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CONCLUSION
693
home, the original religion of Christ must be said to have been: renunciatory. Not only did Christ himself remain unmarried till the end of his life, but when a young man came and said to Him : "I have from my youth up followed all such commandments as 'Honour thy father and thy mother', 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' etc. ; what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ?", Christ gave him the plain answer: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me" (Matthew, 19. 16-30 and Mark, 10. 21-31); and immediately afterwards He turned to His disciples and said: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God". One may safely say that this is only a copy of the advice given by Yājñavalkya to Maitreyi that: "ammtatvasya tu nāśāsti vittena" (Br. 2. 4. 2), i.e., “if you have money, you need not entertain any hope of obtaining immortality ”. Christ has nowhere preached what has been preached by the Gītā, namely, that for obtaining immortality, it is not necessary to give up worldly life, and that it is enough if all Actions in such life are performed desirelessly. On the other hand, whereas Christ has preached that, as there is a permanent conflict between worldly wealth and God (of: “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon", Matthew 6. 24), therefore, "if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14. 26), St. Paul, the disciple of Christ has preached that: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (I. Cori. 7.1) In the same way, I have shown above the similarity between the statement in the Brhadāranyakopanişad (Br. 4. 4.22) that, "kim prajayā karişyāmo yeşāín no 'yam ātmā 'yam lokah”, (i. e., "as we see that the whole world is nothing but our Ātman, why should we have any (other) generation ?"'; see p. 433, Vol. I supra-Trans.), and the following words uttered by Christ: “Who is my mother ? and who * are my brethern ? For whosoever shall do the will of
* This is the standing advice of those who advocate the Path of Renunciation. The words "kā te kārtā kas te putrah” (i. e. "what is thy wife ? what is thy son ?"-Trans.) uttered by Samkarācārya
