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THE CULT OF ASCETICISM & RENUNCIATION
were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks."
One composing a critical history of ancient India could use this admirable passage verbatim for summarising our spiritual heritage, which has been such a stout bulwark of reaction for centuries, and has contributed so much to our present unenviable plight. The European nations recovered from the virulent plague germinated in the putrid carcass of the once magnificent Roman Empire, as soon as the advance of knowledge raised the depressing gloom hanging upon life. The happy dawn of knowledge was caused by the rise of forces building a new social order. Only the faith in the endless possibilities of worldly life can persuade man to abandon thc vain chase after the will-o'-thewisp of an imaginary sublimer existence which disregards all reality. This wild race after a chimera ceases only when man regains faith in himself, and by the strength of advancing knowledge throws off the influence of credulity, prejudice and superstition.
The supine complacence and idle pride regarding the sublimity of our spiritual heritage should no longer lull the critical faculty of progressive Indians. Legendary glorification of a past sickness should not curb the striving for a fuller life of health and real happiness. But, for the purpose deceptive bubbles must be burst, legends deprived of the fraudulent garb of history, and credulity
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