Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 70

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Jesus spcaks from his personal experience.” My teaching is not mine but His that sent me.. He that speaketh from Himself seeketh his own
glory, but He that sccketh the glory of Him that sent him, the same is truc." (The Bible St. John. 7.16-18.) He setsa side all authorities. Whatever they may say "I say unto you." He takes his stand on truth as verified in his experience.
"Truth, for him” writes Dr. Radhakrishnan, "is not a historical fact but spiritul life. His teaching brushes aside all the legalistic encumbrances of the Jewish religion and holds that in the two old commandments everything recquired of man was summed up." 25
Love and Suffering :
While quoting the words of Jesus Christ, Dr. Radhakrishnan says that--" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' Jesus' religion affirmed these two central simplicities."26 While quoting St. John he says that the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus. St. John brings out the concept of love preached by Jesus in a very appealing manner. He says "Beloved, let us love onc another, for Love is of God. Every one that loveth is born of God and knowcth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is Love."
Love of neighbour is taught by all religions but the capacity to love is difficult to attain. Dr. Radhakrishnan believes that growth in spiritual life is the only force which gives as the capacity to love our neighbour, even when we are not naturally inclined to do so. Hc quotes the Epistle of St. James- "whence comc wars and fighting among you ? Come they not hence, even of your desires, that war in your members." Conflicting desires within men lead to strains and conflits among men. Here Dr. Radhakrishnan gives an advice which is simple yet hard in practise - that we must be at harmony within ourselves. He quotes St. Teresa's words- "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, yours are the feet with which he goes about doing good; yours are the hands with which he blesses." He also quotes William Law, the great eighteenth Century mystic- "By love I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in people according to thcir constitution; but I mean a larger principle of Soul; founded in reason and piety which makes us tender, kind and gentle to all our fellow creatures as creatures of God and for his sake."
Turgeniev once commented on love thus- it seems to me that to put oneself in the second place is the whole significance of life.. If meat