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MYSTICISM IN INDIA mandment of God. The materialist would saybecause that is the command of the ruling authority. But why should God and Sovereign issue such commands? There is no rational reply. A system of ethics not based on the rational demonstration of the Universe is of no practical value. It is only a system of ethics of individual opinions and individual convenience. It has no solidity and therefore no strength.
The aim of human existence is happiness, progress and all ethics teach how to attain the one and achieve the other. The question however remains- what is happiness and what is progress? These are issues not yet solved in any satisfactory manner by the known system of ethics. The reason is not far to seek. The modern tendency is to separate ethics from physics or rational demonstration of the Universe and thus make it a science resting on nothing but the irregular whims and caprices of individuals and nations.
In India ethics have ever been associated with religion. Religion has ever been an atteinpt to solve the mystery of nature, to understand the phenomena of nature and to realize the place of man in nature. Every religion has its philosophical as well as ethical aspect and the latter without the former has in India at least no meaning. If every religion has its physical and ethical side, it has its psychological side as well. There is no possibility of establishing a relation between physics and ethics but through psychology. Psychology enlarges the conclusions of physics and confirms the ideal of morality.
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