it is the Being, Esse. It being the most abstract idea, it is not divisible. We may
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________________ 184 say it is one, without a second. Truly speaking, numbering does not apply to abstraction. If, however, reality means concrete substances having essentially different activities, defferent not only in degree but in kind, then we have two grand divisions of the Universe, the animate world and the inanimate world. In the Jain view, the inanimate world consists of matter, two kinds of ether, known as Dharmastikaya and Adharmasti kaya, and space The animate world consists of innumerable kinds of living beings, each being a centre of complex forces. Time may be figuratively called a substance, really meaning a generalized mode of thought in regard to the activities of beings and things. The universe is not merely a congries of the above mentioned substances, heaped together and set in activity by an extra cosmic creator, but is a system by itself, governed by laws inherent in its very consitution, Law is not to be understood in the sense of a rule of action prescribed by authority, but as a proposition which expresses the constant or regular order or certain phenomena, or constant mode of action of things and beings. It is not . command but a formula to which things or beings comform precisely and without exception, of course, under definite circumstances and surroundings. Jainism, therefore, is not a theistice system in the sense of the belief of the existence of a god as the
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________________ 185 Creator and Ruler of the universe. And still, the highest being, in the Jain view, is a person and not characterless, quality-less Being like Brahma of the Vedanta. Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable activities. In any particular being, these activities determine the stage of its evolution. It has its biological or vital activities-those of drawiug the necessary nutritive elements, assimilating them, also of growth agd decay and feeling in a way the influences of the forces of nature. Under certain circumstances and relationships, certain influences act upon it in an uncongenial way; and still, in course of tine, it developes a wonderful adaptibility.
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________________ 186 THE SCIENCE OF EATING.. This science may be treated not only from the standpoint of the westert scientists, but also from that of the Hindus. The scientists and chemists have analyzed in so many ways the different articles of diet, and have divided them into the two classess of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous foods, saying that the one is inportant for the forination of the tissues, bones, blood, etc., and the other kind is necessary for the formation of other elements. They give the percentage of different elements in all the different articles of diet and recommend some kinds and not others on the basis. While they analyze the food into physical elements, they do not consider the moral and spiritual elements. : Orur theory divides food into three kinds, going a step further, as it divides matter into three kinds, the first having the quality of passivity, the second of activity and the third of grossness. So food is divided into three classes, the first giving quietness, the second activity or motion or heat, and the third
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________________ 187 that class of food which gives the quality of slothfnlness of absence of motion, of the property of giving heat, or quietness even. These three properties of matter, each are found on the physical plane to have the qualities corresponding to those on the mental and moral planes. In this way we would not advocate some kinds of foods which are accepted as good by the chemists, and here the the great distinction comes in which the Hindus make in regard to food. In the matter of animal and vegetable food they accept the one and reject the other. The reason for this is different from the reasons given by the chemists. We admit that we have the same elements in animal food as in vegetable, but there are certain injurious properties in the animal food which do not exist in the vegetable. Take the first property of matter, quietness, purity, calinness, which is to be fonnd in all those very substantial and nutritious, in wheat and other nitrogenous substances, in milk, in butter even to a certain extent. These are used for the purpose of forming tissues, muscles, etc. There are other substances belonging to the second class which create heat in the body and these are the substances in which carbon is predominant. All fatty substance, all starchy substances are of the second class. In the human system these elements are necessary and therefore the first and second kinds of food are very important. The third kind gives sluggishness to the human
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________________ 188 body, and to this class belong the foods which we avoid. They clog the system. These are such foods as cheese, all earthy foods, and other substances in which there is difficulty of digestion. * We do not stop there, but examine the nature of the animal diet and the vegetable diet. The very elements which are found in the vegetable diet are also found in the animal diet, but there are certain other Teasons why we reject the latter. We first say that man was never intended to be a carnivorous animal. The scriptures are in favor of a vegetarian diet and not of the animal diet. There is a passage in Genesis which says that the God said, "I have given you every herb, etc., for your ineat.' Later op accout of the fall of man as it is understood, of course by all advocates of that theory, the people became flesh eaters and were carnivorous, but the original idea of holy persons was that the food proper for man was the vegetable diet. In other books of the Bible you will find passages confirming this theory. In the book of Daniel you will find such a passage. This proves that the earliest theory in the Bible history was of the vegetable diet. There are of course other reasons for following this rule besides the fact that Sacred history confirms it. There are many people who do not belive in these books, and they think only of scientic : facts. They think that muscular strength and endurance depend on animal 'diet, but science and
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________________ 189 facts are both against this view. In regard to muscular strength, in India we have all kinds of people, English and Hindus and in both endurance and strength the Hindus are far superior to the English people. In all parts of the world it has been known that the Hindus are more able to endure the struggles of war than the English. They say that in colder climates the carbons and fatty substances necessary to the human body can only be supplied by meat, but vegetables and all starchy substances contain more carbon than flesh. Another reason is given, that in colder climates vegetables do not grow, but in this age of civilization when transporation is so easy and one kind of food can be carried in so short a time from one country to another, these arguments are of no avail. If we coinpare different parts of the world where people use different kinds of food we shall find that this theory is controverted, for the people in Africa, living very near the Equator, are cannibals, while the Hindus who live in the Himalayas are still vegetarians. And we find proof of the comparative strength of the Hindus who live side by side with the English who are meat-eaters, that the travellers who go to Thibet, among the mountains where horses canuot travel, employ carriers who take the travellers on their shoulders and cross the mountain in this way. It is the Hindus who live on pulse and other herbs who are able to carry the
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________________ 190 meat-eating, pork-eating Englishman over the mountains which he cannot climb by himself. This is so far as physical strength is concerned. But there is not only the piysical conditon of the body that is to be taken into consideration, there are intellectual and moral reasons which are of more jinportance. Those who partake of animal food are not superior in this respect to those who live on vegetables, Animal food inust create animal nature. It is necessary not to increase the animal nature by taking in aninal food, but to make the mental and moral natures command the physical. The animal whose flesh we eat lived on vegetables, and when the animal character and propensities are given to the vegetable it is not well for the human being to take that kind of food, when these qualities have been added to it. A person who lives on animal food only is not able to enter into the studies of the higher sciences, which are very easy in the opinion of the people who live on simple vegetable food. We know by instinct that the vegetable food is best for us; we do not like the smell of raw meat, and it takes a great deal of time to become accustomed to the use of meat. We have to teach the baby to eat; meat; it has naturally no craving for it; so naturally man is not fitted, really speaking, to eat the animal food. It is also a great source of the passionate nature of the human being. We know by practical experiment that when hunters wish to
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________________ 191 prepare their dogs for the chase, to do that they confine the diet of hounds to flesh, so that their animal propensities are enhanced. This food would not give more strength to the hounds, but gives them more aninial nature, and makes them more eager to kill. If we compare flesh eating people and vegetarians intellectually, the Hindus have evolved a very subtle and deep philosophy, the like of wbich is not to be found in any other country. In India when a deep philosophical subject is discussed, the masses understand at once without asking a single question, and the street-sweeper understands these questions better than the inissionary who is sent to convert him. No reasoning intellectual, intelligent person would stick to habit when he realizes these things; he comes to the conclusion that animal food is not designed for human beings. It certainly becomes a cause of many diseases. Cancer is caused by ineat-eating. The hurts of vegetarians are healed sooner than those of flesh-eaters. Sinall-pox is considered a very dangerous disease in this couutry, but the people in India have not the slightest fear of this epide:nic at all. If a man falls ill of this disease his friends will come to him every day, and do not catch the disease, and they are never afraid of these things. It is only when the temperature goes up to 110 degrees that you will find any epidemic in India, and then cholera is the result. As an experience in daily life, those who eat meat know HT
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________________ 192 that this food demands the intoxicating stimulants of drink, and a necessity arises not only for that kind of food, but for drink also. People who live on simple food never desire these intoxicants. After considering all these things our philosophers have given us the rule that it is not the best plan to eat animal food. There are minor objections to all these rules; one is that all persons cannot live on cereals; but there are other vegetables and fruits, and in the case of fruits almost all of these are in such a condition that they can be digested at once and do not require such work of the stomach, and fruit would be one of the best foods as it has the first quality of inatter passivity, purity and quietness. These qualities are to be found to a large extent in almost all fruits and substantial foods like wheat. The sacred book of the Hindus, the Bhagavad-Ghita, which is considered very Sacred, gives certain rules with regard to these matters of diet, and these different qualities of food. It says in discribing the foods which belong to the first class, "Such foods give us more vitality, niore health, more prosperity, and we love others more from partaking of such foods. The second kind of food that which gives activity, which creates desires, passions, motions, mental feelings, these foods are those in which are to be found the properties of sour or, of saltish, or hot or bitter. These are the foods of the second kind, and they give rise to all the different enotional natures of
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________________ 193 human beings. The third kind of food gives us grossness, sluggishness, slothfulness, is that food which is left over a day or over a night, wbicb is changed in its taste, is the refuse, as it were; also that in which there is too much of fat and animal food. All these are considered to be of the third class. The third property of matter, which carries us lower and lower in the gradations of life, we avoid altogether. Even among the vegetables we have certain reasons for objecting to certain kind of vegetables. While these rules are not to be found among the Brahmins, the Jains observe them strictly. With us no vegetable is eaten which is grown underground, because it takes its quality froin the minerals, without contact froin the sunlight, and so it would belong to the third class, and of course have the third quality. We do not encourage such food on that account. People may say, "But what can we eat ?" But there are so many kinds of fruits, cereals, tuts, etc., there is no necessity for living on one sort of food. Some may say, " What can those persons who live in cold climates where there are no vegetables do ?" "If I am placed in a position where I must either starve or cominit murder of a human being, what shall I do ?" It would be better to starve. We are all quite sure with regard to the immortality of the soul. That it is not the soul which dies; all religions agree on that point, that the soul is not a transient entity. If it is going to live for ever why do we care
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________________ 194 simply for the body and not for the soul? Eating meat simply to support the body is not a sound basis, and our people would say that the people who live in countries where there are no vegetables and where they are obliged to eat flesh, have no business to live in those countries. Another thing, even in the coldest climates of Ameries it is possible to import food from California or any other country, and when people simply say that it is impossible for those people to live on any other diet it means simply that they do not wish to live on any other diet. What ground is there for supposing that & human being has the soul of an animal ? It is not a question of soul at all in the selection of food. When a human being is killed, the soul is not killed; the soul is an entity which is immortal, and it is not dead, but only living in some other body. We have only destroyed the relation which has existed between soul and the body. It is higher in the human being than in the animal, but on a lower in the vegetable than in the animal. It is better, since we must destroy some life in order to live, that the life should be dostroyed on the lower plane, than on the higher. The same arguments just mentioned might be applied to killing human beings, but we do not all become cannibals on account of the fact that the soul is not destroyed by the death of the body. The question of existence or notexistence of the soul has no bearing, at all, on this
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________________ 195 the ido crush down this man has question if we cannot give life, what right have we to destroy it ? Suppose the vegetable food is not better than the animal; man has not, therefore, a right to crush down the other beings which inhabit the universe. Another argument is that if the animals allowed to increase, they will become injurious, through their numbers. We know there will not be super-abundance among people who do not make a business of raising cattle for the purpose of killing them. In our country, where there is no such a thing as cattle-farming for the purpose of killing them but only for the purpose of giving milk, there has never been a super-abundance of animals. Those who have lived mostly on meat, do not understand cooking vegetables. The cooking in this country is equivalent to boiling, and boiling, is not cooking, that is, the food should be cooked to such a degree that it is palatable, nutritious and not Injurious. Take, for instance, rice. When that is cooked in the ordinary American fashion, it is cooked till it is paste, which might be very good to paste paper on a wall, but is not good to eat. We know that the growth of nature is slow of process, and must take its natural time, and if you cook any articles too quickly, it will be spoiled. Everything is done in haste in this country. They say that they have no time, How do they utilize the time which is saved ? For the public good ? But
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________________ 196 you must make home and yourself happy first, and that is to be done by right management and right regulations in family life, and right preparation of the food; and here you will find a great difference between the people of this country, and the people of my country. The first education given to a girl in my country is in cooking, but in this country, ladies think it beneath their dignity; therefore, the ordinary diet in this country is only beef, potatoes, coffee, bread, etc., and everything is stereotyped. A progressive nation like America ought surely to study modes of cooking. So many inventions are made every day, it ought not to be a difficult thing to learn to cook. But in the rush and push and hurry of living, care for the body is left in the hands of the physician, the care of the soul is left in the hands of the ministers, and the care of the daily life in the hands of the servants. The right first to be exercised is that of self-government. When one can do that, he can rule other people and teach them to rule themselves. In our schools for girls, cooking is one of the branches. The school-mistress every day teaches all the different modes of cooking rice, and of making bread and other articles of food, so that at the ege of ten or twelve, all the girls know how to cook anything, so that after graduating, the girls are not required to learn anything else, so far as cooking is concerned. From the earliest age, the girl assists
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________________ 197 her mother and the mother asks her first to pick the pebbles from the rice, wash the vegetables, and so on, and she assists her mother in other duties of the household as she grows older. But when everything is left to the servants, how is it possible to lead a healthy life? We must first understand the object of life, the raising of humanity on all three planes of being. But how is this to be done? Unless all the members are raised, if the good of inviduals is not advanced the good of the whole society cannot be advanced. With regard to drink, I should say that until the advent of British rule, the Hindus did not know what tea was. I, myself did not taste tea before I was twenty years old, and even in this day, in our small towns and villages, the people never use it. They consider it a kind of medicine, and an acquired taste like this is not a natural taste. The very nature of tea is stimulating, and the natural result is nervousness; people who drink much tea, do not know how to keep still. Our simple drink in India is water, and that, also, is not mixed with anything. The Germans sometimes think water is not enough, and so they drink beer, but that is not allowed in our communities, and if a person eyen touches wine he takes a bath. If you understand the sience of the aura wich cones out froin the human body, you will understand the reason for taking a bath.
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________________ 198 Taking wine means to us stimulating certain feelings in the body, and that nature can be gotten rid of by the use of water. When a person is very angry the religious teacher asks him to take a bath at once and he is pacified in this way. Of course, such tbings are not to be found every day, because with the Hindus, there is no such things as the weekly bath; they take the bath early in the morning, generally. Their idea of life and their science being different, thier remedies for various evils are also different. With regard to the time of eating, I may say that in our city, we have only two meals, but in the country where people have to work so much barder, there must be three meals. but there must be a certain interval and no eating between meals. Anything taken between meals, stops the process of digestion. One great rule is, do not take the second meal until the first is digested. It takes about three hours to digest one meal, and, therefore, the two meals should be at least four hours apart. With the Jain communities, there are many rules not observed by other people. One is not to take any food after sunset, because of the beneficial influence of the sunlight, which is with drawn, of course, at the time. There are other reasons, based on occult science, for not taking food after sunset, and there are innumerable finer and deeper and unknown forces present in nature everywhere, that
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________________ 199 unless we study all of them from all standpoints, can never be fully understood by us. The resons of our little acts, which we perform every day, are also occult in their meaning, but which we cannot fully understand unless we have studied deeply into these sciences, and have lived the life peculiar to the Yogis; but those who pursue those studies, can know many things which are mystical to ordinary people.
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________________ 200 ASTRAL VISION This evening our subject includes many minor topics. It also includes something in connection with Astral force itself, the material or matter called Astral life and the different modes in which it is manifested to us. The most impora tant and patent way in which this life is manifested to the huinan being is generally known as clairvoyance. We see many things, under peculiar circumstances, and many have peculiar experiences in this line. Sometimes it takes the form or many beautiful rays of ligbt, of symbolical scenes, and the play of lights pure white and brilliant. We are at a loss why one should be able to see these different manifestations and others cannot. It means that they have not heretofore developed this power, but it does not mean that they are not able, that they do not have the ability to develope the power to do so. Persons devoid of scientific knowledge of these things are at a loss to understand why they should take place and why other people in all respects apo
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________________ 201 parently similar, should not experience the same. things. Unless we have a scientific understanding of these things it is difficult to give a satisfactory explanation that will not confuse us, or give us an erroneous idea as to their cause and effect. Let us take ordinary clairvoyance or clairvoyance as it is generally known and practised. Of course we know there are many different kinds of clairvoyance, and that most of them mix up, or confuse one thing with another. We will divide that subject under two heads, induced or artificial clairvoyance, and natural clairvoyance. While the induced clairvoyance is produced artificially, of course, unless there is the seed of a certain force, nothing can be done, and a person altogether igno. rant, having no ethical or moral idea, at the same time having no seed of that force in him, cannot see clairvoyantly. Why it is so, and why the ethical lessons would help such a person, I will speak later on. In induced clairvoyance certain conditions are produced artificially by the operator, and the subtle body manifests activity. Under this induced activity many things may be seen. In the previous lectures I have explained the constitution of the subtle body, and it is clear to us that when the physical body stops its wotk, and ceases manifesting through its
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________________ 202 physical faculties, the subtle body finds ample opportunity to show its activities. When the subtle body is able to manifest these finer activities, it senses many etherial vibrations not grasped by the physical body. This is the real secret of clairvoyance. In induced clairvoyance, the person is asked not to exercise his sense-consciousness. The vibrations of the external cannot make an impression on the physical organs where the sense-consciousness. is not exercised, but at the same time it is not a condition employing perfect or deep sleep. Perfect or deep sleep means the subtle body, as well as the physical, must cease working. If it were only the physical body that stopped its work, it would not be deep sleep, in so much as the subtle body and all its faculties are in a state of activity; and there is the same conciousness but it has not physical faculties, which are asleep, to manifest through. It has not to spend its energies on the many exterior things, which is usually the outcome of physical manifestation. Without that extra spending of force, the vibrations are carried directly from the externa 1 world to the subtle body. In the state of ordinary waking consciousness those very vibrations are interpreted through sensations produced on the physical organs of sense, and therefore very little is left to be done by the subtle organs. Not only that
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________________ 203 but the subtle body and all its capacities are all constituted in such a manner that they are compelled to supply the physical body and the organs of sense with vital force, and wben these physical org nas are in use, there are many of those finer vibrations which escape the notice of the finer, more subtle organs. This is the reason wby so many things pass about us and are not recognized. There are worlds within worlds. There are many, many physical and subtle activities; and we sense and catch only the grosser vibrations in the ordinary waking state of consciousness. It does not mean the finer vibrations do not come to us. They go on as usual, and will go on for ever, but you are not in a condition to sense them. In induced clairvoyance, hypnotism, magnetisin, etc., the physical activities are artifficially stopped and thefore it offers a better opportunity to the subtle organs for expression. In this condition when the subject bears something, or gets certain messages, and interprets them in his own way, it is not always something new which comes to him or her. It may be new, or it may not be new. For instance if the condition is higher, if the development is higher, then the unfoldment of the soul's faculties being greater and on a higher level, through those faculties, the soul can see many things. Sometimes a bond of sympathy is esta
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________________ 204 ther they had receive blished between the subject and the operator. In this case nothing is done but the sensing of operations going on between them. It is a sort of telepathy which is going on between the subject and the operator. Now we generally think the right kind of operations are only those which we perform consciously, and therefore that if the operator does not think actively on a subject he is not thinking at all. There are dynamic and static vibrations. If they are not active, dynamic forces they are static, and they have not been called forth. Under these circumstances we are not conscious of those vibrations which have been created under other circumstances. We sometimes think because we do not bring all our mind's thought to bear on a subject, that it is not in our mind at all. There we make a great mistake. The fact is that in the past as well as in the present, there are many static forces in hour mind which we are not aware are there. A person may pass through the street and not be aware that he is nothing all that is going on about him. In fact he is not conscious that he has seen them, that they hare been received and stored away as it were. They have not gone deep enougb to effect his waking consciousness, the active state of the mind. Vibrations coming from the external world will impinge on the mind stuff in different ways. Suppose the soul conciousness itself is in the centre. When
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________________ 205 the vibrations are very strong they go on and pass through all the layers of different grades of matter and substance until they reach the very substance which we call the sheath of understanding. It is only when they reach through the physical body, the sheath of vitality, of thought and understanding, that you form a rational idea and come to certain conclusions, and feel that you know certain things. Many vibrations do not reach all the states. They do not reach the finer substance in the centre, and no thought is generated, and you have no understanding, you have arrived at no decision. The result is certain forces or impressions are made op only intermediate states of the external forces and on the external body. As they have not reached the sheath of understanding you do not know what those forms and their meaning are. When a person is artificially put into a certain conditiou, and the physical activities are stopped and do not receive any impression at all, on the external body, a free opportunity is given for those vibrations to come into activity, and they will proceed further and go deeper and deeper, until they reach the thought plane. Then those thought forms will be expressed in an intelligent way. This is only so far as those vibrations have been created in previous conditions. While this is the case in many of the experiments, there is also another thing which actually happens. That we must also study.
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________________ 206 In other cases it is not the previous thought forces or impressions that are sensed by the subject as something which is new, and that is this way; when a person is operated on by a hypnotist or mesmerist, the physical vibrations make no impressions on the physical substance and the other substances, the etherial forces are free to act. Those substances of the thought have a better opportunity to work, and it sends forth its energies in different directions. That thought. substance has the power of seeing things, just as our eyes, our physical eyes, have the power to see things. If the mind is closed we cannot see internally. That mind must be as it were, open if it is to see, just as we must open our eyes if we expect to see. In this condition of induced clairvoyance, a person is able to see many things. In both conditions, whether it is induced. or whether it is only the force that produced it before, or when new things are seen, and even in natural clairvoyance which is the result of developinent, in both states, there is a kind of danger which is of a peculiar form. Many times what is seen is of an inverted nature. It may be only disturbed, and indistinct. How is it that people see things altogether, or partially inverted ? How is it when they are asked to read something inclosed in an envelope, instead of read
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________________ 207 ing it in a proper way, they read it in an inverse way? We must find out the reason for this, and if the defect can be cured, how it is to be accomplished. : Whatever we see is through a medium, and if that mediu:n is cloudy, then the reflection made by the medium is also cloudy. Supposing there is a mirror or looking glass placed in a certain position, and nearby is an object, which is globular or spherical. It is a perfect sphere. If the surface of the looking glass is very clear, and there are no flaws on the surface of it, if it is perfectly pure, like a crystal is pure, and the rays of light strike the surface in a certain direction, then the reflection will be clear, in an angle which will be equal to the angle formed by the rays as they strike the surface of the spherical object. If & reflection is made on the glass, it will be again reflected at the same angle which the rays as they left the object formed when they struck the glass. If the surface of the looking glass is rugged, rough, or there is something in the nature of a flaw, then that reflection will be blurred altogether. If it is excessively rough, then the reflection will be very much blurred, very indistinct indeed. Where there is an fault lies with the medium imperfect reflection, the from which it is reflected,
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________________ 208 not in what it is reflected from. So also in the mental substance on which reflections are made of external substances, the reflections will not be clear unless the mental substance is clear. When a person sees so nething in an inverted way, it means there is something wrong, there is sone trouble, the mind stuff is not clear. What is this? If we can remove those in perfections in the mind stuff, the astral vision can be inade clear. Now if we are to have true clairvoyance, this mind stuff must be made clear. There ought to be no impurities. If there are any it explains the cause of this perverted figure which is seen. Let us apply the law to the ordinary state of a man's condition !n the world. Suppose a person is asked to judge of anything, we will say an act. Something is proposed to a inan. He is told to do it ; that it is a good thing. If he has'a pure muind he will be able to judge rightly. If some other force is working on his mind, if that mind is not clear, and free from impurity, his judgment will also be of a disturbed character. If greed is working on him, he will judge it as to whether it will bring hiin any money. A11 reflections coming out from a mind which is tainted by greed, will be of that character. If a person's mind is controlled by forces of revenge and jealousy, they will think it is useless, that it does no good to themselves, to exercise love,
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________________ 209 and sympathy, and that if they show love and sympathy to others it will work no good result for theinselves. The thought will not be reflected in love but in hate. It is not the fault of love, but the fault lies in the mind which reflects the perverted idea. It gives out a disturbed reflection. There are also several impurities which are of a manifold character. It may be the result of a physically diseased condition of the mind. I told you in a previous lecture the mind is made of activity, stability and grossness. If one of these ele ments predominate it will color the character of the mind. If a person is very gross, the mental condition will be very gross and that mind will reflect only gross figures. It will not give any fresh, or any new light to such a person. Now this is only so far as the physical cause is concerned. There are mental causes which are lust, jealousy passion, anger, deceitfulness, and all these forces working within the mind disturb the mind, and it will always give out disturbed reflections. Such disturbed minds cannot reflect the truth. Other vibrations will also be of a defective character. If the disturbance can be removed, suppressed, of destroyed, if the anger, jealously, passion and lust, can be annihilated, then pure impressions can come from the mind. People do
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________________ 210 not consider these things. They think they will use. u mechanical method altogether, and that it can be done without the aid of mental purtiy. It is not possible. They must purify the mind or the interpretations will always be defective, and no truth can be obtained under those conditions. In the Eastern countries, they always lay great stress on the fact that a person cannot become clairvoyant unless he has a pure nature. You have often heard of mediumistic or psychic persons reading figures or the numbers of pages in in inverted way. If I should ask such a clairvoyant to tell me the tumber of a certain page in a closed book, they will give it to me but the letters will be joverted. If it is, for instance, 159, they will say it is 951, If I should ask them for initials in an envelope, and those letters are G. O, B., they will Tead them to me as B. 0. G. That only shows mental perversion. Perfect purity of the mind is necesBary if one would see clearly. Now we come to another point. It is not only the things ot the present we see, but we see things of the past, and of the fature. How does that cone about ? Suppose a force is set in motion. We are to do something with the aid of that force. Toat force as it is set into motion creates an activity in the etherial world, and it will produce a result that will bear a relation or correspondence to the motion
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________________ 211 which is the cause of that result. Suppose for instance one man strikes another man. An individual sees the blow, but does not see any further.' He sees only the result, the blow. Now that result was the result of a quatrelor of something which was of such a nature as to produce a blow, and the result of that blow is that the one struck has been knocked down. How do we see the past ? Suppose there is only the blood which the blow caused to flow to be seen, the clairvoyant can see the blow, but it had already passed away, it couli not be seen as though it had not already taken place. In this way he has seen the cause. As soon as the cause is set in motion, 80 soon as it is potential so far as the fas:ult is concerned, it does not cease to be a causa. As soon as the calls is set in motion it is not annihilated. A cause can tever be destroyed. We will take for example this piece of paper. The cause of this paper was not paper. Formerly all these little particles which go to make this paper were in many different conditions. Some of them were in one condition, and other particles were in other conditions. Different causes were brought to hear upon them and all these varied little particles hecame a piece of paper, such as we can see with ont physical eyes. The combination of the original molectiles, appears to us in a symetrical form, as a
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________________ 212 piece of paper. At the same time the forces which kept apart all these different particles, or molecules of the paper, are changed, and bring closer the different particles. The paper is but a changed state of all the different factors which were effectual in bringing all those factors into the form of paper. The cause is not destroyed. We will apply the same illustration to the point mentioned heretofore, in knocking down the man. The cause is not destroyed. If we know the present condition, or the link between cause and effect, and the forces working, we can then see the cause. So by seeing the result, also the different intermediate conditions, we can tell what the cause was. We can acquire this in an intellectual way, and it is only a mental process. In clairvoyance they see all the things at one time, but time and distance are annihilated, and in this way they see the past. Not only that but all causes leave their impressions, in the astral life, in the etherial matter which pervades the whole universe. A psychic person can see those impressions, can sense them as vibrations, and interpret them, and know the particular history of any subject or thing. In the same way we can know the future because it is the result of the present causes. If we see those causes, and the direction of those vibrations, we can tell what the result will be.
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________________ 213 In clear clairvoyance the past, present, and future are clearly separated. Suppose there are three stages of an act. What you first see is one form. In five minutes it has another form; and in five more minutes it has still another form. In the ordinary waking state we see the first form. It is destroyed and we see another form, and we see this take on another form. In the clairvoyant state you will see those three forms at once, not all jumbled together, as we sometimes see things jumbled together in mystical signs, but they will be together in an orderly way. You will be able to get a clear idea of their relation to one another. You will be able to distinguish clearly between the past, present, and future. If they cannot be seen in order, but are all jumbled together, it shows the mind is not clear, and has not acquired the pure faculty or power of clairvoyance. It was in this way that development was made in ancient days, in India by the great masters and Sages. Progress in the sciences was made in the same way. They beheld and studied the human body internally and externally. It was not found necessary to perform anatomical experiments in those days. By concentration and looking within, and looking at the forms which were left in the astral light, they understood the nature of the whole world. Perfect science was the result of
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________________ 214 these experiments. It is necessary the same faculty within us. to aguin revive The first necessity is the ability to concentrate. What does that mean to us ? It means that the mind stuff should acquire stability. The stable element of the mind must become predominant. Whether you formulate it in philosophical, poetical, or scientific language, yon must say the mind must be made stable, that it must be able to concentrate. Not all people can concentrate. If that were so we would know well this; as a matter of fact they do not know. That is evidence that all have not as yet developed the same faculty or ability to concent rate A great writer has said that there are two conditions necessary for concentration. One is called isolation, and the other distribution. Isolation is to be able to separate your consciousness from external things. Distribution is power to apply those powers so acquired to the good of the whole world. A person with the power of isolation, and the faculty of distribution, only can concentrate. Persons wbo are controlled by greed, jealousy, and such evil tendencies cannot concentrate. In order that a person may not be influenced by the vibrations of the external world, by the confused thoughts of people, the depraved conditions of things in the world, it is necessary that they acquire independence
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________________ 215 from prejudice. He must have independence of thought. His thought must not be controlled by the prejudices, and results of false thinking. One who thinks because he was born in certain circumstance, that he is in duty bound to believe in certain dogmas, cannot concentrate. One must be preeminently free, must acquire independence of thought. Secondly his heart must be completely independent. He must have full liberty. If his heart is controlled by lower emotions, be is then a slave to those emotions. Liberty means perfect freedom. Thirdly his senses must not be controlled by temporal or sensuous enjoyments. He will not cease to enjoy, but his enjoyments will take on a different nature, There is a little illustration given in the Hindu scriptures. A person in nis enjoyments is like unto a fly. One person may be like a fly sitting on a liquid, which is not sweet. He is drowned in it and it is a death in a putrid, repulsive thing which he has settled upon. There is another fly which goes to a sweet liquid, instead of something which is putrid. He enjoys the sweetness of it, but in . short time he, too, is drowned. Another ily settles on a sweet, dry substance, like loaf-sugir. He enjoys it, and then flys away. If a person wishes
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________________ 216 to enjoy, he must be like the fly which got his enjoyment from the piece of dry sugar, and when it has been received, go away. A person wishing to become a great master. must not care for sensuvus enjoyments. Ultimately we come to the point that a person must not be subject to prejudices. Must not be a slave of passion. He must not allow himself to be engrossed by enjoyments. He may then, after overcoming and acquiring those things needful, all of which are within his ability, become a true adept. Can be not enjoy all pleasures? What are they for? This philosophy teaches us that the person who rules the wealthy, the great person, is greater than the great and wealthy person who is ruled. A person may be in poverty, may not possess a cent's worth of his own property, but he may still sule many people who are great. Real enjoyments do not consist in the possession of riches, wealth, or ordinary worldly power, but in wisdom and knowledge. The object of human life is not enjoyment. It is wisdom. Why do we do certain things ? It is not for enjoyment. In the light of this philosophy pains and pleasure are not for the purpose of accepting the pleasure, and avoiding the pain. It is to accept both for the purpose of receiving fresh strength from them. If they are regarded in that
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________________ 217 light, the person liberates his mind from passions, evils and all the lower emotions. If he can do this he can possess all the power the world holds. There are one or two points I will mention in connection with the subject. Astral vision implies there must be an astral substance. What is it ? It is a fluid, a subtle substance which permeates the whole universe. It is in the body and in the entire world. It is the force that gives life and also causes death. It is a pliant force as it were. It can be used for good, or evil. It is a great dynamo. It may be used for imparting life, or for the destruction of life. Vicious persons will use it to the injury of other people. Unconsciously persons harboring thoughts of a lower nature will create a commotion in the astral substance, and vibrations so generated will be injurious to all around. This Force is very contageous and may be taken form one person to another. Persons will feel the influence but not know why they feel such and such incligations, but because certain people generate certain vibrations in this astral ether, they cause similar vibrations in the astral bodies of other people, and the vibrations so generated react on the physical. Those astral vibrations will be interpreted and they will be acted upon by those people. That is the scientific reason why thoughts of an injurious
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________________ 218 or indifferent character should not be harbored by us. Such vibrations should always be positively good. A person will then be a repository of great and good forces. It has many manifestations, and as it passes forth from our bodies, it manifests itself as huinan aura. All physical substance, not only that but all different planes of life, from the ordinary physical body to the highest spiritual form, manifests this force, each in its own way. All hatred, passion, and lust, all our emotions, are but the results and manifestations of this substance. It assumes the form of magnetisin. The great adept in magnetism sends it out. If we do not know how it is sent out, it will always produce its result, just as truly as though we did know. If we do know how to send it out, if we desire to do good, it will always benefit all people. In the ordinary experience of hypnotism it goes from us transmitted through the eye, the voice or the finger3. That is the very reason why passes are required to be made in certain diseases, and why they must send forth a piercing glance from the eye. The eye, the voice and the hand, are the great organs through which this magnetism may be sent forth. They all have their laws, and their different aspects.
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________________ 219 If we are not sending it out in proper from, if we do not keep the positive equalized with the negative, injury will be the result. These laws were understood in ancient times. They were also understood by the great teachers, like Delsarte, for instance, and other persons who studied and went deeply into physical culture. All the rules which are given in his system have something to do with the great forces working in this human body. The great magicians, white and black, understood the laws. The white magician understood it and imparted their knowledge to their disciples after they had passed through rigid and strict ordeals, and then only did they give their secrets to their pupils. The black magicians were at all times busy injuring the world. There are now many secret societies used to develope these powers. All the details of the secret societies, are only for the purpose of generating those forces which will send out those teachings to the different parts of the world. The reason why it is practised in unison, is that it becomes more powerful by reason of their concerted effort. That is why the religious exercises are always arried op together; why songs are sung, and services read. It strengthens and impresses the thought with greater vitality on the minds of the
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________________ 220 .congregation. It is a force of such vast possibilities, for good or evil, so subtle and potent a force, it works night and day, without ceasing, and we must know and understand how and why we use it; otherwise if we do things in connection with this force, we will not be able through our ignorance, to keep from injuring ourselves as well as others.
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________________ ANCIENT INDIA. From the philosophy of the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, we turn now to the social and political condition of India in ancient times. Where shall we find the history of ancient civilization of the Hindus when they lived in village communities and social brotherhood in ancient times, centuries before the beginning of the Christian era ? Have they any records of that ancient civilization ? And why do the Hindus claim their ancient civilization unique in its character and superior to that of any other nation. We shall have to refer to the records of the Hindus if any exist which can claim a high antiquity. The Egyptians have records on their everlasting monuments of a civilization which goes beyond 3000 years before Christ. Assyrian scholars have claimed an equally remote antiquity for the ShumiroAccadian civilization of Chaldia which is said to have flourished over a thousand years before
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________________ 222 Neniveb and Babylon were founded. The Chinese too have a history which dates from about 2400 years B. C. The Hindus also have their own records. But there is a difference between the records of the Hindus and the records of other nations. The hiero glyphic records of ancient Egyptians yield little information beyond the names of kings and pyramid-builders and accounts of dynasties and wars. The cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria and Babylon tell us much the same story. And even ancient Chinese records shed little light on the gradual progress of human culture and civilization, Ancient Hind:1 works are of a different character. They are defective 09 doubt as accounts of dynasties, of wars, of so-called historical incidents, On the other !1171 they give 11s a f:111, corecord and clear account of the advance nent of civilization, of the process of t12 hiinan mini, such as we shall seek for in vain a'nong the records of any other equally ancient nation. T132 are the ancient Vedas of the Hills, Pitakas of the Buddhists and Sutras of the Jains. As to the Vedas Western scholars say that they are the infant outpourings of the simple minded Aryas of ancient times. They also think that they constituted the popular literature of the time. I differ from these views, The Vedic literature ir pre-eminently Sacerdotal and
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________________ 223 in uo sense a popular one. Neither in the language por in the thought of the Rig-Veda can we discover that quality of primitive natural simplicity which so many are fain to see in it. The poetry it contains is of a singularly refined character and artificially elaborated, full of allusions and reticences, of pretensions to mysticisin and philosophic thought ; and the inander of its expression is such as reminds one more frequently of the phraseology in use amoug certain sinall groups of initiated than the poetic language of a large community. Nor is there any ground for supposing that the Veda has taught us everything on the ancient social and religious condition of even Aryan India, or everything there can be accounted for by reference to it. The fact is that in past as in present other religions have existed along side of Veda, and so ne claim to have existed even before the Vedas. So that in order to understand the exact condition of India you have to depend not only on the Vedas but on the religious literature of the Jaids and the Buddhists also. We will frst take the Vedic literature. The main ildistry of the people representing that cult was agricultire, as nearly all the hymns are generally puzyers to gois, a!lusions to trade and co:ne merce being very rare. However there are numerous passages which indicate the existence of current money for the purposes of buying and selling.
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________________ 224 There are distinct references to voyage by sea and shipwrecks. So far as the food is concerned it appears from the Vedas that these pious worshippers of nature-gods did use animal food. We have frequent allusions in the Vedas to the cooking of cows, buffaloes and bulls. There is mention of slaughter-houses where cows were killed, there are allusions to the sacrifices of horses, bulls and rams, the fermented juice of the soma plant was the intoxi. cating drink of these people and they go into ecstacy over the virtues and the exhilarating powers of soma. " O Soma ! there is nothing so bright as thou. When poured out thou welcomest all gods to bestow on them immortality." The praiseworthy soma has from ancient times been the drink of the gods, he was milked from the bidden recesses of the sky, he was created for Indra and was extolled." "In that realm where there is perennial light, and where the heaven is placed, O Soma, lead me to that deathless and iinmortal realm. Flow thou for Indra." Such passages as these are to be found throughout the ninth book of the Rig-Veda. With regard to the social status of the people, they led a very simple life. There were no castes in the modern sense in those times. There were indeed Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Sudras; but there were no iron-bound rules prohibiting one caste from all intercourse with the other. Truly
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________________ 225 Speaking with Hinduism as based on the Vedas there was no time when there was no such distinction as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Surdas. The theory of these four castes who were brought forth respectively from the mouth, the arms, the thighs and the feet of Brahma is formulated in the hymn of the Purusha in the the Rig-veda. The truth is that different professions constituted different castes, The Brahmin devoted to prayer and the science of theology was considered to be the highest. As you examine the ritualism of the Brahmins, the Brabmana portion of the Vedas, you find express commands for Sacrificing domestic and wild animals. Among these victims there is one which recurs with an ominous frequency viz min. Not only are there traces of human saceifice preserved in the legends as well as in the symbolism of ritual but this Sacrifice is expressly mentioned and formally prescribed. All the great Sacrifices as a rule exact one or more human victims and one of them is quite naively called the narameda i. e. the Sacrifice of man. The texts speak differently in regard to these rights. At one time they represent them as fallen absolutely; but they maintain them as a rule and protest against their abolition; at another time they conceive of them as purely symbolic acts; while at another they simply speak of them as usages in full force. There were however other philosophers living along side of these sacrificers and their doctrines had consider
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________________ 226 enter belonging toclaimed dit able influence with views of the Brahmins. Among the Brahmins themselves there were frequent schisms, These heretic philosophers being under the sway of Brahmin priesthood had to accept, though nominally, the authority of the Vedas. They therefore maintained that although for good worldly rewards, you have to follow the Sacrificial system of the Vedas, it does not help at all a man whose sole object is spiritual bliss. Jainism was existing and preaching its doctrines side by side. It bad witnessed from times immemorial the various divisions of the Hindu society and loudly proclaimed that one who prided himself as belonging to a high family should invariably enter into lower existence in his next incarnation. Its spiritual philosophy and system of logic was too deep for common people, but it had its own system of ethics for the masses and those who understood this philosophy did join the sect. On several occasions we find from the Jain works that there were religious discussions between the Brahmins and the Jains. The Jain philosophy teaches that such distinctions of caste are sure to arise so long as there is in the human mind the vanity and pride of individual and family greatness. The duty of Jainism which existed side by side with Hinduism was therefore to look down upon this pride and to teach the people the true law of cause and effect. Buddha handled this question differently. In his time the Brahmin priesthood was next inca bly
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________________ 227 supreme. The barriers created by them were unsurmountable. The Jain prophet Mahavira and his 23 predecessors had seen such or similar things in their times. They clearly saw the cause of this the individual pride which became the cause of * Karma-leading the man to be born under such circumstances that he will be considered as belonging to a lower family in comparison to other people, Buddha blamed the Brahmins and their whole society. He laid the whole blaim at the door of the Brahmins and ignored the real cause the individual thoughts and feelings. He wanted to smash the whole society for this one reason. It was like the mosquito and the man. He forgot the truth that by his side there were other philosophers whom it was impossible for him to vanquish. He however tried the experiment. The people crushed under the feet of Babmin priests flocked to him; and thus 600 years before Christ there was a great spectacle on the banks of the Ganges-Buddha preaching the doctrine of equality and salvation for all men--high and low. The work which Buddha did in this department was noble,
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________________ 228 JAINISM. bothingnan no beos Thal. The two Jainism teaches that matter and spirit are two separate entities; they are both eternal. The uniyerse taken as a totality had no beginning nor will it ever pass into nothingness. So far as different modifications are concerned, there is creation and destruction every moment. With regard to social rules Jainism gives no support to the institution of caste. Several centuries ago a high priest of the Jain community named Ratna-Prabha Suri happened to travel in Raputana in India and while sojourning in a town converted a number of people from among the Hindus belonging to different castes. All of them were brought by him under one name--the Jains. And even long before him, 700 years before Christ, Mahavira the Jain gymnosophist preached to the people at large that man is the noblest creature in the universe, higher than angles and gods and therefore he who looks down upon his brother-man
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________________ 229 and takes pride as belonging to a high family or caste will have to pass through lower existence or be born low in the estimation of others. In his view caste is the outcome of human pride and vanity. And even to-day go to India and look at the marble inscription in golden letters in the Jain temple at Chitor in Central India stating that eveu a chandala, low caste Hindu should not be prohibited from coming to that temple.
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________________ 230 Contribution of Jainism to Philosophy, History, and Progress.* A Hindu story-teller tells us that once upon a time in India, four friends, & sculptor, o painter, a weaver and a Brahmin, decided to travel from place to place and see the country. In the absence of railways and stage-coaches, they travelled on foot. After passing through a thick forest, when night fell, they halted under a tree on the banks of a river. Life and property not being secure, they decided that each one of them should, for three hours, keep watch. First came the turn of the sculptor. To while away his time, he fetched a huge piece of wood which he saw at a distance and made a statue of it. At the end of three hours he retired. It was the painter's turn now to keep watch, He saw the statue and painted it. Next the weaver got up, who made a beautiful garment and dressed the sta tue. Lastly, the Brahmin's turn came. He looked at the * Reprinted with kind permission. Ed. From the Asiatic Quarterly Review July 1900.
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________________ 231 statue, which was of a woman, beautifully painted and dressed, and thought that without life it was not of much use. So with his knowledge of magic and mysticism, he introduced life into it. At day break there stood before them a beautiful woman. Each one claimed the sole credit of making her. They quarrelled and quarrelled until they came to the conclusion that each one had contributed his share in the production of the woman. We see the same spectacle in the religious and philosophical world, each system claiming the sole credit of having given to the world the whole truth. Bearing the moral of the story in mind, I have cho. sen as the subject, "Contribution of Jainism to Philosophy, History, and Progress." "Jain" (properly speaking, "Jaina") means a follower of Jina, which is a generic term applied to those persons (inen and women) who conquer their lower nature ( passion, hatred and the like ) and bring into prominence the highest. There lived many such Jinas in the past and many will doubtless yet be born. Of such Jinas those who become spiritual heads and regenerators of the community are called Arhats (the deserving ones), or Tirthan karas ( bridgemakers in the figurative sense--that is those by the practice of whose teaching we can cross the ocean of mundane life and reach the perfect state ). Hence the Jains are also called
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________________ 232 Arbatas. In each half-cycle of many millions of years twenty-four Arhats are born. In the present half-cycle the last Arhat, Mahavira, was born in 598 B, C., in Kundagrawa, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two yeays and attained Moksha ( liberation) in 526 B, C. When European scholars first began to investigate the history of Jainism, they were struck with the similarities between its ethical code and institutions and those of Buddhism; hence they thought that Jainism must be a branch of Buddhism. But thanks to the labours of Jacobi, Buhler, and Leumann, it is now conclusively proved that Jainism is much older than Buddhism. At the advent of the Buddha the Jain sect had already attained a prominent position in the religious world of India. We may now turn our attention to the contributions made by Jainism to Philosophy, In India, as elsewhere, Philosophy became possible when the struggles for existence were followed by its enjoyment, when the spirit of conquest gave way to a life of peace and industry. The early effusions of the Aryan people, when we find them on the march of conquest of the aboriginal races of India, are invocations of prosperity on themselves and their flocks: adoration of the dawn, celebration of the struggle between the god who wields the lightning and the power of darkness, and the rendering of thanks to
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________________ 233 Give analysisemipts to exploty i the heavenly beings for preservation in battle. When they settle down, we see them engaged in a high degree of reflection. Reflection is the moving spirit of philosophy. But all primitive philosophy concerns itself with searching for the origin of the world. It postulates, after naive analysis, an original simple Substance, from which it attempts to explain the multiplicity of the complex world. Philosophy in this sense assumes various forms. All of them attempt to interpret or rather formulate the law of causation and in that attempt many, fatigued after the long mental strain, stop at some one thing, element, or principle (physical or metphysical), beyond which they have not mentally the ability to go. The Sankhya Philosophy, for instance, tries to explain evolution and even "cosmic" consciousness, and the growth of organs, etc., as proceeding from a simple substance called Prakriti, or primordial matter. Orthodox philosophical Systems of India that is, those based on the Vedas and the Upanishads -adopt either the theory of creation, or of evolution, or of illusion to explain the origin of the world. Whatever theory they resort to, & simple substance or sabstances, intelligent, or unintelligent, is or are postulated as the origin or cause of whatever there exists. Of the primal substance or substances there is no cause of origin. Early Greek PhilosophersThales and others-considered the riddle of existence solved when the original material had been
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________________ 234 stated, out of the modifications of which all things consist. How the original simple substance converted itself in to complex substances no philosopher explains. The Jain position in this matter being peculiar, it will be necessary to take a more extended survey of philosophy. One of the functions of philosophy is to advance from the known to the unknown. The procedures adopted are two-induction and deduction. The inductive process is understood as that by which u general law is inferred from particular facts; the deductive process as that by which a, particular fact is inferred from a general law which is assumed to be universally true. Smith, Scott, Williams and others died in the past, therefore all men are mortal; this is induction. All men are mortal; Wilson is a man; therefore Wilson will die. This is deduction. Analyzing closely these two processes, we find that in neither is there any addition of knowledge. The results are only inferences. In some cases it is mere tautology. We are not under the present develop ment of our nature able to observe all facts; hence the induction is only a working hypothesis at the best. If we happen to meet a single exception, we have to modify the conclusion. In deduction, if the general law is found inapplicable to a particular case, we are obliged to grant that there is an additional factor in that case which does not come under
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________________ 235 the general law. So that in both processes the results have to be verified by actual experience. By themselves they are not a permanent test. They are not always a correct measure of truth. In the view of Jain philosophy, the measure of truth is Samyag-inana, that is, knowledge purged of all infatuating elements. The constitution of man is such that as soon as he removes moral vices, his intellective processes flow into a pure channel. I may add that knowledge as knowledge or morality as morality is not the ideal of the Jains. In fact, some kind of action always goes with every form of knowledge. We never meet with knowledge without action, or action without knowledge. True advancement consists in both being right and consistent. Coming back to the question of the first beginnings of philosophy, we say that primitive systems, in search of reality, are satisfied when they postulate a simple substance for the explanation of the complexity of the universe. This kind of reflection, though primitive, is an improvement on the spirit of conquest, devastation, and extirpation. Centuries of peace, industry, and reflection develop better culture and higher civilization. The history of all Nations bears ample testimony to this fact. India is no exception to this rule. The day on wbich the Aryan ancestors of modern Hindus first began to
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________________ 236 Teflect on the origin of the universe must be celeb Tated by them as a national holiday. Unfotunately, such a day cannot be fixed, and the Hindus have never had a national spirit. In orthodox Hindu philosophy, the search for the First Cause is recommended, because it is sup posed to land us in the realm of reality, the idea being that effects are unreal, and the true reality is the First Cause." The reality which, being indescribable, is always mentioned in the Upanishads as it (Tat), is Brahmin; material manifestations be ing but shadows of the Eternal Ens, clothed in name and form (Maya--illusion).". Hence, to realize that I am and always have been Brahma is the summum bonum. The Jain view is that the " realization" of the primal substance, out of which the universe has manifested, is no advancement or progress. The Jains are the advocates of the development theory; hence their ideal is physical, mental, moral, and spiritual perfection. The very idea of a simple substance, without qualities, character, and activities, finds no place in the Jain philosophy, and is regarded as irrelevant and illogical; a characterless Cause manifesting as a qualitative effect is a misunderstanding of the law of causation. Cause and effect, substance and manifestation, poumenon and * M. N. Dvivedi " Monism or Advaitism."
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________________ 237 phenomenon, are really identical. Cause is a cause when it is operating, apd an operating cause is itself the effect. Hydrogen and oxygen, in their ordinary condition, are not water; vibrating in a peculiar electrical way, they are not only the cause and water the effect, but water is what they are in this relation. Any object, divested of all relations, could not be called by any other name than Being Or Ens. As an abstraction or generalization, the process has its use. In order to study the various aspects of things and ideas, this method of analysis is invaluable. But to call Being or " Eternal Ens" the cause or the noumenon, or the absolute, and distinguish it from the effect, calling it the unreal, phenomenon, or relative, is pseudo-analysis. The Jain process of acquiring kooledge may be described as follows: First, there is the indefinite cognition as an isolated object or idea; it is the state of the mind prior to analysis, that condition of things to which analysis is to be applied. This is what is really meant by unity, or identity, of the universe with the real which many philosophers proclaim. It makes no difference whether this unity or identity finds its home in a sensuous object or a subjective idea, the process is the same. Next comes analysis-the dissolving, separating, or differencing of the parts, elements, properties, or aspects. Last comes the synthesis, which is putting together the primi
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________________ 238 tive indefinite cognition-snythasis-with the subsequent analysis; so that the primitive cognition shall not be a complete annihilation or disappearance by the condensation of all differences, and so that, on the orher hand, the analysis shall not be an absolute diffusiveness isolation, or abstraction, destructive of all unity, which is not the primitive unity but the relational unity of a variety of aspects. The analytical method is known in the Jain literature as Naya-vada ( consideration of a spects ). The synthetical method is known as Syad-vada doctrine of the inexpugnability of the inextricably combined properties and relations ) or Anekanta-vada ( doctrine of non-isolation). Voluminous works on this subject have been written by Jain scholars, all in mapuscripts still unpublished. In illustration of what I have thus stated, I may remark that to a person in whom the first germ of reflection is just born the universe is a vague something, an utter mystery-at the most, & unity with out differentiation; analysis leads him to consider its various aspects. He is struck with the change he sees everywhere. The constantly-running waters of rivers, decaying plants and vegetables, dying animals and human beings, strongly impress him that nothing is permanent. His first generalization, therefore, will be that the world is transitory. After years of research and reflection, he may learn that
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________________ 239 the things that pass away still exist in an altered condition sornewhere. He may now generalize that nothing is annihilated ; that notwithstanding the changes that are visible everywhere, the world, taken as a whole, is permanent. Both generalizations are true from different points of view ; each by itself is an abstraction. When one learns to synthesize, he puts together the various aspects he has found of the world, and realizes that the integrality of truth consists in the indissoluble combination of all the possible aspects. The inherence of contrary aspects in a single idea or object seems impossible to the unsynthetic mind. Sankara the well-known Vedanta scholar, has fallen into a great error when he states that the Jain doctrine should not be accep ted, because "it is impossible that contradictory attributes, such as being and non-being, should, at the same tiine, belong to one and the same thing ; just as observation teaches that a thing cannot be hot and cold at the saine inonent." The Jains do not teach that a thing can be hot and cold at the same moment, but they do teach that a thing cannot be hot absolutly, and cannot be cold absolutely; it is hot under certain definite circumstances,' and cold under others. The Jain do not teach that being and non-being (of itself) should at the same time belong to one and the Same thing. What they teach is that in a thing
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________________ 240 there is being of itself, and non-being of other things, which means that a thing can be fully known only by knowing what it is and what is not, Sankara in fact, creates a man of straw, inputes to him imaginary doctrines, and by refuting them, he knocks him down. That is his glory. I shall now state a few of the first principles of the Jain philosophy. Its first teaching is that the universe is not merely a congeries of substances, heaped together and set in activity by an extra-cosmic creator, but is a system by itself, governed by laws inherent in its very constitution. Law is not to be understood in the sense of a rule of action prescribed by authority, but as a proposition which expresses the constant or regular order of certain phenomena, or the constant mode of action of things or beings under certain definite circuinstances. It is not a couinand, but a formula to which things or beings conform precisely, and without exception under definite relations, internal and external. Jainisin, therefore, is not a theistic system in the sense of belief in the existence of a God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe; and still the highest being in the Jain view is a person, and not impersonal, characterless, quality less being. All that there is in or of the universe may be classified under two Heads: (1) Sentient, animate or conscious beings (a, liberated beings; b, embodied beings); and (2)
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________________ 241 Insentient, inanimate or unconscious things or substances. There is not an inch of space in the universe where there are not innumerable minute living beings. They are smaller than the miputest things we can see with the aid of a microscope. Weapons' and fire are to gross to destroy them. Their life and death depend on their vital forces, which are, of course, related to the surroundings. Clay, stones, etc., as they come fresh from the earth have life. Water, besides being the home of many living beings, is itself an assemblage of minute animate creatures. Air, fire, and even lightning have life. Strictly speaking, the physical substance of clay, water, stone, etc., is a multitude of bodies of living beings. Dry clay, dry stone, boiled water, are pure matter, and have no life. Vegetables, trees, fruits, have life. When dried or cooked there is no life in them. Worms, insects, fish, birds, animals, human beings, are all living beings. There are living beings on stars and planets, and even beyond the starry region. "Life" is only an abstraction. It is not something concrete, superadded to the constituent elements of living beings. It is a generalization, derived from our observation of varying modes of behaviour of such living beings. The stage of actual development of one living being being different from that of another, living beings are classified in many ways in the Jain philosophy. The simplest classifi
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________________ 242 cation is based on the number of organs of sense they have developed. Besides thr category of living being, there is one of inanimate substances. These are matter, two kinds of ether (one, the fulcrum of motion, the other, the fulcrum of rest), and space. We must bear in mind that ether and space are not matter in the Jain view. Matter has various qualities and relition ships which the former do not possess. Time is also called a substance in a figurative sense, a generilization of the moving activities of things and beings. Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable potential and actual energies, which are called Karmas in the Jain Philosophy. The word "Karma" has an interesting history. In the Vedas it means the performance of sacrifices, offering of oblations to nature-gods and names of deceased ancestors. Karma-marga--the path of works-is nothing but ritualistic Brahmanism. In the words of Sir Monier Williams: "Not even Jewish literature contains so many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brabinirs. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise and prayer, preachjpg, teaching, and repetition of the sacred words of Scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every
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________________ 243 man throughout his whole life rested his whole hopes on contiqually offering oblations of soine kind to the gods; and the burning of his body at death was hela to be the last offering of himself in fire (antyeshti)" In later literature, Karma, in addition to the above mea uing, also meant duty and good and bad actions. In the Jain literature we have a fuller meaning. It is any energy which an embodied being generates -be it vital, mental, or moral and which keeps him in the mundane world--the Sansara, Karma, in short, is the whole Sansaric make-up of an embodied being. It is entirely divested of the sacrifice idea. Karmas which keep the individual in a backward condition are known as Papa; those which help him in advancement are Punya. The Jain philcsophy gives a detailed enumeration of Karmas, and explains, how they are attracted (Ashrava) how they are assimilated with the individual (Bandha), how their inflow can be stopped (Samvara) how they can be entirely worked out (Nirjara), and what the ultimate state of a perfected individual is (Moksha). This particular branch of philosophy, therefore, includes topics like sensations, perceptions, consciousness, pains and pleasures, moralities of life, moral depravities, building of the bodies and all factors of the individuality. No other philosophical system in India has gone into so many details of life-building as Jainism has done. Like other systems, Jainism teaches the doctrine of rebirth, the nature of which
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________________ 244 just depends on the nature of the Karmas that are ripe to manifest themselves soon after death. It will be seen from the foregoing remarks that the ideal of the Jain philosophy is the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual perfection and (after death or rebirths if necessary) attainment of perfect spiritual undividuality, which does not disappear, is not dissolved, is not merged into a supreme being, is not a state of unconsciousness, but persists for ever and consists of perfected consciousness and highest rectitude. This being the goal of every living being, life in every from is highly respected by the Jains. The universe is not for man alone, but is a theatre of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is their guiding principle. Ahimsa parmo dharmahNon-injury is the highest religion. Their ceremonial worship, institutions, manners and customs (purely Jain) all rest on this grand fulcrum of Ahimsa. Man, in his desire to continue his life forces, so that he may do the highest good while living here, is obliged to destroy life; but the less and lower form of life he destroys, the less harmful Karmas he generates. This is the basis of the strict vegetarianism of the Jains. Acting on that idea, they have built homes for maimed or old animals in many cities, and towns of India, where they are fed and taken care of until they die a natural death. The preaching of that grand principle has almost entirely superseded Brahminical sacrifices of animals.
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________________ 245 In literary activity., Jains have held a prominent position. Their scholars and philosophers have composed voluminous works on philosophy, logic, comparative religion, grammar, prosody, mnathematics, lexicography, music, history, biography, astronomy, etc., besides works on their ceremonial and ritualism. Out of the many authors, only a few need be mentioned here. Bhadrabahu Suri composed "Niryktis" on ten works of the Jain canon, also a work on a stronomy. Devarddhi Gani, the Kshamashramana, is the redactor of the sacred canon; 980 years after Mabavira, the last Arhat, Devarddhi, seeing that all the canonical works were being lost in course of tme, caused them to be written down. Before that time the sacred literature was handed down from master to disciple without the help of books. Siddhasena, the Divakara, converted King Vikramaditya to Jainism, and is the author of many philosophical works. Haribhadra, a Brahmin by birth and a covert to Jainism, composed 1,444 Prakarnnas (short treatises) on various subjects. Malaygiri is another well-known author. Abhayadeva Suri wrote commentaries on nine principal canonical works. Devendra Suri wrote works on Karma etc. Dharmasagara contributed a work on the history and beliefs of heterodox sects. Hemchandra, the well-known encyclopaedist, brought Prince Kumarapala of Gujarat to Jainism, and is the reputed author of three crores and a half of couplets. Yasovijaya wrote many works. Muni Atamaramji,.
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________________ 246 who died only four years ago, composed severai Works in popular style, thus brir.ging home the Jain philosophy to the masses. In the literary world of India Jains justly claim the credit of accurate recording of history. Accurate chronicling of events and history-making seldom find place in the ancient works of Hindus. Among the Jains, however, the case is different. Since the time of their first literary activity they have been recording the most important historical events of the time, Authors and commentators mention, at the end of their respective works, the names of their spiritual predecessors and the work done by them. Jain Pattavalis' lists ot spiritual heads of the community, with & short sketch of their lives and description of the leading events of the time, are well-known, and are being earnestly studied by German Oriental scholars and Professor Bendall of London. Jacobi, Klatt, Buhler, and last but not the least my friend Professor Leumann, of the Stressburg University, have settled many points of Jain history with the aid of these Pattavalis. The sacred libraries of the Jains, established at various periods of our history for the purpose of faciliteting to laymen the study of their philosophy and religion, contain thousands of manuscripts, some of which have not been allowed to be even looked at,
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________________ 247 for the reason that the Jains, not being aware of the motives of the European scholars, are still apprehen-. sive of the consequences of Mohammedan sacrilege and destruction of everything that is holy. The libraries of Pattan, Cambay, and Jessulmir have .. worldwide reputation. A portion of manuscripts, deposited in those libraries, has been catalogued by Professors Bubler, Kielhorn, Bhandarkur, and others, Distant seems to be the day when the European scholars will take an active interest in the philosophy embodied in those works. Four canonical works have: been translated into English by Professor Jacobi in the "Sacred Books of the East " series. Portions. of others are translated by continental Orientalists. Almost the whole canon in original, with commentaries and Gujrati translations, has been published by the late Rai Dhanapatisinh Bahadur of Murshidabad. Some later, works have been published by Bhimsind Manek, the well-known Jain publisher of Bombay, now deceased., Much still remains to be done in the way of publication. The Jains have been a powerful and influential community in the history of India. Some of them held high positions under native and Mohammedar rule. Writing so far back as 1829, Colonel James Toj says in his "Annals of Rajasthan". "The number and power of these sectarians
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________________ 248 ( Jains ) are little known to Europeans, who take it for granted that they are few and dispersed. To prove the extent of their religious and political power it will suffice to remark that the Pontiff of the KhaJataragachha, one of the many branches of the faith, bas 11,000 clerical disciples scattered over India; that a single cominunity, the Ossior Oswal, numbers 100,000 families; and that more than half the mercantile wealth of India passes through the hands of the Jain laity. Rajasthan and Saurashtra are the cradles of the Jain faith, and three out of their sacred mounts, namely, Abu, Shatrunjay, and Girnar, are in these countries. The officers of the State and revenue are chiefly of the Jain laity, as are the majority of the bankers from Lahore to the ocean. The chief magistrate and assessors of justice in Udeypur and most of the towns of Rajasthan, are of this sect; and As their voluntary duties are confind to the civil cases, they are as competent in these as they are the reverse in criminal cases fro'n their tenets forbid iing the shedding of blood. ... Mewar has, froin the most reinote period, afforded a refuge to the followers of the Jain faith, which was the religion of Valabhi, the first capital of Rana's ancestors, and many monuments attest the support this family has granted to its professors in all the vicissitudes of their fortunes. One of the best preserved monumental remains in India is a column most elaborately sculptured, full 70 feet in height, dedicated to Parshvanath-in Chitor. go
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________________ 249 The noblest remains of sacred architecture, not in Mewar only, but throughout Western India, are Buddhist or Jain; and the many ancient cities where this religion was fostered have inscriptions which evince their prosperity in these countries with whose history their own is interwoven. In fine, the necrological records of the Jains bear witness to their having occupied a distinguished place in Rajput Society; and the privileges they still enjoy prove that they are not overlooked." The Jains are advocates of education. Their benefactions to Western education and in tellectual progress in India are well known. The University of Bombay owes to a Jain merchant the means of erecting a stately library and a grand campanile, which are among the chief ornainents of the city. The Calcutta University has received an endowment of two lacs of rupees from the same band. Another Jain merchant has recently bequeathed five lacs of rupees for establishing a Jain college. Female education in Gujarat depends almost entirely on Jain liberality. Many schools, libraries, and scholarships have been founded or endowed by Jains. Being devotedly attached to the religion of their ancestors, they have built sumptuous buildings and magnificent temples, the style of which commands the applause of the best architectural critics of Europe, Their most sacred place is Mount Shatrunjay, situated near Palitana, in Kathiawar. Its summits are en
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________________ 250 crusted with marble temples and cloisters, erected in the course of many centuries at the expense of Jain people. Several times in the year rich Jains convey large bodies of their coreligionists to this and other holy places for pilgrimage at their cost. Besides, Jain pilgrims singly and in large bands from all parts. of India flock to these temples at all times of the year, It may be noted that Lord Reay, as Governor of Bombay, having, after careful study, settled the disputes between the Jain Community and the Chief of Palitana, fifteen years ago, an address of welcome was. presented to him wben he, with Lady Reay, visited that hill. That was the first official and public presentation to British representative. In conclusion, I may observe that the present Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, in reply to an address by the Jains of Calcutta, made the following remarks: "Among the various conimunities which have addressed me since my arrival in India there is none whose words of welcome awaken a more responsive echo in my breast than the Jains. I am aware of the high ideas embodied in your religion, of the scrupu. lous conception of humanity which you entertain, of your great mercantile influence and activity, and of the ample charities that have characterized your public and private dispensations. Previous travels in India have also familiarized me with many of your temples, in whose architectural features I have observed a refinement that reminds me of the great days of Asiatic art."
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________________ 251 MAN'S RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE.* The object of this course, of which this is the last lecture, is to get a concise idea how to think rightly and to study the different views and philosophies so as to arrive at the truth. The first and second lectures dealt with the canon of interpretation, the others treated of the idea of the various systems of philosophy with regard to the soul; the law of causation, and spiriturl consciousness. We have now to consider what is man's place in the universe: what is his object, and how is he going to accomplish it. Man's present state is the result of all his previous existences and of a long continued evolution. The evolution of the soul from the archaic state to the present is a wonderful panorama. A great philosocher of India has said that the intelligent entity that now lives in the human body has come from this low 'Extract of a lecture delivered in Washington, Ed.
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________________ 252 archaic conditon and has accoinplished half its round only. The other half is easy to that man who can conquer ignorance and erroneous ideas of things. There is no ready made path for us. The first step is to realise the difference between the real and the unreal, between spiritual and non-spiritual. No man can progress until he learns to distinguish between himself and his body. There are different kinds of souls. First, there are souls that identity themselves with the external, that believe the body is the real self. Observe a man and see if he identifies his consciousness with his body. If he does belong to this class, and as long as he clings to this idea he will have to live in an einbodied condition and he cannot be liberated. Incarnation, according to all the Oriental schools is above all thing to be avoided. Some people in this country have an erroneous idea that incarnation is a good thing. It is not good in it self, only as a means to an end. Second, there are souls that deal with the subjective state. These know that the real self is different from body and different froin mind, but they are not totally liberated from the body. Third: Supreine Soul or Spirit. The process of growing out of the external to the Supreme conditon
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________________ 253 is this: Give up the external and through the internal or subjective state reach the supreme state. This contains a volume of meaning. The growth must be from within, all other sciences and outside influences are unly helps and auxiliaries. To give up the external is no easy thing. There are four things difficult to obtain by the soul. Firt, buman condition. This took millions of years; Second, hearing the the truth. Truth speakers are few because there is usually soine personal end to gain. The majority of human beings are so engrossed with worldly airns that they have no time to listen to the truth; Third, Right faith in the truth. Many understand the truth who do not belive in it. They consider it reflects honor on them to doubt everything. Fourth, Practice of the truth. We must go step by step in this direction. There is only one way, and that is to do it, and it must be done by our own will. Nothing can compel us. The smallest seed of Spirit within us is always trying to unfold. Obstacles are self-created. We inust remove fhem by our own force. In the history of a soul there is a critical point in the human incarnation that decides for us whether we stay there or progress upwards. There is a knot of worldly desires impeding us; cut the knot by mastering desire and go forward. This done, progress is assured. A philosopher has used as an illustration of
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________________ 254 his thought a group of ants climbing & tree. Some get tired and drop back, others are entangled in the viscid exudations of the tree, while others go to the top and partake of the fruit. The law of habit is that within every-one which has been acquired by a continuous action of consciousdess in a certain line. If we have made a habit, we can unmake it. The individual entity has many personalities. The physical body has been formed through the habit of thinking that the body itself is the self. Understanding the whole elements of the human being in this way, the next step is to gain the mastery of our desires, to change thein into higher forces. ii With regard to this progress, there are two ways of making it. One is natural, the other scientific. The natural method means to inake no exertion but to resign ourselves into the hands of the forces around us. This takes a long time, and we are likely to be stationary. We may be attracted by worldly things and be retarded. The experiences of these react and teach us better, but we have to stay embodied a long time to learn in this way. According to the scientific method the path is narrow. We must transmute desire Into spiritual force. It is in the power of everyone to take this decisive step. This whole philosophy requires & knowledge of
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________________ 255 before the law of cause and effect so as to determine band what will be the result of actions, There is no secrecy about this philosophy; the Hindu thought despises secrecy. We have a popular saying that one who keeps knowledge secret when he might give it out, will be born next time as an alligeor. (Being questioned at the close of the lecture as to whether this really meant that the human being would be degraded into the form of an alligator, Mr. Gandhi replied that it was used as a proverb, or like olir saying 'of one who has done a foolish thing, that he has made an ass of himself.) Man is a compound being with many factors. As there are causes which obscure the sense consciousness, so there are causes which obcure the spiritual consciousness. It is the mind which causes bondage and which causes liberation. Beside the factors of causation, there are other pains and pleasures, or the lack of them, the personality, etc., and each factor has causes back of it. The individuality is always the some ; the personality is always changing.
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________________ 256 INDIA'S MESSAGE TO AMERICA. My brothers and sisters of Auerica: I greet you in the name of India and her three hundred millions of sons and daughters. I recognize in you my brothers and sisters, from whom I seem to have travelled away, ages ago, to visit the orient, and now I return to you with a message from that country message of peace, of love, of universal brotherhood and therefore of universal fellowship. I stand before you on a common level, not on the relationship of master and servant nor of the conqueror and the conquered. I hail you, my brothers and sisters, with all my heart and with all my soul, and while I stand before you with that feeling, I represent not myself alone, but the voiceless millions of India. I come to you at your invitation and at your courtesy. It is the first time in the history of nations that this vast country, the American country, sent a cordial invitation to the farthest country, India, on the other side of the globe. It is a crown of glory in the history of this new ration, the nation so progressive, so intellectual, so tolerant. It is an honor to India to partake
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________________ 257 of the festive board, the intellectual, the religious, the philosophical board which yeu have spread for her entertainment. You did invite us, not because you are kings and emperors who have authority to com mand us, but you bid us as brothers of the same Camily and as proxenitors oi the civilization which you bow enjoy. It is a commemoration of the completion, so to speak, of one cycle of life, a picture of the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, because the first representative of race is invited to 2011:nune with ihe last and best in opportunities of nces. That this new American nation, the youngest child in the history of nations has wisely and hospitably invited the aged and well-preserved nation from the farthest country to the entertainment, is without precedent in the history of the world. It is a pleasing thought to my country that she finds parallels of epochs or stages in the development of human lives and races. While you Americans tell of your Washington, who was first in peace, first in war, and first in the butts of his countrymen," so we, also, have our te .gton, who many centuries ago embalmell himsa' in the institutions of my country. No greater man than King Ashoka has ever reigned in India and no succeedi ig monarch has equalled his glory. He was inspired by a liberal and catholic spirit in his internal administration and in his foreigo policy, and the profound love of truth and the destre to spread the truth, bave made his name a household word from Siberia to Ceylon.
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________________ 258 You have had your Abraham Lincoln who Was the regenerator of your country, a second Washington. We had also our Abraham Lincoln, the victor of a great and patriotic war, the patron of reviving Hinduism, the center of all that is best and most beautiful in modern Sanskrit literature, and the subject of a hundred legends. Vikrama the Great, is to the Hindu what Charlemagne is to the French, what Alfred is to the English, and what Harun-Er-Rashid is to the Mohammedan. To the learned as to the illiterate, to the poet as to the story teller, to the old man as to the school-boy, his name is as familiar in India as the name of any prince or potentate or mighty leader in any country. Tender recollections of Shakuntala and Urvashi rise in the minds of Hindu scholars with the name of that prince in whose court Kalidasa flourished. Hindu astronomers cherish the memory of that great patron of Varaha-Mihira, and Hindu lexicographers honor the name of the potentate who honoured Amara-Sinha, and as if the true claims of glory were not enough, a hundred tales familiarize his to the illiterate and simple, so that in this sense history does repeat itself and teaches that after all, nations are preserved, regenerated and liberated to higher planes of realization, achievement and prosperity in material and spiritual things, by human embodiments of those divine forces which are universal, and which, when rightly under name
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________________ 259 stood, are answerable for human destinies. You Americans are living in the realization of the ancient dreams of the philosophers of India and the East. The means of the growth and human uplifting are great here. Our prophets and philosophers of the Fast have laid the foundations of them and it is now for you to build on those foundations. This is the message of India, which she delivers to you and through you to the whole American nation. With this message, also, come more than sinple greeting and recognition. The young American nation is in a condition to rightly appreciate the treasures of the ancient lore and sublime philosophy of India and the Orient, because, intellectually considered, this is virgin soil, and with the message which I bring to America comes also the fraternal invitation to you to study and understand this philosophy.-The key to the archives of our ancient history and lore is placed in confidence in your lap, ani you are invited to unlock for yourselves, with our permission and co-operation, this vast storehouse which contains the treasures of our ancieut philosophy and achievements. Why ? because you are young; because you are studious. unbaised, free and these are the conditions which answer for receptivity. Certain of your missionaries have informed you wrongly of our history and condition, of our moral stature and of our religion. It is because they have
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________________ 2ou studied us from the outside, and with eyes blinded by prejudice, the result of limited view of the universal cult, the universal law of brotherhood and love. We atuibute these wiong impressions and wiong conjuctures not to spite, walice or evil purpose, but ignorance, to a lack of knowledge, wuch a larger plane of univeisai brother bood will cause to aisappear. When mussionalles who are sent from this continent 10 our couuuy and to our people shall learn that we ale curidicuci the same tanilly, that we inbert the sauce perceptions, the Sale ilguls, tue senue inspaallos auu iue Saulic relations in wanite, ana watu wey Stck to lalcinize willis on lat plane and wiw was iccug mliou-ben, aza inel only, antagonisti and injusuce wali cease and the bonus of conwou viuweinuou will unile us in a muuluar iecognition of reasons for a paliect teliowship. You can biing us no new revelailul, but you can iecoguize in as the ola and everlasting truth which is the common birthright of all souls, wuich is only new to you because you are the latest born. il, in the freshuess and innocence of your zeal and limited knowledge of us, you conceive us to be idolators, bowing down to stone and metal gods made by our own hands, it is because you have as yet failed to grasp our conception of the simple and natural aids to faith to, contemplation, to apprehension and to duty, through which all souls must climb, as up the eternal stair of progress, from height to height, from lowest condi
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________________ 261 tions through all grades to regeneration and liberation, and up to the perfect state. But despite all this, to you we confidently look for that recognition of truth in us which shall lead to the universal fellowship which the law of universal brotherhood implies. We come gladly, at your invitation, for another reason. You are the most tolerant and liberal nation in the Western world, and tolerance is the first article in the faith of every Hindu, Buddhist or Jainist. No man can point to any instance in the history of my people where any man was ever persecuted for religious cpinion's sake. Our very language does not contain an equivalent word for the English word "persecution." We have words in Out language in the ancient Sanskrit, that cover the whole ground of justice, purity, of godness, of love and of all the sweet beatitudes of the soul's attainment, but not one world that means malice, persecution or tyranny for religious opinion's sake. It may be objected to this statement of mine, which objection may be founded on statements of distinguished ecclesiastics, such as Bishop Caldwell, who has lived in India for many years, that the Hindus worship gods of destriction, but acquaintance with us will prove that we do not worship gods in the sense conveyed, but they represent to us ideas of retribution and penalty and destruction for the wrongdoing and misdoing of man, and we seek to appease wrath and
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________________ 262 approaching, the Bishop says: methods of a The people of 64 Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna and propitiate justice by holy life. This same India worship as gods, various similar gods. The very names of these divinities are unknown in any other country-Shiva, Vishnu and the rest of the Hindu divinities are worshipped as gods by the people of India alone. If they were really gods, they would certainly be gracious to the people of India. They would certainly give proof of it by abasing the white men, who do not worship them, and by exalting their worshipers; they would bestow on the Hindoo unbounded wisdom, power and prosperity, and would probably give to them the government of the rest of mankind. How widely different is the condition of the Hindus, the supreme government of every part of India is in the hands of Christians." This is the sheet anchor of the argument of Christian superiority in India. But that is an old, old argument. The Mohammedans, for 800 years have presented the same argument with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other. Where are they to-day? Echo answers, where? Every person has his day. This is the Christian's day, and he is producing the same arguiment at the point of the bayonet. The so-called disciples of the Bible believe in "power" as the supreme manifestation and demonstration of the truth. So do we, but we go one step further and are declaring and have declared for thousands of years to
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________________ 263 the world that power, indeed, is the test of truth, but goodness is the highest power in the world. If it is powerful to do it is a hundred times more powerful suffer. Outpourings of cruel savages over the land of Bharata, and civilized'' scourges of the hunian race have been let loose upon the plains of beautiful India over ard over again, but, like meteors coming out af eternal darkness, flashing for a moment across her horizon of view and plunging back into darkness, all these oppressors and tyrants, with all their claims of truth and power to subdue, civilize and christianize, must in the long run, inelt like morning mist on the river and the Hindu will live on, firm in his faith that goodness is the highest power in the world and not oppression. I concede, my brothers and sisters, thai in India as elsewhere, men may combine together for wrongdoing, and have done so, but when they did so it was in contravention of the sacred truths, ignorantly interpreted and ignorantly applied, and not in accordance with the dogma of religon nor the inspiration of philosophy or civilization. Under the highest forms of the Christian religion, you will bear me witness, these things also have been done, but do we hold Christianity rightly responsible for the cruelty, injustice and wrong? Some may, but we do not. No more can you hold our philosophy and our religion responsible for abnormal conceptions and prepetrations.
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________________ 264 You know, my brothers and sisters, that we are bot an independent nation, we are subjects of her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, the " defender of the faith," but if we were a nation in all that that name implies, with our own government and our own tulers, with our laws and institutions controlled by us free and independent, I affirm that we should seek to establish and for ever maintain peaceful relations with all the pations of the world. We would seek neither to lessen your dignity nor to encroach upon your right or domain, and we would ask for that recognition in the family of nations which you already concede to us m the family of man. The Sanskrit poet says: "This to my country, that is your country, these are the conceptions of narrow souls: to the liberal-minded the wbole world is a family." For your inventions, and for whatever is just in your methods of industry, for whatever is humane and wise in your forms of education, and for whatever is pure and useful in your government and in vour civilization, we would offer you in exchange the sublime teachings of our prophets and our poets, and for all the people cordial fraternity and perfect reciprocity. I have heard your orators speak on many questions, among them the so-called vital question of money which is above all things the most coveted commodity. but I, as a Hindu, as a Jainist, in the Dame of my countrymen and of my country, would
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________________ 265 offer you as the medium of the most perfect exchange between us, henceforth and forever, the indestructible the unchangeable, the universal currency of good will and peace, and this, my brothers and sisters, is a currency that is not interchangeable with silver and gold, It is a currency of the heart, of the good life, of the highest estate on the earth and it is the currency of heaven. The civilization whose highest badge is the perishable symbol of corruption and greed, silver and gold, is not to be compared to that civilization whose highest symbol is the image of peace, and whose highest expression is good-will towards man and all living beings. Our Jain poet says: "Spirit of peace and perfect bliss, devoid of impure and destructive parts, Glory be to Thee." Because of these principles and doctrines underlying our lives as a people, from the earliest ages, we have been the victims of misgovernment and tyranny through oppression, from the first Persian invasion to the latest Christian invasion and conquest, but through It all we have borne ourselves with a patience, a patience of hope without a parallel in history, firmly adhering to our ancient faith, believing that in the end goodness will triumph over all oppression, all tyranny, for it is an axiom with us that goodness is the highest power and will eventually prevail. Here, you may say, that such is not the history of India. I will, therefore, confirm my own statement by that of one of the greatest Oriental Scholars in Europe, Prof. Max Muller:
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________________ 266 "I confess it has always seemed to me one of the sadest chapters in the history of the world to see the early inhabitants of India, who knew nothing of the rest of the world, of the mighty empires of Egypt and Babylon, of their wars and conquests, who wanted nothing from the outside world and were bappy and content in their own earthly paradise, protected as it seemed by the mountain remparts in the north and watched on every other side by the jealous waves of the Indian Ocean, to see these happy people suddenly. overrun by foreign warriors, whether Persiaus, Greeks or Macedonians, or at a later time, Scythians, Moham. medans, Mongolians and Christians, and conquered for no fault of theirs, except that they had neglected to cultivate the art of killing their neighbors. They themselves never wished for conquests, they simply wished to be left alone and to be allowed to work out their views of life which was contemplative and joyful, though deficient in one point, namely, the art of selfdefence and destruction. They had no idea that a tempest could break upon them and when the black clouds came suddenly driving through the northern and western mountain-passes, they had no shelter they were simply borne down by superior brute force, They remind us at Archimedes imploring the cruel invader not to disturb his philosophical circles, but there was no help for them. That ideal of human life which they had pictured to themselves and which to u
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________________ 267 certain extent they seemed to have realized before they were discovered and disturbed by the 'outer barbarians,' had to be surrendered. It was not to be. The whole world was to be a fighting and a buckstering world, and even the solution of the highest problems of religion and philosophy was in future to be determined, not by sweet reasonableness, but by the biggest battalions. We fuust all learn that lesson, but even to the hardened historian it is a sad lesson to learn." Such has been the case of the people of India from earliest times. Our physical resistance in every instance has been spa sinodic under the goadings of injustice, for the reason that in our philosophy and religion there is no curriculum nor science of war, only the holy breathings of lessons and principles that make for peace and brotherhood. Cruelty and reprisals have been charged upon us, which charge we do not fully deuy, since the worm will turn under the remorseless tread of the ruthless invader; but even in the paroxysin of such madness, overborne by greater cower and cruelty and in the agonies of undeserved death and extermination, we still clung to the prayer of our holy faith, "We forgive all living beings. We ask all living beings to forgive us." To my American Christian brothers and sisters who are before me and through them to the whole of Christendam, I have to say a few words.
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________________ 268 I have learned since coming to this conntry that the great shibboleth of the host of Christendom is, "The whole world for Christ." What is that? What do you mean? Who is that cbrist in whose name you propose to conquer the world ? Is there a Christ of oppression ? Is there a Christ of injustice ? Is there a Christ sf misinterpretation ? Is there ! Chfist of denial of all rights ? Is there a Christ of destruction of all holy aims and humane immemorial institutions? Is there a Christ of 11njust and exorbitant taxatio:) for the support of a govern:neut, foreign to our knowledge, our thought, our religion and our consent ? Who of these Christs has inscribed his name on the baner of your conguests? If you seek to conquer us under such banners and in the name of such Christs, we refuse to be conquered. But, if you come to us in the naine and spirit of the Christ of Education of Brotherhood, of universal love, or in the name of that Christ, why, in the valley of the Ganges and on the shores of the sea of Tiberius more that 1800 years ago, taught and said: "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another;" then I say we will welcome you, for Him we know and of Him we are not afraid. But all this must be understocd in the full freedom of it. We cannot recognize a creedal Christ, a limited Christ, an emasculated truth, whether it is viewed from an educational or from a moral and spiritual point of view, but the universal idea, without limit, without fetters-free.
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________________ 269 I have learned since here in this country why it is that in my own country different missionaries and Ghristian teachers antagonize one another. It is because the desciples are no better than their masters; because I find in this country many Christianities and the multiplied disagreements amounting to mutual oppression and excommunication, teach me that, either there be many Christs or that the one Christ is dismembered and toin, and divided up among many factions, wno in quarrelling over their several possessions accomplish nothing but the of the real truth. destruction We heathens of India recognize the many-sidedness of truth, and are divided into schools of philosophy and uut for the promulgation of truth as we see it, but nevertheless we are united very deep in one thought, oue conception, one adoration and one worship of the true and only infinite source of perfection the Christ of all humanity. From this point of view he may be called Bramah, Vishnu, Shiva, Buddha, Jina, or the Christ of Nazareth we have no objections, but in the deep and true appreciation of him, these names must signity one life, one source, one manifestation and one universal expression of love. The Jain poet says: "I praise him who has destroyed the seeds of physical death and birth, be he Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva or Jina." These prayers were composed before the birth of Jesus or of Buddha-had they lived before their composition, their would have been added. names
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________________ 270 I have borrowed from the Christian Scriptures what was spoken by the mouth of Jesus and is called "a new commandment," but in truth it is an old, old coinmandment, which in the beginning came from the lips and loving natures of our great prophets and teachers, and is not new to us, and is, therefore easily recognized. When the old and the new truth are appreciated and conformed to, then will come to pass that vision of the ancient prophets and seers, in the daily opportunities and methods of man, the principle in the active work of what you call "co-operation," which is the first proof of brotherhood. From this point also we my truely study and certainly obtain some knowledge of that condition of perfect bliss for which we yearn, and the conditions of which In the lessons I have tried to express are founded, and this for all souls and forever. On this ground also we stand to learn and to know the purpose and the methods of true worship. That worship is not to a person a mere existence who may be concerved as a supreme being only, but it extends to a holy, worthy, pure and perfected ones, who by this method have attained a perfect state and who by their example and virtues and the achievements of their austerities and devotions have made the way for us simple and sweet. We, the Jainists of India say every day in our prayer: " I worship all perfected souls; I worship all spiritual masters; I worship all spiritual instructors; I worship all holy men national
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________________ 271 and women in the world." You will say my Christian brothers and sisters, that this act of homage and worship should be directed to the Supreme being only, whom you call God; but you also worship the name of Christ, and who is he if he be not a manifestation and accommodation of some element, especially-Love that is the worshipful in the divine being. And in the recognition and devout worship of that Same manifestation which is the cause of our conquests and of all perfected lives, do not we bring ourselves into closer relations, and is not, therefore ship truer and worthier to be accepted. also is the universal worship, the tribute that all life makes in spontaneous gratitude and devotion to the Infinite. In this act of worship we are in fellowship with all living things and with all living beings. This worship may have no voice, no particular ceremony and no outward expression cognizable to the senses, but it must be and it is, the prostration of the soul before the Supreme in adoration, and in the conformity of love, the lesson of life. In all nature, animate and inanimate, of all graces and forms and expressions form the spire of grass protecting the lowly violet in the vale, to the songs of birds which rise on graceful wings in the pulsing atmosphere, whose pulsations are notes of worship, to the stately forest, bending under the pressure and expanding in the light of nature's growth, up to the vaulted heavens "singing as they shine, the hand that made us is Our wor And this
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________________ 272 divine," and still up into the higher sentient life, the souls of men, and still up to the perfect life-to the dwellers and realizers of the perfect bliss-through all the same spirit inspires and leads, and makes the worship one. This is the true idea of Hindu worship. How do you like it? Does it not touch the cord of sympathy and acceptance in your heart? My American brothers and sisters, it is not a propagandism that I speak of, but a spirit, a universal spirit of love and power and answerable for the paractical realization of brotherhood, the brotherhood not only of men, but of all living things, whica by the prophets of of all nations is indeed taught, but which by the practice of the world is yet ignored. This is the message of India to America. I have delivered it, conscious of my own weakness and inability to do justice to the spirit in which it was sent, and gratefully conscious also of that charity and brotherly love characteristic of your nation, in which it will be received. I will now conclude with a prayer, which in India, we daily offer: "May peace rule the universe; in kingdoms and empires; may peace and in the lands of the potentates; may in the house of friends and may peace the house of enemies." may peace rule rule in states peace rule also rule in
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________________ 273 IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. My brothers and sisters of America: By your indulgence and brotherly kindness, I have been permitted to deliver to you the message which I was commissioned to bear from my people in India to you, and it has been received in the spirit in which I endeavoured to present it. For this not unexpected reception, but none the less therefore grateful to me, I do not find words at my command press my gratitude. to ex My subject to-day may be properly called pressions that I have received during my this country," the impressions of various which may or may not be correct. << not be In presenting these impressions I shall able to do so in as connected and perfect a manner as more nature consideration would enable me to do therefore, you will be prepared to overlook what may appear to be a desultory or fragmentary disI deem it my duty and feel under obligations to give utterance to the impressions which I course. Im sojourn in characters
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________________ 274 have received, but I must beg you, my brothers and sisters, to acquit me in the very beginning of ap proaching this subject in any particular, in the spirit of criticism. It might seem to be the most politic and the politest thing to do, to refrain from uttering an opinion that might be construed adverse in any direction, and to give my impressions only of the delightful and pleasurable things that have come under my notice. In the main this will be true in all I may have to say, for what I shall say will be said in sincerity, and because in the immaturity of my thought, I cannot do otherwise. My first impression concerns the hospitality of the American people. This is an impression that has grown with every day's and with every hour's acquaintance. I do not mean by this that what I have been permitted to say on all occasions, respect. ing the people of my own country, their philosophy and their religion, has met with unchallenged accep tance. What I mean to say and do say, is, that in every instance I have been received with perfect cordiality, and have been listened to with the friendliest attention. I came to America with liberal expectations, and when I say ( which I gladly do ) that th:is far my fondest expectations have been more than realized, I only state the truth in moderate terms; for this is true in America as in India, that back of all outward expressions of welcome, of tole
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________________ 275 nance and reciprocity, there is the spirit which is larger and deeper, and prophetic of greater expres. sions than a short acquaintance can give. Whatever permanent lessons, favourable or unfavourable, I may carry away with me, I am sure that this imprese sion will not be weakened, but deepened and heightened. What I have said refers to all portions of the country that I have visited, and to all classes of people that I have had the honor to meet, but it is due to you who are before me, the representatives of and believers in Spiritualism, dwelling temporarily in this benutiful Cassadaga, which I have heared called the "Mecca of Spiritualism in America," that I should say, that the welcome you have accorded me and the interest you have shown in my mission, and the attention you have given to my feeble words, intensify the impression that I have referred to and touch my heart in A wav t shall never forget. It is impossible for me to out in words the permanent effect these delightful soiritual and intellectual communings will have upon me after I return to my native landonly this--I know it will he good and only good and that continually. When I shall soeak to mv family and mv people of all this and then show them pictures of you until vour faces shall become familiar to them, the bonds of sympathy that shall unite us will strengthen and strengthen, and vibrate in mutual and in increasing fellowship.
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________________ 276 The next thing that impresses me with peculiar significance is that system of popular education which you call the "common school." Through the hospitable facilities afforded on every hand, I have learned much of your great institutions of learning, universities, colleges, gymnasiunis, schools of art, schools of music and of applied Science, and standing in the fresh morning of your national life, I have gazed upon these monuments of your intellectual progress and industry with wonder and amazernent and also with gratitude: but when I come to study that system of education, which is in a way, peculiar to your country, and which brings the school and the schools master to all people, to the children of the humblest and the lowest on equal terms with the children of the wealthy and the proud, my admiration and my wonder yield to a sense of appreciation that I may cal devout and religious. For, although I and iny people in the narrow view of a mere sectarian, inay be esteemed ignorant, superstitious and idolatrous we, the people of India, especially those who have been permitted to pass through the curriculum of educarion, hold to the doctrine that at the bottom of all progress and answerable for all happiness is universal education. Also, that this education must be free, also, that it must be necessary, that is, that it must include those lessons that pertain to physical life, its relations and perfections, as well as to the cultivation of the intellectual faculties and the mora
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________________ 277 lities of life. It is possible that what I now say for my own people on this subject will surprise a few of my hearers, but I am proud and honored to be able, to say that this prime requisite of human progress, the education of the masses, is a doctrine held and taught and enforced, and practiced by the Jain community to which I belong, from the very beginning, as is proved by our history, and without interruption. In respect of my Hindu people. Other than Jaips, including the Brahmins and the believers in the Vedas, candor requires that I should say that with the exception of panicular schools for the education of Brahmins only, this doctrine has not obtained since the innovation of priestly exclusiveness, which made the privilege of education the right of one class only. This admission, which I freely make, ought not to weaken what I have said on this subject on behalf of the Jain community. It was a member of the Jain community who contributed 400,000 rupees for the purpose of erecting a university building and the creation of a library in the same, in the city of Bombay; this same gentleman endowed the University of Calcutta for purposes of scholarship with 200,000 rupees. The munificence on the part of this same gentleman and many others of our community, has established schools in different parts of our country for the education of girls as well as boys, which education is also free. It is the hope which has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers, and which is also a factor in
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________________ 278 our civilization, and it is our purpose also, to extend the work of education with all of our abilities with or without governmental aid, on that principle which is found in your Christian Scriptures, that "a little leaven, lea veneth the whole lump." Time 'must elapse before we sball realize the great consummation, but patience and persevera nce, with the encouragement of all enlightened people, and espacially of you, the uberal Americans, will eventually triumph. What I have learned of your great system of education of the masses, which I adinit cannot be very great or particular for the reason that my observations have been necessarily limited, is to me an encouragement beyond words to express, if my impressions are just and true. If my understanding of your institutions and your form of government is correct, and if I might be permitted to express an opinion, I would say that that education which is now offered to the people free to be accepted or rejected, inust soon become compulsory, as a measure of preservation of those very institutions. Of the different systems adopted by you, I may not speak with certainty, but the impressions which I have received concerning these methods, from the kindergarten to the university, are both pleasing and profitable in my thought. What lessons we, the people of India, may be able to receive from deeper acquaintance with you and your institutions, I may not even attempt to express or enumerate. I CAO only speak of the gratitude which I feel in the fact
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________________ 279 . that it has been my privilege to examine, to learn and to witness the effects of this system of education which, you call free, "common" and which is so popular with you. which, The third impression to which I must refer concerns the vastness of your material resources and the iuquinerable institutions of industry, together with the greatness of your home or interstate commerce. From this point of view, the material side of you civilization is almost beyond grasp. The difficulty of appreciating this view of your great country is not small to one who comes from a country of quieter activities and more contemplative methods, and the first thought is that your civilization's first achieve. ment is the multiplication of wants and necessities, of cravings and luxuries and of material means to questionable ends. This may be a superficial view to be set aside and substituted by a better, upon a better acquaintance. It would also seem impossible from the same point of view, to understand how the physical, the moral and the intellectual sides of civilization can keep pace with the activities, the demands and the luxuries of the material. This problem, however, belongs to you, and only time can solve it. But whether or not the essential equilibrium is now realized, or may ever be, it remains true that your industrial progress on all lines of materiality in the arts also, and in certain sciences, and in inventions and other things which go to aid the energy and labor of
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________________ 280 man, is marvellous to see. I have learned also that this question does not alone propose itself to me, who have not had opportunities to study it sufficiently. It is also disturbing the thought of this nation. The unrest, the unequal condition apparent in industrial society, the growth of monopolies, the concentration of wealth and its many encroachments, creating antagonisms where there should be harmony, and prophesying dangers where there should be security, are factors, which if true, threaten that peace and prosperity which it is the wish of all right thinking people all over the world that you may always enjoy.. In the name of India and her people, I offer the prayer that the evil which many of your wisest statesmen foresee, and which vast portions of your population seem to fear may never, never, overtake you. If the evils and dangers to which I have referred to really exist, then, it will be the part of wisdom and humane method in the industrial life, and in the social life, and in the patriotic government, to allay apprehensions, to destroy antagonisms, and to restore confidence by mutual concessions and the just application of the universal law, which you called the "Golden Rule:" "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." The next impression that I shall speak of concerns the social state and the family life of the American people as it has come under my observation.
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________________ 281 In some particulars this impression is unfavourable in others very grateful. In all thought, both in India and in America, as I can conceive it, the establishment of the family is at the base of the whole social structure, and is essential to social and material happiness, and should be, and I hope is, held to be sacred. A nation of families in the right view, must be (other things being equal) a happy nation, although that happiness may not include great material wealth or commercial achievements, for the home where the family is, is the heaven on earth if it is constituted and preserved within the sacred meaning of the word itself. But I find in this great country of yours, not unity of conception and practice, but great diversity, and that diversity--if my impression is correct is a diversity of unhappy contradictions. I do not understand how it can be that home relations, which answer for family, by which I mean the ties and the children of our love, can be so easily broken. In your country when the son marries he leaves the paternal roof, the home in which he was born and reared, and separates himself from that circle, and establishes a different houe beyond the limits of the old home; he creates as it were, (if I understand it) a separate, a distinct home for himself. This fear of living in the same family for a generation is very prevalent, I think in this country. This feature of your social life is peculiar in my view and is not realized nor desired
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________________ 282 among us. There seems to be a dread of enlarging. the home circle by bringing into it the wife of the brother, with you. Perhaps you are afraid of the mother-in-law, as I have heard. With us it is different. The home of the father of the son who marries. the daughter of a different family, is, from that moment, the home of the daughter who is now the wife and she loves not her husband only, but her motherin-law, her father-in-law her brother-in-law-in fact, all the members of the family into which she is adopted or brought, and her rights and privileges are equally sacred and as inviolable in the family, as the son's whose wife she is. In your country, if the husband, dies leaving the wife a widow, it is often the case, if not always, if my impression is right, that she is left to provide for herself unless the estate of her husband is left to her and is sufficient. Perhaps, it is this which necessitates renarriage and the establishment of new ties of the same nature in a different direction and with a new mother-in-law who may be appreciated in the sa ine way, so that now she is related by marriage to two families and is in our conception, a inember of neither. You will, therefore, ask me, what is the difference in my country ? It is this: the daughter-in-law becomes a member bona fide, not legally; per se not incidentally, of the family into which she marries. If she is left a widow she does uot need to remarry in order to obtain the comforts. and the protections of home, but the home in which
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________________ 283 she is, is her home, with all that the word implies, son long as she lives, and it is the duty and the sacred pleasure of the members of the family to provide for her, to love her and protect her just the same as if her husband were by her side. I do not mean to say that under no circumstances is remarriage permissible. On the contrary there are certain classes of people and religious communities who live on the lowest plane of spirituality whose widows do remarry but we say that the reasons for that remarriage are unworthy and pertain entirely to that nature which we oll "animal." I do not pass ju igment on either of these modes of life at this time. What I desire to do is to present the contrast which will account for the unfavourable impressions which your system has made upon me. It may be that your philosophers and socialists can present many reasons for this state of things and many arguments in its defence, but to the Hindu mind, the basic principle of the family and the ties which bind into unity its several members, are violated by you, and that for this reason it must be imppossible for you to attain the highest social state. Another thing that I have learned is that divorce is a common and sometimes a coveted feature in your social civilization. I will say that this feature also impresses ine unfavorably. It would seem that there is a lack of something--you may call it wisdom, love power of selection, or what you will-lying at the
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________________ 284 bottom of this fact. The truth, however, must be conceded, that thousands of persons who inarty and start out in the separate and independent way of which I have spoken, apart from the family of the husband, soon, for some cause, grow tired of each other, and are separated by the strong hand of your legal civilization by divorce. With us, what you call divorce is not known, except in the lowest class of society, which class is not of the Aryan origin-in other words, not real Hindu. What I mean to say, with more explicitness, is, that Hindu jurisprudence and Secred books do not provide for or recognize divorce. The reason of this, which I may not do more than state, is found in our conception of the ground and reasons for marria ge and the family tie. These are Sacred and inviolable, and they hold through all circumstances, and cannot be weakened nor set aside. Marriage in our view is spiritual as well as physical matehood. The husband and wife are one and indivisable in this view; they have not two roads, and two destinies, and separate attractions, and different ob jects, whether of desire of devotion. They are one in thought, in purpose, in religious devotion, in Sacred relations, with a destiny in the true light, that is also not devided. It is, of course, impossible to bring before our limited view in this earthly state, the full and perfect relations, and the blissful conditions of the perfected souls of men and women, but the Hindu' widow is forever a wife, and prays every day
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________________ 285 that in that future of perfect bliss, she may husband, and believes that she will. This mean in any physical sense, but that the perfection which is attained by the religious observances and soul growth of the husband shall also be hers, so that the unity in the marriage relations, in the spirittual interpretation of them, is perpetual. But we, the Jains of India, also teach that in the perfect concondition, soul is without sex, there is no man-soul. or woman-soul in the sex sense, in that perfect state. In the perfect state recognition obtains and the individuality in the real sense of it is not lost. If you can conceive of the souls of husband and wife in the perfect state, looking back to the human its physical relations of sex, you may also conceive of their saying that that human condition was true, and just and holy, and necessary within its horizon, but that those relations were means to an end, also sacred and that the true relation which now we realize in the perfect state, where sex does not enter in, is the true and permanant relation. state with join her does not I must also speak of the impressions that I have received in relation to the government and politics of your great country. I will say that as far as I have been able to grasp it, your theory of government is also among the monuments of Western civilization. I cannot command words to express my admiration of that theory, if I take the theory from the undying
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________________ 286 Words of that great man, Abraham Lincoln, who said that "this is a government of the people for the people, and by the people." That statement is too great to be discussed in one hour, or in one year or in many years. It is a statement that opens up possibilities and realizations which imply a perfect condition in the outcome of the human society. I, a Hiudu, interppet it to mean self-government in the highest sense. I must own to some anxiety for the future of the theory in the practical realization, when I consider the political contentions and extremes which seem to co-exist. Perhaps my view is superficial, perhaps these outward demonstrations and irreconcilable political antagonisms on party lines and for party supremacy, may be mere excresences or breaking waves upon the bosom of a deep sea whose unity and unific power shall abide undisturbed, unvexed and fupreme. This is my hope. Finally, my brothers and sisters, with your kind indulgence, I will speak somewhat of my impressions regarding the religion and the religious condition of the American nation. I will ask you again to consider what I may say as the expression of impressions which I have received, subject always to revision and correction, and in no sence spoken in a spirit of criticism. The opinion which I had formed from contact with Western civilization in my own country, and with missionaries and missionary methods among my
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________________ 287 people, was not of a nature to contribute to the eman tion of admiration of what may be called your "religion." Upon coming to this country and viewing you from higher and closer point of view, my first impression was in the nature of an agreeable surprise, I as a heathen, so-called, was received at the great Parliament of Religions, yours inculded, and by you espe cially in the spirit of that brotherly love which is one of the fundamental principles of the universal religion. This great welcoming spirit of brotherly love, of absolute tolerance, of illimitable fraternity, is the real expression of your national religion, in my impression, and differs in nothing from the spirit of my own religion, and therefore, I wonder why this spirit does not control in all directions. The spirit is true, it is universal, but its expression in dogmas and creeds and contending churches, seems in conflict with itself. How can narrowness, and bigotry, and limitations, and worldliness, and worship of mammon, and oppression and extortion, and enmity, and unbrotherly attitude and conduct, be natural expressions of the universal holy spirit of brotherly love ? Can you tell me, since I cannot enlighten myself ? If you say these expressions of outward signs mean nothing, I answer: Whence do they co:ne; whither do they tend, why do they have place; why have they not been banished ? If they mean nothing, they can have no mission, and are not the influences and children, and powers and
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________________ 288 reflections of that great spirit of goodness which is, love to all living beings. I do not claim superiority, I do not arrogate to myself or to my people the right to judge or to criticise. But you say to me, you are our brother, and some of you say you are our elder brother and therefore, if I am your brother (and I am your brother) I ask you why do you persecute, condem and devour one another in the sense in which one form of christianity antagonizes another, and one sect of Christians excommunicates another, and why, in some instances, in your conception of missionary duty, do you even exconnunicate ma ? Only this I will say, because I am your brother, ine you shall not excommunicate; my people you shall not relegate to the uncovenanted mercies of God ! It is the spirit of your religion, as well as of my own, that the Supreme Be. ing is the source and essence of goodness, and that all living beings are in a sense, the children of that Sup Teme Being, therefore, all men are brothers, therefore, the tie that binds us in this brotherhood is not difference, nor hate but love; and what is love, my brothers and sisters ? Is it a sentiment merely ? An expression merely? It is only a word that can be interpreted in many ways or not interpreted at all ? We say in our sacred books, "Love is only of one kind, which binds together all the universe and which destroys all differences, without creating any quarrelsome opinions and jealousies and other wrong states of mind."
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________________ 289 I conclude, dear brothers and sisters, by saying that standing on this foundation, looking into one another's faces in the spirit and realization of true religion, if the past is glorious, the future, both for you and for us, will be more glorious. We need but to become better acqaivted with one another and with the holy truths of universal religion, to enter upon paths of progress and spirituality, which, leading us out of the material and transitory, shall bring us into the perfect state where conflict and antagonisms and evil passions shall never enter. To aid in bringing about this needful condition, and to discover the true methods of its attainment, we may be' missionaries to one another in a truer sense, in a better sense and even in a holier sense, than that word has ever been interpreted to mean. By recognizing the right relations we shall come upon the right method, and in the unity of the spirit, we sball have the bond of peace which is brotherhood, out of which shall come communions, spiritual especially, which sball increase unto the perfect day and the perfected life, for all living beings.
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________________ 290 SOME MISTAKES CORRECTED. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the last time that I shall appear before you in the regular programme of this great gathering. Since coming among you I have been busy, as you know, acquain. ting myself with your methods of thought and distinctive lines of public discussions on this free platform, and also in discussing in a limited way before select classes some of the philosophies of my own country. It is gratifying to me to find that on fair acquaintance we are not so far apart as probably many of you have been led to suppose. I have yielded to your solicitations, not without much distrust of my ability, to discus with some freedom differences in religious life and in civilization, which mark our two nations. Iu my last public address from this platform I was permitted to give you in a brief manner some of the impressions that I had already received respeiting your great country, its people and its institutions. I confess to some surprise at myself, in venturing to give those impressions but you drew me on by your kindness and respectful
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________________ 291 consideration, and I could not resist the desire to gratify what seemed to me a reasonable proposition. I did not come to this country to propagate the philosophy of my community or the religion of my people. I did not deem it part of my mission to assume that role which distinguishes the missionaries for the most part, wbich you in your religious zeal, send to my country to enlighten our benighted minds. The spirit in which you have received my words emboldens me to take a further step in the line of removing obstacles in the way of a better understanding. In attempting this task I approach it in the spirit of fraternal love and will endeavor to present my cause in a manner to deserve at least your approval, if you do not fully agree with me. I do not forget that in a sacred gease I am your guest, and it would pain me, and my people also, if I should inadvertently utter a word to rankle in your thought. I have received so much from you, and am so deeply impressed with the fair mindedness and tolerance of the American people, that I will even venture to correct what I conceive to be grievou3 mistakes in the public estimate of my people from certain points of view. In seeking to correct certain mistakes, as I con ceive them to be, I may be grdoned if incidentally I can show what India can give in return for your ational
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________________ 292 tolerance and noble consideration on the subjects already discussed in your hearing. I deem it proper to say that I have learned very much thus far in my Intercourse with you that will serve me well when I come to report to my own people the lessons of America to India. One of those lessons I cannot refrain from mentioning here. It is this: that good and only good must come from a freer and fuller communion, correspondence and reciprocity, not in philosophy only but in the material factors of civillzation, between you and us. I am impelled to predict that we are in the beginning of material, intellectual and spiritual unfoldings aud relationships, in the spirit of brotherly recognition and love, which will do more for our mutual good in one decade than & cycle of sectarian missionary propogandism can accomplish, The first mistake which I desire to notice is the very cominon one that the Hindus have no history worth considering prior to the Mohammedan invasion which began in ihe early part of the Eighth century of the Christian era, and ended in conquest one hundred and fifty years later. This mistake has been emphasized recently in certain leading magazines of America by some distinguished writers. What is the truth ? The truth is that the history of ancient India is a history, even by the concessions of most eminent European Oriental scholars
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________________ 293 of at least 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. But in the Hindu thought our history goes back thousands of years beyond that period. Western scholarship has given priority in date and in character to the records and monuments of Egypt and of Chaldea. Those records and monuments give simple information and are confined for the most part to the names of kings, the accounts of war and dynasties, and the builders of pyramids. These are interesting to scholars, but shed uncertain light, and little of that, on human progress and civilzation. The contrary is true in relation to Hindu history. It does not abound in the records of thrones, of wars, and the incidents of conquests, but are connected recitals of the advancement and successions of civilizations, the progress of the human mind, and the sacred gious thought and devotion. There are many periods in this history, carrying us back into remotest ages, not inscribed on stones or papyri, but abounding in bymns that embalm the religious thought and aspirations of the people, and in profound works and systems of philosophy, reflecting each era of civilization. This history to which I refer was not committed to stone or to writing of any kind, but was transmitted with particularity and exactness from generation to generation, from century to century, by oral teachings and repetition. I grant permanency of reli you that
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________________ 294 it is difficult to consider this fact, but it stands indisputable, and since the scholars of the Western world have entered upon the systematic study of our his tory and our literature, they stand confessing this fact with expressions of wonder and ainazement. You will see, therefore, without enla-gement upon & matter too vast to enter upon that the mistake to which I have reffered is a serious one and reflects little honor upon those who persist in it. The character of this mistake inay be further seen when you consider the antiquity of the written history of Hindu progress, literature, religion ond civilization. It is conceded by some learned scholars, such as Prof. Max Muller, Prof. Weber and Prof. Whitney not to mention others that the Vedic hymns of India date from 1500 to 2000 before Christ, whilst the distinguished doctor, Martin Haug, gives credit for the earliest of these sublime productions to remoter date. It is true that this mistake is pardonable, when we consider that it is only within the memory of the present generation that, the scholarship of Western civilization has been able with systematic ability to trace their history with exactness of method. I have spoken of the transmission of historical events from generation to generation by oral tradition from memory to 'memory, through many centuries before history began to be written in the Sanskrit language the oldest language in the sisterhood of languages. On this point I beg to quote a single para
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________________ 295 graph from a lecture delivered by Prof. Muller before the University of Glasgow in 1892. He says: "To those who are not aquainted with the powers of the human memory when well disciplined or rather when not systematically ruined as ours have been, it may seem almost incredible that so much of the ancient traditional literature should have been composed, and should have survived during so many centuries before it was finally consigned to writing. Still, we have got so far (and I beg to call your attention to this remarkable concession) that every body now admits that the poets of the Veda did not write there hymns, and that Zoroaster did not leave any written documents. The truth is that there is no equivalent word for writing or to write in the Vedas." But my American brothers and sisters, the argument for the more ancient history of India than the date of the Vedas, that is to say the committal of the Vedic hymns to writing which is conceded to have been done two thousand years before the birth of Christ, will be found in the study and comprehension of the Vedas themselves. In their composition in the fullness of expression, in the sublimity of thought, in the perfection of imaginary, and in the simplicity of detail, they show a lineage and point to evolutions, gradations and acquired perfections, that imply untold centuries of human development in
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________________ 296 thought, in speech, in art, in religion, in philosophy and in all the considerable factors of great, but ubiecorded civilizations. Such monuments of learning, boti subtle and simple, suggesting a knowledge of nature and of man which only centuries upon centuries of growth can answer for, cannot be considered as modern, even as similar monuments of Egypt, of Greece, or of the Hebrew nation, but must antedate them all and in a sense which will get be affitciated, prove to be their motherhood. In closing this part of my utterance to you, I will quote one more passage from the same distinguished authority that I have already named Prof. Max Muller says " If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth power and beauty that nature can bestow-in some parts a very paradise on earth-I should point to India. If I were asked under wbat sky the human mind has most fully developed some of the choicest gifts, bas most deeply pondered on the greatest problem of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant-I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic tace, the Jewish, may diaw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, inore compre
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________________ 297 hensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal life-again I should point to India." The second mistake which I desire to correct relates to the origin and purpose, and supposed sacred character of the caste system prevailing in India. Those of you who have honored me by attending my private lessons at this place on the philosophies of India, need not be told that I set up no defence of the cast insistitution as it obtains there. The popular explanation of this system accepted by the people of the Western world I will give in this way: The four great divisions of caste are named the Brahmin, the Kshatriya the Vaishya and the Shudra, and their origin and meanining in this view are these: The Brahmin sprang from the head of the God, and represents exclusive privilege of intellectual progress and learning, including priestly functions and religious :superiority constituting there--fore, an exclusive monopoly of right, privilege and enjoyment of intellectual development and religious cult. The Kshatriya sprang from the arms of the God and represents tae soldier element which stands for the defence of material and national rights, but without the privileges pertaining to the Brahinin. The Vaishya or third class sprang, in this View of caste, from the loins of the God, representing
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________________ 298 GUM wealth, commerce, bussiness and the activities and monopolies of trade and industries, with still more limited privileges and rights pertaining to the classes above, namely the Brahmin and the Kshatriya. The fourth, or Shudra caste, sprang from the feet of the God, representing servitude and all menial pursuits and labors, with still more restricted rights and privileges, yet with one larger privilege, which per. tains to the condition which the orgination of this caste implies, namely, abject servitude. As a compensation for the loss of privilege and the denial of certain rights pertaining to knowledge and develop ment, the myriads composing this class are permitted to travel in their own country without let or hindrance, but under the bond of servitude, being the servant class of all the rest. This is the common interpretation and explanation of the caste system briefly stated, given by your writers. But it is not our understanding, nor a fait statement of the truth. What then is that truth? In the first place, the ancient Vedas give no record of such an institution as caste, and therefore, It is not in any view an integral part of our ancient religion, or of our philosophy, How then did it come to be instituted ? Whatever authority may be traced to the Vedic writings on this subject will be found to be the result of innovations, without any more authority or sanc
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________________ 299 tion than that which pride and priestly arrogance can give to perpetuate themselves, contrary to the ancient spirit and the true doctrine which inspire and underlie tae universal religion, which recognizes a common fatherhood, and a universal brotherhood, with equal privileges and possibilities. It would weary you if I should attempt the history of this innovation and the origin of the sanctions which may be found in later Puranic writings. My object is simply to stimulate in you the spirit of independent and impartial investigation, well knowing that you will find that my statement is true, and that the institution, shorn of its sentimental incidents, is not civilization with religi come to be rather than an unyielding or cast iron factor in Our found in that authority which we bow to ous awe and obedience. In truth, it has considered more as a social institution one sanctioned by religious authority. From this point of view it may be conceded to possess certain advantages which minimize the restrictions of the social order, which restrictions will melt and disappear as education advances to universal sway. Under another name, if my observations are not at fault, a system of equal rigor and more market distinction is forcing its way even in this free land of yours, born also of the same motherhood of pride, monopoly, and the centralization of wealth and power. For I find even here great social distinctions, and even religious exclusiveness, lifting their banners
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________________ 300 and building their walls with a zeal and a pertinacity of purpose and visible results, that are almost equal to the observable decay of the system as it is popularly believed to exist, in India. I will conclude my observations on this point by quoting a paragraph or two from a very high authority in Her Majesty's India Civil Service and an Honorary Secretary to the Royal Society-Mr. Robert Needham Cust: * "How has society dealt with caste ? I can only give an opinion based upon experience acquired in a solitary life among the peopie of Upper India for weeks and months together without any European companion. I never found caste an obstacle to social intercourse, nor did the subject ever press itself forward, and yet the population of the villages and towns visited each day, differed considerably. Few villages were absolutely without Mahonedan, none without men of the lowest caste, and in the thronging of an Indian crowd there must be indiscriminate contact. In my establishment there was the Brahmin, with whom I transacted ordinary business, the Rajput, who carried my messages, the Khatri and Kayat, who engrossed my orders. Mabomedan and Hindu sat upon the floor working side by side, in constant contact, and handed papers from one to the other; and, if the half caste Christian sat at a table to write English letters, it was only be *"'Pictures of Indian Life," R. N. Cust Scribner & Co.
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________________ 301 TE cause the method of English correspondence quired this distinction. My own tent Was daily castes and positions in life, apartments of the notables thronged by men of all and my visits to the male was considerered an honor, and yet of all outcastes the European is the worst, as he asserts his right to eat both beef and pork. Thus, professors of different castes mingle in social life without any unpleasant friction: each man respects his neighbor; he has no wish, indeed, to intermarry with the family of his neighbor, or share the cup and platter of his neighbor, but he does not consider himself in the least superior or inferior." In one sense, and in one sense only, caste may be said to be religious. All that remains to the nonMahomedan population of the religious idea and instinct, has centuries ago shrunk into the notion of caste, just as in Europe in the Middle Ages, all that to many men remained of religion, was a keen sense of personal honor. Now, both caste and honor restrain a man's actions from what is contrary to the rules of brotherhood, is dishonorable, and often from crime, in a way, in which nothing else will restrain them, and in that sense caste and honor may be said to be religious sanctions, but in no other. No wise legislator would venture to do aught to weaken such sanctions, the existence of which marks a certain progress in civilization, until other higher sanctions have been substituted.
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________________ 302 fellow feel With all my recollections of valued friends le behind me in India, whose features live in memory and whose portraits in some cases decorate my walls it is amazing to me to hear on my return to England that this good, easy going people, amiable and igno rant, tolerant and docile, accomodating and affec tionate, is, in the opinion of wise and good men, "enslaved by a custom which annihilates ing and eats out human sympathy, and makes one portion of the community slaves to the other." I could multiply quotations of this kind, but it is not my object to aggravate this difficulty, but rather to compose it. I cannot see, that caste is an evil of the kind and degree, which it is imagined by many good men to be. In an exaggerated and selfasserting from it would certainly be at evil under a Hindu system of government of the stiff and intolerant forms of modern religious creeds, but tolerance has ever been of the essence of the Hindu system, and in British India the claws of caste have been cut by a strong and impartial government, and the social pressure of a population, made up of various elements which would not submit to oppression. I remark that in Europe classes lie in strata horizontally, and that in India the separation is by verticle fissures. I have known men of good caste and social position as gentlemen, who were not ashamed to have in their families near relations
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________________ 303 to the grade of manial or cock. Now, such a state of affairs would be impossible in Europe, and marks the enormous divergence of social customs" The next mistake that I must refer to concerns the women of my country. This mistake is many sided and time will not permit me to consider it in detail. In a general way it may be stated, thus: The women of India, from time immemorial, have been and are, the abject slaves of their bus. bands, without rights, without privileges, without education, without authority, and even ( as I have beard said ) without souls, except perbaps as they may blindly serve the whims, the behests and the lasts of their masters. To all this statement and to every particular definition that may be given to it, I am proud and honored to interpose a downright denial. I do not mean by this that woman's place and work in India are the same as I am led to be lieve as are found in this country: whether lower or higher or equal, in a genuine sense, I will not attempt to decide. In the Vedic times, as may be learned from the numerous hymns, many of them composed by women, & pleasing picture of woman's estate may be seen. In that carly age the father of the family was the priest, and his home was the temple. The Sacred flaine was kindled in every house and the hymns were chanted with simplicity and devotion by the entire family. When Sacrifices were
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________________ 304 2. to be offered, religious devotions performed, promi pent in that picture is seen the woman who is the wife and the inother. In those early days and down througi all mutations, and at the persent time, the most worthy households from every point of view, are those ho`iseholds in which grand parents, parents, sons and their wives dwell together in unity and in the bonds of love, each doing his and her part for the comfort, instruction and happiness of the home,' not alone in domestic industries, but in the rights and cereinonies of religious devotion. I will give you a few of the prayers of the Rigveda pertaining to this exalted condition. "Oh, ye gods, the marreiled couple who prepare oblations together, who purify the Soina juice and mix it with milk-may they obtain food for their cating and come united to the sacrifices (ligioufor service ), may they never have to go in quest foods. They worship you with the best offerings, blest with youthful and adolescent offspring, they acquire wealth and they both attain to a mature age. Then god themselves covet the worship of such a couple who neglect not religious sacrifices and duties, and who offer grateful services of worship and gifts to gods, and who embrace each other to continue their race, and they worship their gods.". Again a beautiful picture is that of highly educated women who, themselvs, Risbis( sages), because
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________________ 305 of their learning and devotion, compose hundreds of hymns and perform the sacred services, the same me men. In those days before my country kuew the demands, the tendencies and the restrictions of other civilization against women, there were no restrictions of an unwholesome character, nor were they kept in seclusion, denied ecucation, or excluded from the highest positions in society. Wives and brides were veiled often, not through any law or custom imposed upon them, but in obedience to the modest impulses of their own heart, but they had unrestricted liberty to go and come within the limits of self-imposed propriety. Prominent among the names of distinguished dames whose exa inples and wise precepts are embalmed in the sweet and holy measures of many hymns composed by themselves, is that of Vishavevara, the interpretation of which name is itself a commemoration of her virtues and learning-which is,'the elect lady." Whoever will study the composition of this exalted woman will be inspired to know and to keep inviolable the mutual relations of husband and wife. Indeed, in the ages to which I refer, the wife was the queen of the household, whose word was law to the members of the same, and who, like the mothers of this age, would arouse the house. hold at early dawn and set everyone from the oldest to the youngest to his and her proper task, and whose example was the bright light to which all eyes
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________________ 306 were turned. I do not mean to say that all women and maidens in that age, any more than now, were vituous and true. My object is to truthfully set forth the foundation facts, and the dominent grace and purpose. Contemporaneous testimony before the days of Christ, but also now extant, of biggesto authority, prove that the women of India were noti ceable for their modesty and chastity. Magastenes, the Greek ambassador, three hundred years before. Christ, found India two reasons for great admira. tion. The first was the absence of slavery, and the second the chastity of the women. In a previous lecture, aud to my classes also, I have given you in some detail a true account of the marriage customs of my people, and the constitution of the Hindu family, and will not, therefore, at this time enlarge in this direction. But I will describe to you in a short way the sacred cere nony of marriage, leaving out the mere secular, social and incidental exercises. Among the hymns recited at that ceremony are such as these. "May the husband and the wife be well united," turning to the bride the priest would say, "Oh, maiden, the graceful sun had fastened thee with ties of mai denhood' (which ineans that up to this time she had lived free froin the carnal knowledge of any man, "We release thee now of these ties, we place thee with thy husband in a place which is the home of truth and the abode of righteous action."
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________________ 307 These words and all others are repeated by the parents who give away their loved daughter to the husband. The hymn continues," Go to your husba and's house and be its mistress, be the mistress of all, and exercise your authority over all in that house, let children be born unto thee and blessings attend thee, perform the duties of thy household with care, unite thy person with the person of this thy husband, and exercise thy authority in this thy house until old age." Addressing the married couple, the priest and parents continue,"Oh, bridegroom and bride, do you remain here together, do not be separated, enjoy all proper food, be content to remain in your own home, and find and enjoy happiness in the company of your children and your grandchildren." of life "Ola bited til old acee, Law The bride and bridegroom offer this prayer:-- " May the Lord of Creation bestow on us children and may Aryman (the law of life-preservation) keep us united till old age." To the bride is then said, "Oh bride, enter with auspicious signs the home of thy husband, let thine eye be free from anger, minister to the happiness of thy husband, and be kind to all living beings, cultivate a cheerful mind and may thy beauty be bright; be the mother of heroic sons, and be devoted to the gods. May thou have influence over thy father-in-law, and over thy mother-in-law,
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________________ 308 and be as a queen over thy sister-in-law and thy brother-in-law." And lastly, the bridegroom and the bride say to each other-in the full realization of the new relations in which they stand, henceforth to proceed with one heart, and one mind,--"may all the gods unite our hearts, may the god of maternity and the spirit of proper instruction and goodness, of wise and pure speech, unite us together." This, my American brothers and sisters, in brief, is the marriage ceremony of the Hindus. It is longer and more tedious perhaps than your short, and as it would seem, not over-binding ceremony which I have witnessed since coming to your country and also on this platform. In your ceremony words pass between the bride and bridegroom, some of which words, as you have seen, are conspicuous for their absence in the "Heathen" ceremony which I have declared to you. Your priest would say to the man-"Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, wilt thou love, honor and keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others cling only unto her so long as life shall last." And to the bride he will say "Wilt thou take this they wedded husband, wilt thou love, honor and obey him and forsaking all others cling only to him so long as life shall last." To these propositions the man and the woman are expected to answer each, "I will." But, if what I hear from you be the truth, man to be
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________________ 309 this is said in many instances, with a large reservation. The absence of the pledge to obey the husband in the religious marriage ceremony of my people, ought of itself, to Save us from certain strictures and unjust criticisms, and our women from consignment in your belief to a state of abject chattelhood, degredation, and groveling subserviency to their husbands. I hope you will understand that I do not assume to sit in judgment upon your institutions, nor for one moment to institute invidious comparisons. As a Hindu I honor womanhood throughout the world and bow in proper worship to those sacred qualities which constitute wife-hood and motherhood. The greatest of all honors are those that cluster about the name and character of mother and wife. Oh, my brothers and sisters, whatever privileges and rights may seem to be denied the women of your country, and whatever duties of a more public nature may seem to demand their attention and their care, let nothing be said or done or thought, that shall detract from the crown of motherhood and wifehood, the glorious lustre that is found only there. But this I must say, that no Hindu women in all the history-the sorrowful, sad and changing history of my race,-has ever sought relief from the holy vows of marriage in divorce. We, of India, do not forget that we are under the Govern
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________________ 310 ment of a woman-her Gracious Majesty, Victo ria, Queen, of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, whose birthday and coronation day are national holidays, and who by cur people is more frequently called, not the Empress of India, but the mother. I will say that the designation of wife in India, of the Hindu wife, is higher and grander than that of Empress. She is called Devi, or Goddess. If you can reconcile these facts and deductions to the mistaken notions which you have received, from whatever sources, respecting the condition of women of my country, it is your task, to which I cheerfully leave you, In the lectures which I have had the honor to deliver to you in the class room, I have spoken largely concerning the early marriages among my people, and will not at this time do more than state the reasons thereof. The first reason is that the giving in marriage to the early age to which reference is made, does not imply in any case the consummation of marriage. The ceremony that I have given you, which is the real marriage, is performed among the Jains at the proper age of maturity, and the wife proceeds at once to her husband's home, and this was the custom in the earlier ages, before
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________________ 311 India became the coveted land of the invader. The second reason is that the early betrothal was necessary in the Hindu thought as a measure of protection, which includes time and the duty of education on the part of the young persons thus betrothed. between the time of the betrothal and the marriage ceremony, the betrothed shall die, the betrothed wife may be married to another. The protection to which I have referred, which this early betrothal gives to the girl of India can be as well understood by you as if I were to go into a detailed statement, for among the perquisites and spoils of the invader of all times must be reckoned, not alone lootings of perishable possessions of the conquered, but the possession and ravishment of unprotected women. Indeed, this measure of protection has not always proved adequate any more than your laws of prohibition of the licquor traffic have always, or may ever really, prohibit. A third reason may be given that womanhood is reached in our country at an earlier age than in your own. Another mistake that I must briefly notice is the prevalent misconception of the moral status of the Hindu people at large. I cannot go into this subject further thau to affirm that the basis of morality, its laws and rules, differ in no essential respect from those that obtain throghout the universal world. The rites of our religion, the relationships obtaining 'If,
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________________ 312 throughout the whole sccial stitcture, toth as to private and public conduct, answer for the highest moral character. Justice, truth, purity, are words meaningful to every Hindu, Sacred to his thought, not only parts of his speech, but essential elements in his daily devotions. "Thou sbalt not kill, thou shalt not covet, thoa shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not lie," are commandments with us as with you, ard thou shalt practice virtue, good will, right conduct, not toward men only, but toward all liviny beings, are also parts of our moral code, which no Hindu can forget or depy without bringing down upon him corresponding evils and retribution. Tbese are the straight lines in which we are instructed and required to walk. If men gicw lane and weak and sometimes fall by the way in India, as in America, we krow the source of that weakness and that failure, and sbould bequeath our conmisseration ard helpful brotherly pity. But this must be said in justice to my people, that the statistics of crime in India, as ascertained by Govery. ment sciutiny, are tut one-fourth in extent of those of England itself. In concluding this part of my subject, I wil refer you to the fact which with you is familiar, that what is said sometimes of the moral status of the Hindus, which is the outward expression of the moral law
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________________ 313 which they adopt, is also said of you, who are spiritualists, by some of your fil-informed Christian brothers. The same argument that you present in meeting the objection I also can and do adopt as my answer, since if I should seek to formulate answer it could 110 be more pertinent or more just. I find that answer in a book which I have considered for the first time on these grounds, and the author of which, well known to you, for he is on this platform, is not only my brother, but my friend, whom I have learned not only to admire but to love. The book is entitled Angel's Visits to my Farm in Florida." The author's name is "Golden Light," but the pronounciation would be different. In that book I find this paragraph which I will now read, and in the translation of it to my own people. I should substitute for Spiritualism, Hinduism. The author says to the objector to Spiritualism as I would say to the obiector to Hinduism. "I suggested that perhaps public opinion in many things was based on misconception, and ignorance of the real truth, principles and facts underlying and constituting the philosophy of spiritualism. It is of the very first importance, in the first estimate of this philosophy and its adherents and advocates, to know whether or not its principles and teachings are in themselves moral, judged by the highest standards. Is the morality of this philosophy different from that ucation International
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________________ 314 which all' pure minds accept, whether it be called Christian or Jewish, Mohammedan or Hindu, Greet or Roman? Are there several codes ? Is the essence of morality one everywhere or various, as men conceive it ? Is morality a creature of rules and regulations and human formulations ? Is it not rather the soul of right, or the conscience of right, implanted or breathed into humanity and into the universe by the Infinite Creator ? | What is moral law ? Who shall define it ? What authority shall interpret it ? It goes without saying that whatever it is and wherever it is, it is obligatory on all. But where will you search for it outside of yourself. Is it something independent of your consciousness, lying somewhere hidden, waiting to be discovered ? If it is not found within you, where shall you look for it ? Fichte, the German philosopher, says that "the formal law of morals," is this:
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________________ 315 "Always act in conformity with your convictions of duty (obey your conscience). "This rule includes two others, first, try to understand clearly what is your duty in every matter then, when you are convinced what your duty is, do it, for the sole reason that you are sure that it is your duty." Spiritualism, as I understand it, adopts and emphasizes this law, even as Jesus did--in his sermon on the mount and as all good Christians do when they truly interpret him. The criterion of morality is the conscience, not another man's but your own. I do not mean that one should not take counsel of other men's consciences in arriving at right conclusions, but I assert the very contrary, that one should do so. Not for the pursose of lessening the sense of responsibility, but for the confirmation of truth and right. This is the common practice of mankind, and so is that certain things are settled, because universal, or concrete conscience of mankind through ages, has made them so." Having thus noticed some of the mistakes prevalent in respect to my people and our religion, history and
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________________ 316 morality, and conscious of doing scant justice to each matter, and also conscious of the purpose to be just and true, I must now close this lecture by expressing, as I may, my conception of the future that awaits us in this world, wbere the thought and the conduct of men make and mar their future. To me the outgrowth of religions, civilizations and Governments, are the expressions of human progress and development from one motherhood of law, of nature, of man. We of India do not arrogate to ourselves superiority and authority, noting as we do along the ages, the rise, decline and fall, of empires and civilizations, to lecture you for your faults or to condemn you for your failures. No. We in the old home of the great mother of the nations, the civilizations, the philosophies and the religions of the wide world, would extend to you the mothers' blessing, the home greeting, and express, not the hope only, but the firm belief, that when you shall have compassed all seas and all lands, and all methods, and have exhausted all resources and discoveries in literature, in art, in the sciences, and in the worship of God, you will by degrees, by slow, perhaps painful but sure progress, turn your faces and direct your steps toward the old home, the old mother, and your brothers and sisters in India, the blessed. There you will find the old hospitality, the old sweet life, and the dear old mother unchanged in her devotion and in her love, capable
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________________ 317 of recognizing you all, and in her ample lap you shall nestle, as your progenitors did in the earlier times, amid the caressings and benedictions of love-love -love power, better than science, better than art, better than wealth because it is love which answers for the usefulness and right work of all these, and " which passeth understanding." Trade relations between the United States of America and India. -On behalf of my people especially the Bombay Marine Association, a society for the encouragement of commercial, industrial education in India, I offer you my heartfelt thanks, for extending to use this indication from the Philadelphia Commercial Museum to participtae in the deliberations of this Congress. The gentlemen who represent the Philadelphia Commercial Museum had indeed no authority, as King or Emperor, to command us to attend, but they recognize the fact that nations should once and for all stop that barbarous practice of war for deciding political problems of the day. Not only that but that they should also stop the commercial warfare that is rampant in civilized countries. One of the ablest speakers of the United States said: "In commerce there should be friendly rivalry, but no war." We recognize the principle that international conference in matters commercial has been a dream of philosophers, and it is highly creditable to
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________________ 318 the genius of Director W. P. Wilson, of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, that that has been reali zed. It is an event unique in the history of the world, and the Philadelphians justly deserve the credit of having consummated it. During a residence of nearly six years in this country through the hospitable facilities afforded to me on every hand, I have learned much about the commercial and industrial institutions of this country, and it is therefore a great pleasure for me to address you on the subject of trade relations between the United States and India. India has been the Klondike of the world from the beginning of its history, from the time of the Greeks and Mongolians they all had their day in India, and the last and latest are the British people, your cousins on the other side of the Atlatic. In International commerce India also is an ancient country. Long before the Christian era the commodities of India, its manufactured articles made by hand works of art, furniture and other things were known in the countries on the shore of the MediterTanean. International commerce, as it is understood to day, is only a recent thing, although you may call it
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________________ 319 a baby, still it is a China baby. We recognize the fact also that no nation can claim to be accounted as one of the important factors in the elevation of humanity unless it has its due share in international commerce. Now so far as India is concerned, I do not wish to go into the political, or the geographical or merely economical and domestic conditions of the country. I want to present before you a few facts that may be of some importance, especially to the manufacturers in this country, therefore, I shall give you some idea as to the export and import, especially of the imports of India. * Politically, India may be divided into two parts, British India and India under the rule of native Prirces under the suzerainty of the Crown of England. Commercially, there is only one India, and that is "India") without distinguishing it as British or native India. The imports of India are very large, indeed. Every year its imports of foreign merchandise increase. Last year $270,000,000 and $310,000,000 worth of goods-and exports $350,000,000 and $395,000,000 of commodities. The major part of home imports are manufactured goods of all countries of the world,
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________________ 320 who pour forth their commodities and merchandise into India, Great Britain stands the first sending from $155,000,000 to $170,000,000 worth of merchandise every year. Next comes Germany, whose exports have increased from $500,060,000 in '93 to $978,000,000. This is only a preliminary idea about the imports into India of foreign merchandise. What we are specially interested in is a share of the United States in that trade. Your chairman has told you that the trade with the United States is not very large. When I compare it with a large share taken by Great Britain, it seems very small indeed. I do not intend to go into the details of the various articles of manufacture of the United States that we receive in India, but still the manufacturer necessarily wants certain details that will give him that information that will be useful to him for future guidance. In the first place then, so far as the raw products are concerned, it is very little. The possibilities of the future are great. Wheat and cotton are the important staple articles coming from America. We also produce the same articles, but the cotton market being finer than that produced in India, and on account
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________________ 321 of this very reason as we are not able to produce certain kinds of yarn in our mills the cotton mills in India, it will be to the advantage to the United States if they only made arrangement for shipping cotton to India. The most important things that we receive from the United States are in the manufactured line. For instance, so far as the manufacture of articles in India is concerned, there is to some extent going on, and has been going on for a certain numbers of years, a trade between India and America. We receive from this country hardware, cutlery, sewing machines, watermills, sugar-mills, oil-presses, and so on, but the share of America, when compared with the shares allotted to: the other countries of the civilized world, is very small. I will not go into the details as to these things, as I told you before, but I will only give you an idea, for instance, so far as water-mills, sugar.. mills, oil-presses, and such miscellaneous machines are concerned. We have imported into the United States, in the year 1897-98, about $40,004,000 worth, and the share of America was only $30,000 worth. With the superior manufacturing skill and up-todate machine and machinery of the Americans, they ought to have a better share-I mean to Say they would have a better share, provided proper methods are adopted.
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________________ 322 Now there are SO many details, which details would be appreciated by manufacturers who want to deal with merchants in India, and these things can be better elucidated in a personal conversation. I would only mention a few lines of the manufactured articles that would be proper to introduce into India. First, agricultural implements. Now, while we receive a large quantity from other countries in India America only sent us about 16,000 worth last year. What is the reason? There are reasons and these reasons I shall state at the end of this address. Then there is a possibility of introducing brass manufactures into India, also next comes brooms and brushes bicycles, colluloid articles, chemicals, drugs, medicines clocks and watches, articles of copper, cotton manufactures, and just here I will remark that from 97 to 99 per cent of the textile goods imported into India, 97 to 99 per cent was furnished by Great Britain, and we shall continue to buy from Great Britain all such goods. Now we have a reason for that. If you can comply with the condition and requirement in India markets, you can also have a share. In the first place, the mill owners of this country know nothing-I should say absolutely nothing-of the kind of goods that would have a sale in India. I do not like to make personal remarks, but a short time ago I had
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________________ 323 the pleasure of visiting a well-known textile goods firm--I say I had the bonor of visiting the store in the city of New York, und the head of the export department showed me Samples in textile, lines of thread, especially, and he told me that those things were very good for ladies' dresses. Now if that gentleman had known even a very little about the manners and customs and habits of our people, he would also have known that those goods could not have been sold in India. Such prints are not used in India. In fact, the manufacturers of Great Britain make a speciality in this line, some of them manufacture entirely for India and the surrounding country. That is the very Secret of success of the British manufacturer. Next comes other articles like the fibres, and they belong to the textile line. Then also we can create a demand in India for the American dried fruit: also for glass, and glassware, for graphite in the raw condition. Still only the great country that produced this mineral, and we want it, and we can get it from an island only a few hours journey from our country, but in the manufacture of graphite, certainly that ought to be an opening in India. Of course there is always an opening in civilized countries for gunpowder but we advise you not to send it, we do not like it, we do not like the policy that is heralded by gunpowder. There is an opening for the manufacture of
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________________ 324 leather, of boots and shooes. Also India rubber, and its manufacture knows something about the reasons of that country, and habits of the people. Printers' ink is largely used in India, and as we have so many printing presses, and also lithographic presses, there would be a great demand for it, that is if the manufacturers of American ink would send somethiing cheap and that would conform to the standard of the people. Instruments in America for scientific purposes are also demanded in India. The most important article that can be introduced into India is iron and steel. The manufacturers of Belgium and Great Britain are the great competitors in matters of this kind on account of price. They are more favorable than manufacturers in other parts of the world, and that is the reason why we have up to this present time preferred to by from them, but if the proper conditions, similar conditions are conformed to her, I do not see any reason why Americans should not open a large trade in our country. I see that merchants in all parts of the world always buy in the home market, and there is no sentiment at all about it so far as trade is concerned.. Then there are articles made of iron; like nails and spikes, wire nails screws, nuts and bolts, etc., and all have a ready market in India. Musical instrumeats also have a demand, but here I remark that should
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________________ 325 if you are sending beautiful instruments to India the manufacturers must understand something about the requirements as to music, as our music differs from your music. Our music is not merely tom, tom, tom, it is scientific, but the manufacturer must know something about the notice. Of course I am not here to deliver a lecture on music, or on the science of acoustics, but you will only appreciate this much, that organs are more in demand in India than pianos. The german and French organs are received in large quantities, they are cheap and they are suitable to the people, they are portable and you see that the conditions are such before the goods in that line are introduced into India. Now there are certain suggestions, and I will offer two or three so that there may be an opening trade between the United States and India and these suggestions are on the line of removing the difficulties that are at present in the way. In the first place you have no sample house in India where American goods can be exhibited and shown to the people. You cannot expect the people in foreign countries will buy your goods unless they actually see them and have an opportunity of comparing them with similar goods of other countries. Now if you are willing to open these sample houses; that is the best thing you can do. Appoint
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________________ 326 a special agent, an agent on whom you can rely and in whom you can place trust, and they will do the work for you. The next suggestion is that your policy of sende ing illustrated catalogues of prices of Americ en firms here has no use in India. The majority of them ere printed in the English langu Pge, which the people de not know anything about, nothing but a waste of your labor and time. Last of all you must compete with foreign manufacturers in prices and in terms. I will not say any. thing to you about prices, about that you can do what suits yourselves. As to the terms I can say that foreign merchants are able to give us better terms than you do. I will just read a few lines of a letter form a foreign merchant,-an Eastern merchant. He said "As a inatter of fact, the great bulk of American manufacturers are extremely ignorant of the wants of the foreign market and proper means of advancing and increasing the foreign trade." The idea has become prevalent among the madu. facturers of the United States that no commercial integrity exists outside of their own countries. This idea is an erroneous one, but it prevails in New York, but such is not the case on the other side of the world.
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________________ 327 You must not think that all of the honesty is one side of the world, there is as much on the other side of the world as there is on this. He also said it was absolutely unsafe to extend a line of credit to foreign dealers. As a matter of fact Engligh and German firms and other firms, dealers, extend the credit to other nations but admitted it is harder to handle trade there than it is when it is nearer home. So long as a manufacturer has sufficient trade at home to keep his work in opperation he had better stay at home but when he does go abroad into the word's market, he must make up his mind to meet the competition in prices as well as the terms. Until he markes up his mind to do what he had better not wasts his time trying to enter the foreign market. :0:
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________________ 328 ANOTHER INDIAN RELIGION. In pursuance of the liberal policy outlined at the inception of Mind, we present as the leading article of this number a contribution from the pen of Virchand R. Gandhi, of Bombay. Mr. Gandhi is eminent in his own land as a scholar and teacher, and has achieved by his lectures in this country, since the year of the World's Fair a wide reputation for sincerity, candor, and ability in the presentation of the esoteric truths of Jainism. The number of adherents of this Eastern rem ligion is nearly five millions, and many of its features have commanded it to thoughtful minds among all races. Part of the mission of our contributor is to correct the numerous misconceptions regarding Oriental philosophy in general and Jainism in particular that have gained currency in Western thought and literature. For instance, we are repeatedly told that it is customary for certain fanatics deliberately to seek death by allowing the car of Juggen-nath to run over them. "There is a certain heavy stone car." said Mr. Gandhi in a recent lecture, "that once every twelve years is dragged by bundreds of people from the river to the Temple. A
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________________ 329 vast multitude watches the ceremony. Sometimes there is an accident and a few parsons are run over, but to say that they 'throw' themselves under the wheels is ridiculous." This teacher's article on the psychology and philosophy of the Jains is an inspiring example of the subtle workings of the Indo-philosophic mind. and our Teaders are to be congratulated on getting an exposition of this ancient religion from an authentic source. :0: Mr. V. R. Gandhi B. A., of the University of Bombay, India, is a brilliant lawyer" of unusual attainments, and is master of fourteen languages including English. He is the Honorary Secretary of the Jain Association ot India, and enjoys the distinction of being the only gentleman from India, who was elected by the people at home as Delegate to the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in September, 1893, where he most eloquently represented the 5,000,000 of Jains of India. Mt. Gandhi has remained in this country to study our customs, politics, educational and industrial institutions. He is a man of strong personality, filled with enthu. siasm, sincere and earnest in purpose, a man of ugilin. ching moral courage and the soul of honor. All this and more impresses you as you look into his calm, piercing eyes, and listen to his animated discussions on the customs and religions of India, But it is when
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________________ 330 dwelling upon the selfishness and injustice of mankind and the miseries of the ignorant poor that Mr. Gandhi grows most eloquent, and his soul shines through his eyes as he warms with his subject. No one should fail to hear this eloquent native from India whenever opportunity occurs; one can gain more knowledge and truth in one evening than from any other source. He will be able to correct many prevalent and erroneous impressions concerning India and its people. He will auswer all questions after the lecture that any one from the audience may choose to ask. There can not be too much said in praise of this grand and noble man who daily lives up to the principles of purity which he advocates. Mr. Gandhi has already spoken in this country before clubs, lyceums, literary and church societies, theosophical branches and spiritual associations, and has conducted large classes in Eastern Occultism. He has everywhere been accorded a warm reception and shown the highest. a ppreciation.-Editor's Bureau.
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________________ 331 Inc Broad and Catholic Spirit of this Grand Hin du May Be Best Understood By the following . Extract from His Lecture, Delivered At Cassa daga, N. Y., Aug. 12, 1894, Where he was Engaged For Several Lectures and Classes, When missionaries sent from this continent to our country, and to our people, shall have learned that we are children of the same family, that we inherit the same perceptions, the same rights, the same inspirations and the same relations to the Infinite, and seek to fraternise with us on that plane and with this recognition--then, and then only, antagonism and injustice will cease, and the bonds of common brotherhood will upite us in a mutual recognition of reasons for a perfect fellowship. **What is that Christ in whose name you propose to conquer the world ? Is there a Christ of oppression; is there a Christ of injustice; is there a Christ of misinterpretation; is there a Christ of denial of all rights; is there a Christ of destruction of all holy aims and humane immemorial institutions; is there & Christ of injustice and exorbitant taxation for the support of a government, foreign to our knowledge our thought, our religion and our consent? Who of these Christs has inscribed his name on the barner of your conquests? If you seek to conquer us under such banners, and in the name of such" Christs, we refuse to be conquered. But if you come to us in the name and in the spirit of the Christ of education, of brother
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________________ 332 hood, universal love, or in the name of that Christ, who, in the valley of the Ganges, and on the shores of the sea of Tiberius, taught and said, "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one anothers then I say, we will welcome you for him we know, and of him we are not afraid. But all this must be understood in the full freedom of it. We can 200 recognize a creedal Christ, a limited Christ, an emas culated truth whether it is viewed from an educational or moral and spiritual point of view, but the universal idea, without limit without fetters, free. * * We come gladly at your invitation, for another reason. You are the most tolerant and liberal nation in the western world, and tolerance is the first article in the faith of every Hindu, Buddhist or Jainist. No man can point to any instance in the history of my people where any man was ever persecuted for religious opinion's Sake, Our very language does not contain an equivalent word for the English word "persecution." We have words in our language, in the ancient Sanskrit, that cover the whole ground of Justice, of purity, of goodness, of love and oi all the sweet beatitudes of the soul's attainment, but not one word that means malice, persecution or tyranny for religious opinion's sake. Prom Rev. A. White, of Chicago. 6550, Lafayette Ave, Chicago, III. I consider Mr. Gandhi ode of the best equipped of the many scholarly men who represented the various religions
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________________ 333 of India in the recent Parliament of Religions. A public lecture given by him in my church was, in my opinion a most scholarly production, both in matter and form, and showed a thorough grasp of Oriental pailosophy. Mr. Gandhi has a fine command of the English tongue, and is altogether a most interesting man in every way. R. A. WHITE. From Hon. E. B. Sherman. Master in Chancery of the United States, Cirucit Courts. "The Congress of Religions drew to Chicago several of the brightest and most interesting Oriental thinkers and scholars that is has ever been my pleasure to meet; among them is Mr. V. R. Gandhi, a lawyer of Borrbay, India." "It has rarely, if ever, beep my good fortune to meet a man whose reading and culture have been so wide and varied, and who, withal, has so sweet, sincere and teachable a spirit as Mr. Gandhi." From Rev. Addison Parker. Pastor Leading Baptist Church, LaPorte, Ind. Pastor's Study, La Porte, Ind., Dec. 2, 1893. During the meeting of the parliament of Religions at Chicago. I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Gandhi's
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________________ 334 address upon the "Jains" of India, and also of a brief per sonal conversation with him. He impressed me as one of the brainiest and most stirring of the representatives of the Far East, I know of no one from whom I would prefer to hear concerning the life and thought of the great people he represents. ADDISON PARKER. Buffalo Courier, Aug. 19, 1894. Virchand R, Gandhi, the Jain Hindu of Bombay, has been accorded the greatest ovation ever granted to a speaker at Cassadaga. Saturday afternoon when he stepped forward in his silken robe of royal purple and golden colored turban and sash, the auditorium fairly rang with applause, and when he finished his speech which, was announced as "Some Mistakes Corrected" he was recalled again and again. Light of Truth, Cincinnati, Aug. 11, 1894. Mr. Gandhi is a through student of the Vedic rellgion of India, thoroughly conversant with the Brahmia nical tenets and the teachings of Buddha. He illumines them all with the spiritual halo and practical philosophy of his great teacher as well as his own luminous mind.
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________________ 335 Light of Truth, Aug. 1894. Virchand R. Gandhi, the Jainist, has opened a class for instruction in the ancient religions. The lecture-room is each day crowded to its utmost with brightest minds of the camp eager to hear this wonderful Hindu scholar expound his religious theories. ##### :0: C The Evangelist, New York, Aug. 23, 1894. Recently Cassadaga, the trysting place of heterogeneous creeds, has blossomed but with a new attraction, striking to the eye as well as to the mind. This new card is Mr. Virchand Gandhi of Bombay, a gentleman of noble presence, a trained scholar, lawyer versed in Sanskrit lore and in English literature as well. He came to this country by invitation of Dr. Barrows, as a representative of the Jain religion. Mr. Gandhi is an able exponent of all the religions of India. --:0: The Illustrated Buffalo Express, Aug. 12, 1894. On Saturday afternoon one of the most enthusiastic audiences ever known to the auditorium of Cassadaga listened to "The Message of India to the people of America," by Virchand R. Gandhi, B. A. of Bombay, India, who was elected by a vote of 5,000,00 Jains to represent them at the late world's Congress of Religions in Chicago.
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________________ 336 Mr, Gandhi was given a perfect ovation as be! stepped forward in his Oriental costume of royal purple silk and yellow turban and sash, and said; "Brothers and sisters of America:. I greet you in the name of India and her three millions of sons and daughters. I greet you as brothers and sisters and bring you a message of peace, love, universal brotherhood and fellowship from the aged and well preserved nation of India, which is proud to clasp the hand of the youngest child of the ages. Our country in all confidence place in your lap the key to its achives of ancient philosophy and attainments, because you are in a perfect intellectual condition to appreciate its inystical treasures and religious lore . India has been studied from the outside from a limited point of view and consequently misunderstood." :0: PROCEEDINGS OF THE EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION. A meeting of the East India Association, held at the Westminster Town Hall on Monday, May 21,1900 a paper was read by Virchand R. Gandhi, Esq., on "Contribution of Jainism to Philosophy History and Progress." Sir Raymond West occupied the chair. The following among others were present: Sir Roland K. Wilson, Bart,; Sir Lepel Griffin, K.C.S.I.; Sir William Rattigan,g.c.;Hon.J.
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________________ 337 D. Rees, c. I. E,; Lieut-Colonel T. Warliker; Mrs. and Miss Arathoon; Mrs. F. Aublet; Mr. H. R. Cook; Mt. W. Coldstream; Mr. B. B. Costin; Mr. Bab Chet; Raizada Eswan Das; Mrs. Delafore; Miss Gawthrop; Miss Hertz; Mr. Shyamaji Khrishnavarma; Mr. Emlyn Lewys; Mr. Sayed Alay Mabomed, 1.C.S.; Mr. V. J. Modi; Mr.J. B. Pennington; Mr. H. Prince F, R. G. s.; Mr. Alexander Rogers; Mr. R. P. Roy; Mr.Kanwar Sain; The Misses Snitko; Mr. M. E. Tatham; Mr. W. T. Turton; Miss Webster; Mr. C. W. Whish; Mr. W. Martin Wood. Mr. C. W. Ara:hoon, Hon. Secretary. The Chairman having briefly introduced Mr. Gandhi the paper was read. * The chairman afterwards said: Ladies and gentlemen, this paper will have convinced everybody that the Jains, who have done so much for education in India, and taken so advanced a position in the liberalizing of the studies of that country, are a people whose philosophy and ideas have a claim to our serious consideration. Such a people, with such a class spirit amongst them, could not have been produced unless there were latent in the principles which govern them something raising them above our ordinary plate of everyday thoughts and aspirations. Therefore we must be grateful to the Jains, and must endeavour, if we can, to penetrate into the secret underlying notives of their mental activity. In that we shall be assisted by the paper just * See this paper elsewhere in this book.
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________________ * 338 rhad, and, I hoge, by further contributions in the line of study by the distinguished gentleman who has favoured us with the paper to-day. It would be beyond my power to go into a minute discussion of the various pointe brought forward, which are matters only for scholars in a very special fine. The most we can do is to take up a point here and there, and make a few observatio as with a view of suggesting a point for further elucida tion, either now or on another occasion, by our learned lecturerer. From that standpoint I should like to put forward one or two matters for inquiry. The relation of the Jain philosophy to the early Greek philosophy suggested several questions. Mr. Gandhi has mentioned Thales. Thales, looking out on the surface of creation, throught he detected the active principle of the universe in moisture. He was followed by another distinguished philosopher. who thought that water might be a very active force in nature, but that it could not be brought into activity without something which he could himself feel; and what he felt in his own person as being the central force was air. Then came Diogenes of Appollonia, who carried the speculation a step further, and said there must be something behind the air; there must be a Soul to give it this particular characteristic, and so he imagined primum mobile, or first source of being in action, the Soul of the Universe. There are views natural enough' in the world of philosophy in its early stages. I should have been pleased if Mr. Gandhi had told us how far the earlier speculations of the Jain
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________________ 339 philosophers ran in this course. He takes us sorre what at a houpd to the point of the development of all phenomenal existence from central real existence which lies behind, but the distinction is not to my mind quite clearly inade out, of the Jain philosophy from the other systems, when he says the Jains or the advocates of the development theory, from which he springs to the notion that their ideal is physical, mental, spiritual, and moral perfection. He goes on to say that the pbenomenal is on Jain principle indistinguishable from the real. I should like bim to say something about the passage in wbich he says: "Firt, there is the indefinite cognition as an isolated object or idea." That to me; is rather puzzling, because cognition to my mind means recognising something by its limits. So long as you do not assign to something limits which distinguish it from something else, the process can hardly be called a cognition; it only becomes a cognition in so far as you mark it off by some particular signs, or limits, from other notions. Then we bave the phrase. "condensation of all differences." I suppose that means a "suppression of differences." If you in your philosophizing, in order to arrive at some comprehensive category, suppress one difference after another, at last you lose all possibility of recognition. I take it that "condensation" here means suppression that you lose yourself if you carry that suppression of particulars and accidents and differences too far. Then the word "diffuseness' occurs. "The analysis
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________________ 340 shall not be an absolute "diffuseness." I take it "difussion" is used in the sense of "dispresion," SO that the characteristics are so scattered that can no longer recognise what it was you were proposing to deal with. I hope Mr. Gandhi will forgive me for being so critical. People are excusably critical when they know nothing of a subject and want to learn something. I take it that this phrase "The doctrine of the inexpugnability of the inextricably combined properties and relations'' in our everyday dialect means this: "A rational necessity under which we are of conceiving certain things as related to other things in particular ways." Another point struck me as being worth a word or two as to law in nature and a law as amongst human beings. Mr. Gandhi, I suppose taking the Jain view says, "A law is not a command, but a formula to which things or beings conform precisely, and without exception under definite relations." This agrees with the view that I thought was to be gathered from the somewhat complicated statement I read a minute or two ago, nainely, that things must needs be conceived as having certain relations to one another--that is, some things must. The proper way to state this would be the familiar one, it is not a coinmand but a summary of observations. It comes to this, that law in nature is a statement in a systematic way, of the conditions of the existences of the actual phenomena, the difference between this and the hurnan law being that amongst natural objects it is the obedience which
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________________ 341 constitutes the law, whereas amongst human beings it is the law which enforces the obedience, or at least it is that which commands the obedience, which is enforced by a sanction behind it. There was a point which struck me as being extremely interesting. He said, "Clay, stones, etc., as they come fresh from the earth, have life." If that is a correct statement, which I do not doubt, of the Jain view, they are trespassing very much on the field of Thales, whose idea was that it was moisture which constituted the life; and the Jain idea appears to be of a universality of life existing under these particular conditions, in which you contrive to expel more or less moisture. I am afraid, however, that I am trespassing upon time which ought to be given to other gentlemen. There are a number of most interesting topics which suggest themselves in connection with this paper, and I hope that Mr. Gandhi, when he has leisure, will develop the subject more at length. To compress & statement of the Jain philosophy, and the contributions it has made to the inlellectual growth of mankind within the compass of a lecture of half an hour, would be too great an effort for the greatest genius. Therefore I think it no ill complement to Mr. Gandhi to say his paper will, in my opinion, admit of a considerable degree of expansion and development with advantage, to the elucidation of the argument, and our further comprehension of the somewhat abstruse subject with which he has dealt.
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________________ 342 Sit Lepel Griffin would be glad if the lecturer would enlighten them on the most important questions connected with the subject. He would first observe for the information of those present, who had not been personally connected with the Jains, that they were an exceedingly interesting community, and there was no muore strange or weird sight than that of the stricter Jains, with their faces bound up with white cloths to prevent the possibility of an insect entering into their mouths, and so inadvertently destroying life! and holding little brooms in their hands with which they carefully swept the ground before them, or the seat upon which they were going to sit, in order that they might not tread, or sit, co any living thing. Many of the stricter members of the community lived in monasteries or nunneries, in the most ascetic fashion, eating only food which was the refuse of the meals of others, drinking only dirty water, and performing all sorts of merial offices. He thanked Mr. Gandhi for having directed the attention of English students to the Jain Philosophy and creed, and would ask to be inforined regarding the difference, now somewhat obscure, between the dogmatic teaching of Jainism and Buddhism. To his mind there was amongst the creeds of the world rione so fascinating as Buddhism. it was purely atheistic in the best sense of the world, with an ethical sys. tem, which provided for mankind a future of happiness or misery, according to whether the course of life on earth had
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________________ 343 been virtuous or vicious. The subtleties so ingeniously suggested by the chairman were after all of very little practical importance. The question present in the minds of most of them, he thought, was what was the differentiantion between Buddhism and Jainism. Was there really any philosophical difference between the two creeds? Mr. Coldstream had listened with great pleasure, and derived much instruction from the address. Nane of them who had lived in India could have failed to be interasted in the development of this most interesting system. At the beginning of his address the lecturer had told them of the statue carved by the carpenter which needed to be clothed. They would like very much if he, the lecturer, or other competent scholar, would do something to clothe the bare statue of the abstract description of Jainism by a description of the practical life of the Jain people. There were a good many Jains in the Punjab. In the Central Punjab (he did not think they extended as a clan beyond the Ravee) they were called Bhabrahs, while in the parts about Delbi and Hissar they were known as Saraogis. The developments of the systema in everyday life formed an interesting study as to their views of the sanctity of life and their vegetarianism. In some parts of the country it took the form of a hesitation in using vegetables of a certain kind, those, for instance, of a red colour, because, he supposed, red was the
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________________ 344 colour of blood. The Jains were a mercantile community, very much respected, and a people who carried weight in many ways. They had many interesting cus: toms. In the district with which he was connected they used to put their families into ox-carts, and drive them through country by-roads to a very remote village, wbere there was a shrine, or place of ancestral sanctity or venera tion.+ He made these remarks to emphasize *In Hoshiarpur, Punjab, the unwillingness of the Bhabrah women to handle raw vegetables of particular kinds--some probably on account of their red colour. and others, perhaps, because of the insects adhering to them-led them to get their neighbours of less scrupulous views to cut up their raw vegetables, and prepare them for the pot. Again, the jat and "Bagari" peasantry in the Hissar and Scosa districts are so imbued with the tenets of Jainism in the direction of the preservatior of animal life, that they are seriously annoyed when a sportsman appears in the neighbourhood of their villages to shoot antelope, which there abound. This remote village is called Fattenpore. He (the speaker) was never able to visit it, but it lies, he believes, twenty to thirty miles north-east of Hoshiarpur, at the base of or in, the Siwalik hills. It contains, not improbably, some very ancient remains.
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________________ 345 his feeling that the Jain people were deserving of intimate study. I Mr. Whish thought they owed a debt to the lecturer for baving brought so important a subject to their notice. One of the first necessities for successful administration in india was to comprehend the vast congeries of races and customs, and for that comprehension tolerant and sympathetic views or religions whose tenets conflicted with their own were essential. The historical part of the question was of intense interest. It was at first thought that Jainism was an offspring of Buddhism but later researches had shown that the fact was the other way. It would be interesting if the lecturer could give them information on this subject. The subject suggested by the chairman as to the extent to which Jainism was indebted to the Greek inspiration was also a subject of great interest. He could not follow the lecture in his philosophical observations. It seemed almost too intricate a subject for any one but an expert. He thought that all movements for the humane treatment of animals must be largely indebted to The Bhabrah women are known in Hoshiarpur for their skill and industry in needlework-in the production especially of those bandsome embroideries, coloured floss of coarse quality sown on a ground of coloured cotton cloth, called in the Punjab phulkari or chob, so much in demand for domestic decoration in Rogland and elsewhere.
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________________ 346 Jainism. When the present war was over, public attention would no doubt be turned to the treatment of horses, which he believed had suffered more than the men. Another subject of interest was the correspondence between the Jain architecture and English Gotbic. Sir Williain Rattigan said that there was one part of the lecture which he thought might have been a good deal amplified, to which Sir Lepel Griffin had referred, namely, how far Buddbism was indebted to Jainism for its general precepts. He could bear testimony to what had been said of the character of the men who professed the Jain religion. They were of a very estimable character, men of high principles, keeping aloof from all other agitations which led to nothing but embroiloient with other communities. Sir Roland Wilson had no special acquaintance with the Jains, beyond having once visited their very beautiful temple at Ahmedabad, where what struck him most was in the first place that, as in tha Mahommedan mosque, he was expected to take his boots off before entering, but that, as was not the case in the mosque, he was provided instead with a pair of slippers, and next that he there saw wbat he bad not expected to see, priestesses taking an important part in the prayers. Pending the answer of the lecturer to the very interest. ing question put by Sir Lepel Griffin and others, as to the relations between Jainisin and Buddhism, be thought he might assume that in those respects, which
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________________ 347 chiefly interested such an audience as the present, the two were practically identical. Jainism and Buddhism were alike in being practically atheistical, but combining with that, a very definite belief in law and personal responsibility, and a capacity for extreme self-denial in obedience to that impersonal law. In England also it was easy to meet with highly conscientious agnostics; but it did not follow that the position was intellectually tenable. He himself thought it was not, and referred to the recent masterly treatise of Dr. James Ward, of Cambridge. Another point common to Buddhism and Jainism was the aversion to the taking of life, and consequently to all forms of fighting, even when purely defensive. In that it seemed to him they had an explanation in a great measure of the presence in India, first of the Mahommedans, aud then of the British. He thought that the essential contradiction between the existence of a State and the principle of non-esistance was sufficient to explain the ultimate dawnfall of Buddhism. True, the Jains survived, and were still (as the lecturer had shown) very useful members of the community; 80 were the Quakers in this cauntry; but the existence and usefulness of both were dependent on the willingness of others, who did not share their principles, to afford them protection. Mr. Martin Wood felt that there was a little deficiency in the historical part of the matter. He had not gathered personally the difference between Buddhism and Jaini
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________________ 348 sm in point of order. Was it not that the Jains entred more into practicle life? Did 'not the Jains set up the system of honouring their chief men ? It was new to him that Jainism preceded Buddhism. The Hon, J. D. Rees said that the questions as to the differences between the Jains and the Buddhists rather referred to doctrinal differences. As far as he had seen the Jains, he had not been able to see in their life and conversation any difference between them and the Hindus around them. He would like to ask to what extent Jainism was a living religion, so as to differentiate its professors from the Hindus around them. Mr. Gandhi said; Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely thank the speakers for their sympathetic observations and their desire to have certain points cleared. The time at our disposal being limited, I hope you will cxcuse me if I condense my remarks. The Arst point demanding explanation is the relation between the Jain philosophy and the early Greek philosophy. In my view there is no relation between them. The early Greek philosophers were pure physiologers; they rainly studied the material universe, and that in a rudely observational inanner. We cannot call them materialists, for the antithesis between matter and spirit was unknown to them. The cosmic matter passed with them for something in itself living; they thought of it as animated, just as are particulat organs. It is native hylozoism. They were in search of an ultimate ground
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________________ 349 of the universe. The earliest Jain records, on the other hand, dispense with this way of looking upon philosophical questions. They distinctly teach that the cosmos has no beginning and no end. The search for its origin is therefore futile. This does not mean that the state or modality of the cosmos is the same at all times. It is constantly changing. Any particular state is the resultant of previously operating causes, which, in their turn are the results of other previously operating causes and so on, without coming to a stop. The search for a cause or origin is the outcome of the inner conviction of the human mind that a state of things must be the effect of sufficient cause or causes. The cause or causes, when found, must necessarily, by the same logic, be the effects of other causes, and so on. To stop at some causeless cause is suicidal to the inner conviction just referred to, The fact is that when the mind in its search for the origin of the universe stops at something, it is because of its inability (lack of capacity) to go further, or to grasp or imagine a previous state of things. Next the antithesis between matter and spirit is clearly drawn in the earliest Jain canonical books. These works are the records of the teaching of Mahavira, the last Arhat, who lived about the time of the Ionic philosophers. Later, when Alexander the Great came to India, Jain philosophy was already an established system. If there is any borrowing at all, it must be on the part of the Greeks. The chairman has detected a similarity between Thales
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________________ 350 view that water or moisture is the origin of the world, and the Jain view that moist clay, etc., have life. He therefore remarks that the Jains are trespassing very much on the field of Thales, whose idea was that it was moisture which constituted the life; and that the Jain idea appears to be of a universality of life, existing under these particular conditions, in which you contrive to expel more or less moisture. On reference fo my paper, you will see that, in the Jain view, even fire, which is a negation of moisture, bas life. Besides, according to Thales, the whole cosmos is a living thing; according to Jains, there are living as well as lifeless things in the world. The statement that the Jains are advocates of the developnient theory was made to contrast the Jain view with that of the Vedanta, and not in reference to the origin of the world, nor was it in reference to the development of "all phenomenal existence from central real existence which lies behind." I think I must wit the Jain view about phenomenal and noumenal existence in a clearer form. In the Kantian philosophy, noumenon is that which can be the object only of a purely 'intellectual intuition. To such an existence the Jains have no objection; nay, they postulate the existence of realities which are supersensuous. Such realties are a part of the cosmos, but not a cause or origin of it. There are other Western philosophers who advocate the
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________________ 351 view that behind the world of phenomena there is an impenetrable world of noumena, that behind this apparent existence there is a hidden existence, of which the varried phenomena are but fleeting manifestations, that things in themselves are recessarily different from things in relation to us. In brief, a noumenon in their view is a thing as it is apart from all thought; it is what remains of the object of thought after space, time, and all the categories of the understanding ale abstracted from it. To this view the Jains give an emphatic denial. The Jain position is; First, that right knowledge is the only test or measure on our part of the existence of a reality; secondly, that knowledge is always the knowledge of relations; thirdly, that reality is never out of relations (a particular reality may not be in physical relation with another reality, it may be in the relationship of subject and object, knower and known); and fourthly, that the relations are constantly changing. To be is to be in relation. So when we know a thing, we know the relations-some, if not all-in which it stands to us and to other things. To that extent we know the thing as it is. There are other present relations which we do not know, and there are other possible relations also which we may not know under our present state of developmeut. This residuum of relationships is the noumenon. The task of our research ought to be to fix these unknown relations, and not to go in quest of the phantom "thing in itself." As
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________________ 352 Mr. George Henry Lewes says: "The illusion of an existence underlying the appearance arises from our tendency to dissociate abstractions from their concretes, and endow the former with a permanent reality denied to the latter." Noumenon and phenomenon are not two separate existences, but only two modes of our looking upon the full content of a thing, a part of which is known and part unknown to us now. The fallacy in the popular mind in reference to these terms is that of confound. ing a logical distinction with an actual separation. This leads me to the next point that demands explanation, namely, the difference betweeu Jainism and Buddhism. In the Buddhist view, nothiug is permanent. Transitoriness is the only reality. As Professor Oldenberg says: "The speculation of the Brahmans apprebended being in all being, that of the Buddhists becoming in all apparent being." The Jains, on the contrary, consider being and becoming as two different and complementary ways of our viewing the same thing. Reality in the Jain yiew is a permanent subject of changing states. To be, to stand in relation to be active, to act upon other things, to obey law, to be a cause, to be a permanent subjects of states, to be the same to-day as yesterday, to be identical inspite of its varying activities, these are the Jain conceptions of reality. Mere beconing is as much an abstraction as were beings. In short, being and becoming are complements of the full notion of a
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________________ 353 reality. besides, Buddhism discards the idea of indivi duality. Jainism, on the other hand, considers individuality in the twofold aspect of permanence and transitcriness. The individual, in the Jain view, continues to exist in different states. Next the Buddhist idea of the sumum bonum is undefined. The Jain idea is that of perfection of the individual. Jainism teaches the doctrine of soul, Buddhism denies it. There are many other differentiating points, but these will do for our present purposes. Referring to Jain psychology and logic, the interpretations which the Chairman gave of certain words and expressions occuring in the paper-. g., "condensation." "diffusiveness"-are correct, and I must thank him for his remarks in that line. I used the phrase "indefinite cognition. By that I mean that state of the mind in which there is no clear differentiating notion about the object. It is a state in which the mind in a vague way feels that it (the object) is something. It is the state of the mind prior to analysis. In the absence of any special word which would signify this idea, I used the words "indefinite cognition," the Greek equivalent of which is synthesis. The historical fact now revealed about the priority cf Jainism over Buddhism is, I am sorry to say, known
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________________ 354 only to a few outside the circle of Oriental scholars. I would refer those who are anxious to study this question to the learned introductions by Professor Jacobi to vols. xxii. and xlv. of the Sacred Books of the East Series. At this stage I am bound to admire the faculty of observation which those of you who have lived in India had exercised in reference to the strange habits and customs of the people. For instance, Sir Lepal Griffin alludes to certain Jains who cover their faces with white cloths to prevent the possibility of an insect entering into their mouths, and so inadvertently destroying life. Sir Roland Wilson, when visiting the Jain temple Ahmedabad, was struck with the fact that Jains asked him to take off his boots, buf that instead he was offered a pair of slippers; also that there were priestesses in the temple taking part in the prayers. Mr. Coldstream observed the fact that in the Punjab Jains hesitated to eat vegetables of red colour. The Jains referred to by Sir Lepel are a new sect, which came into existence only 200 years ago. They are known as Dhundhias (Sthanakvasi). Their habits and life are extemely unclean. The older Jains teach that the constant covering of the mouth and nose with cloth makes the breath so poisonous that it destroys more life than open breathing would do; also that uncleanliness generates and destroys more annimalculae than
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________________ 355 are destroyed by keeping clean. Such sporadic movements are likely to arise in any country and in any religion. Students and scholars ought not to form any judgment about a philosophical system from the doings of such persons. If I know nothing of Chistianity, and happen to attend a Methodist revival meeting and observe the doings of the persons present, I might as well come to the conclusion that the characteristics of Christianity are that its ministers wear frock-coats, that they raise their hands when uttering the benediction, that they stamp their feet on the floor of the pulpit when they deliver sermons, and that the congregation get religion when they shout in a wild manner. What a poor idea of Christianity! I ain gratified to know, however, that there are moments in the life of you Englishmen when you patiently try to understand the subtle and doctrinal differences in the various philosophical systems. But for this fact, I could not have addessed you to-day. I appreciate Sir Roland Wilson's remarks very highely. The reason why the Jains of Ahmedabad asked him to take off his boots when entering the temple in that leather, in the Jains view, is considered unclean. But as we know that it is difficult for Europeans to walk unless they have some kind of footgear on, we offer them slippers of canvas, and thus try to make them comfortable when they are our guests in a temple, without
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________________ 356 wounding our religious susceptibilities. The Mahomedans acted in a different way towards Sit Roland, because, in their view, they must literally carry out their religious injunctions. There is another remark of Sir Roland which is very pertinent, namely, relating to the aversion of the Jains and Buddhists to the taking of lile, and consequently to all forms of fighting, even when purely defensive. In that he finds an explanation, in a great measure, of the presence in India, first of the Maboinedaos, and then of the British. In this counection I must observe that the Jain teaching is not that of non-resistance, as it is ordinarily understood. Even a strict Jain, when he takes the vow of non-killing, does so in the following words: " I shall not deliberately kill an innocent being without a purpose" This shows what limiting conditions are joined by the idea of non-killing. As a matter of fact, non-resistance is now the characteristic of the Jains as well as Hindus. But I do not think it is the result of their aversion to taking life. Even the flesh eaters in India have ceased to fight, except those who are paid to do so. Some persons think that the Jain preaching of vegetarianism is the chief cause of the disappearance of fighting qualities from the Hindus. The fact is, that vegetarianism does not necessarily disincline a person to fight. The conquering soldiers of Rome and Sparta, the athletes and wrestlers of Greece, were generally abs
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________________ 357 taingrs from Aash meat. The tale cause of the presence of forsigners in India as conquerors at various periods of its history is that the Hindus have been for centuries fighting and quarrelling among themselves, and that go. sense of a common nationality was ever developed in them. Secondly, under those circumstances the conception of a modern Western State never entered into theft mind.' Hence, they respected the authority and laws of the sovereing ruling for the time being. For centuries they have been used to passive submission. The late Sir J. R. Seeley, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, says in his "Expansion of England": "I showed you that of the army which won our victories [in India), four-fifths consisted of native troops. That we were able to hire these native troops for service in India was due to the fact that the feeling of nationality had no existence there. Now, if the feeling of a common nationality began to exist there only feebly if, without inspiring any active desire to drive out the foreigner, it only created a notion that it was shameful to assists him in maintaining his dominion, from that day almost our Empire would cease to exist, for of the army by which it is garrisoned, two-thirds consist of native soldiers." The Hon. Mr. Rees wanted to know whether Jainism was a living religion, so as to differentiate its professors from the Hindus around them. The idea of the sanctity of life which permeates the Jains and which they forced on the minds of the Hindus,
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________________ 358 is the living characteristic of the Jain religion. The sharp differentiations are visible only at the time of the birth of institutions. The conflicts they create in society are ultimately reduced to a state of equilibrium through giving and taking. So now, so far as masses are concerned, there will be found very little difference between Jairs and Hindus. The philosophical part of a religion is grasped only by a few; the majority are satisfied with formalism. Still, the Hindu life has received an abiding impression from Jain teachings. As Mr. Whish suggested, all movements for the humane, treatment of animals must be largely, and are, in fact, indebted to Jainism. If we search for the real difference we shall find it only when we compare a cultured (in the Hindu sense) with a cultured Jain(in the Jain sense). The cultured Hindu believes in the offering of oblations to the manes of his ancestors, and does offer them; the cultured Jain does not. The ethical vows of a cultured Jain are stricter than those of a cultured Hindu. The record of crime in India bears ample testimony to the fact that very few Jains commit voilent crimes. Sir william Rattigan has told you that the Jains are of a very estimable character, men of high principles. I have already quoted the opinion of Lord Curzon about the Jains at the end of my paper In conclusion, I must again express my gratefulness to the Chairman and other speakers for their helpful
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________________ 359 remarks and sympathetic criticisms, and also to the audience for the patience with which they have followed me in the treatment of an abstruse subject. The lecure resumed his seat amidst applause. The Chairman in the name of the meeting, thanked Mr. Gandhi both for his paper and for the observations he had made. The proceedings then terminated.
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________________ THE BOOKS FOR SALE BY Sheth Devchand Lalbhai Jain Pustakoddhar Fund. (IN SANSKRIT.) Rs. a. p. 1. *Shree Veetrag Stotra-By Shree Hemchandracharya with the commentaries of Shree Pra. bhachandra Suri and one of the disciples of Vishalrajy ...080 2. *Shramana Praticramana Su. tra Vritti-By an ancient priest 0 1 6 3. *Syadvad Bhasha-By Shree Shubhvijaya Gani ... ... O 1 6 4. *Shree Pakshik Sutra--with the commentary on Pakshika Sutra and KhamnaBy Yashodev Suri ... ... ... O 6 0
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________________ 3 13. *Karma Philosophy (Eng.)-- Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi 14. *Anand Kavya Mahodadhi,(Part I) A collection of classical Gujarati Poems . 0 5 0 ... 15.* Shree Dharma Pariksha-by Pandit Padmasagar... ... 16. *Shastra Varta Samuchchaya By Shree Haribhadra Suri, with the commentaries of Shree Yashovijaya Upadhyaya ... 17. *Karma Prakriti-By Shivsha by ... commented rmacharya, Shree Malayagiri Suri 18. *Kalpa Sutra with the Story of Kalikacharya-By Shree Bhadrabahu Svami ... 19. *Pancha Pratikramana Sutra -By an ancient Priest ... 20. *Anand Kavya Mahodadhi (Part II)-A Collection classical Gujarati Poems ... Rs. a. p. . 0 8 0 of *** 0 10 0 0 5 0 0 20 0 14 0 0 4 0 0 10 0
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________________ 30 bhadra Suri, with the commentaries of Shree Munichandra Suri Anand ... 5 ... Mahodadhi Kavy a (Part IV)-A Collection of classical Gujarati Poems 31. *Anuyogadvar Sutra (1st Half) 34 *Malayasundari 32 Anand Kavya Mahodadhi (Part V)-A collection of classical Gujarati Poems .00 -By Shree Hemchandracharya 0 10 0 33 *Uttaradhyayana (Part 1)With the commentaries of Shree Bhadrabahu Svami and Shree Shanti Suri By Shree Jayatilak Suri ... ... 080 ... Charitra 35 *Samyaktva Saptati-By Shree Haribhadra Suri with the commentaris of Shree Sanghatilakacharya ... ... 36 *Uttaradhyayana (Part II)~ With the commentaries of ... Rs. 2. p. 08 0 0 12 0 0 10 0 1 5 0 0 7 0 100
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________________ Rs. 2. p. Shree Bhadrabahu Svami and Shree Shanti Suri ... ... 1 120 37 *Anuyogadvar Sutra (IInd Half)--By Shree Hemchandra. charya ... ... ... ... 1 0 0 38 *Gunasthana KramarohaBy Shree Ratnashekhar Suri and the commentary by himself... 0 2 0 39 *Dharma Sangrahani (Part 1) By Shree Haribhadra Suri with the commentaries of Shree Malayagiri ... ... ... 1 8 0 40 +Dharma Kalpadruma-By Shree Udayadharma Gani ... ... 1 0 0 41 *Uttaradhyayana (Part III) With the commentaries of Shree Bhadrabahu Svami aud Shree Shanti Suri ... ... ... 1 14 0 42 *Dharma Sangrahani (Part II) --By Shree Haribhadra Suri with the commentaries of Shree Malayagiri Acharya ... ... 1 4 0
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________________ Rs. a. p 43 Anand Kavya Mahodadhi (Part VI) A collection of classical Gujarati Poems ... 0 12 0 44 *Pinda Niryukti-By Shree Bha drabahu Svami with the com. mentaries of Shree Malayagiri Acharya ... ... ... 1 8 0 45. *Dharma Sangraha (2nd Half) -By Shree Manvijaya Upa. dhyaya ... ... ... .. 1 4 0 46. *Upamiti Bhava Prapancha By Shree Siddharshi Rishi ... 2 0 0 47. *Dasha Vaikalika Sutra --- By Shree Sayambhava Suri with the commentaries of Shree Haribhadra Suri ... ... 2 8 0 48. Shraddha Pratikramana Su .. tra-with the commentaries of Shree Ratnashekhar Suri... 2 0 0 49. *Upamiti Bhava Prapancha (2nd Half)---By Shree Siddha rshi Rishi. ... ... ... 2 0 0 50. Jivajivabhigam-With the com mentaries of Shree Malayagiri 3 4 0 on
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________________ 8 51. Sena Prashna, Prashnotara Ratnakar-By Shree Shubhavijaya Gani 52. Jambu-dvipa Pragnapti (Ist Half) With the commentcries of Shree Shantichandra 53. Avashyakvritti Tippana-By Shree Hemchandra Suri 54. Jambu-dvipa Pragnapti (2nd Half)-With the commentaries of Shree Shantichandra 55. *Devasi Rai PratikramanaBy an ancient Priest... 56. Shripal Charitra, SanskritBy Shree Gnanavimal Suri 57. Sukta Muktavali ... ... ... ... ... www 58. Pravachana Saroddhara (1st Half)-By Shree Nemichandra Suri with the commentaries of Shree Siddhasena Suri ... 59. Tandul Vaicharika (Chatuhsarana)-With the commentaries of Shree Vijayavimal ... ... Rs. a. p 1 0 0 4 0 0 1 12 0 200 0 3 0 0 14 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 80 1 8
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________________ 10 Loka Prakasha Navapada Prakarna Vichar Ratnakara. Tattwarthadhigam Sutra Anand Kavya Mahodadhi (Part VII) (in Gujarati.) Can be had at THE LIBRARIAN, SETH DEVCHAND LALBHAI JAIN PUSTAKODDHAR FUND. DEVCHAND LALBHAI DHARMSHALA, Badekha Chaklo, Gopipura SURAT. (INDIA) * Not available.
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________________ 12 5. *Acharanga (Part I)-By Shree Sudharma Svami with the commentaries of Shree Bhadrabahu Svami & Shree Shilankacharya 1 8 0 6. Acharanga (Part II)-As above 2 4 0 7. *Oupapatika Sutra-With the commentaries of Shree Abhayadeva Suri 600 ... 12. *Bhagavati Sutra (Part I)By Shree Sudharma Svami with the commentaries of Shree Abhayadeva Suri 8. 9. 10. 11. *Paramanu, Nigoda, Pudgala, Bandha Chhatrisi 0 6 0 68. 13. *Bhagavati Sutra (Part II)-- By the same as above ... 14. Bhagavati Sutra (Part III)Same as above... ... Rs. a. p. ... *** 0 12 0 3 4 0 3 8 0 15. *Samvayanga-Same as above 1 0 0 16. *Nandi Sutra-By Shree Devavachaka Gani, with the com mentaries of Shree Malayagiri 2 8 0 3 4 0
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________________ 16 39. Jain Philosophy / English ) Ra. a. p. V. R. Gandhi 100 40. Yoga Philosophy 0 14 0 41. Karma Philosophy 012 O (In Press.) 1 Rayapashreni. 2 Panch Sangrah. 3 Visheshavashyaka. (2nd Part) 4 Acharpradip. 5 Nandi Sutra. 6 Avashyaka Malayagiri, 7 Anuyogadhar. 8 Nandi Adi, 9 Shobhan Stuti. 10 Jinanand Stuti. Can be had at:-- THE LIBRARIAN, SHREE AGAMODAYA SAMITI, Devchand Lalbhai Dharmashala Badekha Chaklo, Gopipura, SURAT. (INDIA). * Not available.
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