Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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the reaching-out for the Supersensuous, as impractical and absurd, and, in the same breath, asks us to take up ethics and do good to society. Why should we do good? Doing good is a secondary consideration. We must have an ideal. Ethics itself is not the end, but the means to the end. If the end is not there, why should we be ethical? Why should I do good to other men, and not injure them? If happiness is the goal of mankind, why should I not make myself happy and others unhappy? What prevents me? In the second place, the basis of utility is too narrow. Utilitarian theories can only work under present social conditions. Beyond that, they have no value. But a morality, an ethical code, derived from religion & Spirituality, has the whole of infinite man for its scope. It takes up the individual, but its relations are to the Infinite, and it takes up society also, because society is nothing but numbers of these individuals grouped together.' (II.63-64) 22
"The Devil knows as much as God, is as powerful as God, only he has no holiness-that makes him the Devil. Apply the same idea to the modern world; excess of knowledge & power, without holiness makes human beings devils'. (I.425) 23 He further added, "The only definition that can be given of morality is this - that which is selfish is immoral & that which is unselfish is moral' (1.110) 24
He criticized pravḥtti as selfish materialism. Throughout his teachings & sermons he has given importance to unselfishness & non-attachment. He says that is all religion. The rest is unimportant. E.g. 'Be moral. Be brave. Be a heart-whole man-strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don't bother your head with religious theories. Cowards only sin, brave men never, no not even in mind'. (V.1)25 Can unselfishness be a sin at all? He wrote, 'Selfishness is the chief sin; thinking of ourselves first. He who thinks 'I will eat first, I will have more money than others, & I will possess everything' He who thinks 'I will get to heaven before others, I will get mukti before others' is the selfish man. The unselfish man says 'I will be last, I don't care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell, if by doing so I can help my brothers'. This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more spiritual & nearer to Siva'. (III.143) 26
It is the unselfishness & unattachment which leads to the final goal. It makes a man a Buddha, a Christ! He said, 'When you would be able to sacrifice all desires for happiness for thë sake of society then you would be a Buddha, a Christ, then you would be free'. (IV.49) 27
He advised path of action associated with knowledge. It is jiänottara karma. It is like seeing action in inaction & inaction in action of the Gétä 4.18. He condemned the attempts of running away from work as weakness & cowardice. He stated, 'This world is not for cowards. Don't try to fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will & work on. Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined
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