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YOGA.
389
manded of Swami Rama Tirtha when he was visiting America :
“Why do you import your Asiatic laziness to America ? Go out. Do some good."*
* As to the basic principle of “ doing good " of which our brethren in the West like so much to speak, it is exhausted with helping the needy, aiding the injured, and protecting the undefended till such time as they can regain strength, or stand upon their own logs, to enter into the deadly struggle for existence, which is character istic of life in the West. Two features at once stand out in bola relief before us in the most flattering picture of the humane work of philanthropy, and these are :
1. the inability of the poor to participate in the work, and 2. the temporary nature of the relief afforded.
Now, as to the first of these, it is obvious that one without time or money cannot indulge in it to any great extent, so that those who have to earn their livelihood by daily labour are debarred, by no fault of theirs, from participating appreciably in the doing of good; and, as regards the second, it is obvious that the aim is not to put the object of philanthropy altogether above want, but, at best, to point out the way whereby he might earn a living. Besides, the good that might result from such acts of philanthropy is confined to the material side of life. The philanthropist is as incapable of finding a cure for the mental ailments and spiritual disorders of the soul as is the doctor, or the professor. It is religion and religion alone which can and does help suffering humanity in the last-named kinds of disorders, and whatever sympathy, peace, or cheerfulness philanthropy is able to evoke, or inspire, in the patient, is due to the straggling notions of religion which the mind of the philanthropist might be impressed with. Hence, philanthropy as an ideal is neither open to all alike, nor productive of permanent good. Kill the element of religion to which she is wedded, and philanthropy will sacrifice herself over its funeral pyre. She exists by religion, and for religion. But she is utterly incapable of taking the place of religion, which aspires to make men not fit enough to enter into the deadly strife of existence, to kill out all their unfit brethren, but to raise them all, the fit and the unfit alike, to the supreme status of Godhood. Hence, however commendable philanthrophy be in itself,
-and it is certainly noble work-it is confined to a narrower sphero of activity and usefulness than religion in its purest form. Thus, while a life devoted to religion necessarily comprises philanthropic activity in all its phases, philanthropy might not always be based on the sound principles of religious piety and virtue.
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