The Pilgrim

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

Editor: Rev. A.J. Appasamy, M. A, (Harvard) Ph.D. (Oxon.)

MANORAMA, PALAMCOTTAH

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

Patron: The Metropolitan of India, Calcutta

President: Bishop BRENTON T. BADLEY, Delhi.

Vice-Presidents: Dr. A.J. APPASAMY, Palamcottah. Rev. G.H.C. ANGUS, Principal, Serampore College.

Secretary: Mrs. W.S. GOULD, Professor, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad.

Convener, Benares Institute: Rev. R.C. DAS, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment.

Treasurer: Rev. S.R. HOLT, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment.

Committee: Mr. PAUL DAS, Rev. H.C. BALASUNDRARAM, Prof. V.E. DUTT

The Pilgrim began its publication in April 1941. A great many letters have been received which make it clear that there is a real need for a bulletin of this type. It began with sixteen pages a quarter. Obviously, it is impossible to give much material in sixteen pages. After much hesitation and thought it has been decided to increase sixteen pages to thirty-two pages a quarter.

About a hundred persons have joined the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism. As members of the Society they will get free each issue of The Pilgrim as it is published. This number of The Pilgrim is being sent as a specimen copy to several hundred persons who are not members at present. If you receive a copy will you kindly let me know whether you would like to become a member and send your subscription to the Treasurer Rev. S.R. Holt, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment? If you decide not to become a member, will you kindly send me a post card to that effect? Will you also please send me the names and addresses of persons who are likely to be interested in The Pilgrim?

May I ask for publication of short articles on Hinduism, reviews of books, biographical sketches of converts and accounts of work done among Hindus? Even If you may not have anything to send you may be able to put me in touch with prospective contributors.

THE EDITOR

Benares Institute of Hinduism

Notice

The next and the fourth Institute of Hinduism will be held for a full month around the next Dusserah holidays from about the middle of October to the middle of November 1942. The course of study will consist of lectures and research on different aspects of the thought and practice of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.

Six Christian teachers are expected to give regular lectures, stay for the whole time and guide the students in every way. There will be a dozen local Hindu scholars who will deal with special aspects of Hinduism. There will be reference libraries for students to utilise, besides the practical work of investigation on different institutions and interviews with authoritative men.

A full prospectus giving the details of the course of study and all other necessary information will be issued early.in August. The medium of instruction will be English Expenses will be Rs. 2/8 per day for Europeans and Re: 1/- for Indians (inclusive). Tuition fees are Rs. 5/- and upwards according to salaries. Will all those interested - missionaries. Indian ministers, Evangelists, teachers etc. - kindly communicate with the convener immediately and register their names?

As the Society has not yet arrived at the stage of organised and stable financial backing, gifts, however small, will be gratefully acknowledged by the Treasurer and will be used for scholarships to students, purchase of books, or running expenses of the Institute.

The Survival Values of Hindu Bhakti

BY THE EDITOR

(This article may be read together with the article on “The Weakness of Hindu Bhakti” in the July issue of the Pilgrim for a Christian estimate of the Bhakti movement)

The main strivings of the Hindu Bhaktas are all mystical, How shall we reach God? How shall we worship Him? How shall we meditate upon Him? Is it possible to see Him? How shall we get into states of ecstasy in which, with the outside world dropped out of our consciousness, we shall be in union with God? What shall we do if the sense of God’s presence leaves our hearts? These are the problems which perplex and exercise the minds of the Bhaktas. Their spiritual experiences centre largely round them. The Christian missionary in India is apt to look upon these questions as of no great significance. What is of importance is that men should lead a good life and work earnestly for God. The practical aspect of Christianity dominates his whole thinking. He is not interested in the inner life which is the source and fountainhead of this practical activity.

We would do well to note that - at its very source Christianity is mystical. Our Lord’s life showed a perfect balance between its inner and outer aspects. He loved to be with His Father. Prayer was one of the strongest passions of His life. Often He went to the desert place long before dawn to find time for prayer and meditation. Once He spent a whole night in prayer. At the beginning of His ministry He was so absorbed in prayer and meditation that for forty days he took neither food nor drink. The main results of His meditation during those days have been embodied for us in the story of the Temptation. At the time of His baptism the Spirit of God rested upon Him as a dove, and He heard the voice of His Father speaking to Him and saying ‘Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. Once as He prayed His face glowed with a heavenly beauty, and He saw in a vision Moses and Elijah with whom He communed about His death. It was from a life of such constant prayer and meditation that Christ drew the strength and the inspiration He needed for His manifold work. We who seek to follow His example in the life of selfless service which He led often forget that the roots of it were found deep down in this life of constant fellowship with the Father.

St. Paul was certainly a mystic. His central experience was that of living in Christ! His whole being rested in Christ. His prolific intellectual activity, his many sided practical service, his strivings, his yearnings, his groanings - all these emerged from a life of fellowship with Christ. What set him on his new path of service for Christ was the vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. This vision was so revolutionary in its effect that for three long years he went out into the desert of Arabia to meditate on all its implications. Once he was caught up into the third heaven and saw and heard things which he long treasured in memory.

St. John was a mystic. He brooded upon the words of our Lord until they yielded a new meaning to him. He treasured all those parts of our Lord’s teaching which dealt with the life of communion, with God. In his Gospel we see the various aspects of that life described with insight and depth.

Here then we have three of the chief figures of the Christian, Church, Our Lord, St. Paul and St. John all following the mystical path. Coming down the ages we find such great saints as St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas a Kempis, St. Teresa and others who had real mystical experiences. They are among the most powerful influences in the Christian Church.

The bhakti hymns are cherished by the common folk in India. They are on many people’s lips. The man in the bazaar keeps chanting them. The postman off his duty pores over them. The clerk before he goes to office spends the early hours of the day singing them. Crowds of men and women listen with rapt attention to these songs as they are sung and explained to them. The experiences of the spiritual life which the bhaktas had are known to, and in a measure participated in by, many devout men and women in India today. They are not confined to the few. In the West Mysticism may be the cult of the few but in India it is the cult of the many.

As missionaries and Christian workers it is our duty to make the fullest possible use of these longings and strivings of the Indian soul. We speak of bringing into the Christian Church the spiritual heritage of India. How can we do this if we ignore all the special channels along which this heritage has been flowing? We have our idea of what spirituality is and are disappointed when the Indian temperament does not attain it. It is our duty rather to find out what the Indian temperament is capable of and to make the utmost use of its capacities.

It is the duty of every missionary and Christian teacher in India at least to understand and if possible to practise the mystical life. Such a distinguished scholar as Dr. Farquhar once expressed his great regret that he had been unable to understand the entire mystical side of Hinduism. He was at home in the intellectual doctrines of the Hindus and knew much about their books. But he could not see anything in some of their deepest spiritual experiences. It must be acknowledged that the difficulty of a practical mind in understanding Mysticism is really great though sometimes we are apt to exaggerate this. I knew a very practical missionary who administered a large diocese with great ability; he had read a good deal of mystical literature and understood something of the value and beauty of Mysticism. Every Christian worker in India should make this attempt to know something of the mystical literature of the Christian Church. How many missionaries or Indian padres would care to give addresses on such subjects as Meditation, Contemplation, Adoration, Union with God. Vision of God and Realisation of God? These are subjects on which many deeply religious people in India really need help.

It may be said that most Indian Christians have no difficulties along these lines. Speaking to audiences of Hindus and Christians I have noticed a real difference. Hindus are more interested in the problems of the mystical life than Indian Christians. The main reason for this is that our Christians have been trained in other ways. Even so these longings are deep down in our soul and need to be evoked and helped. My father was a convert from Hinduism. For years, he attended Christian worship regularly. When he was sixty-seven the longing to see God in vision dominated him entirely. It became the strongest passion of his life. No one who knew him for the practical leader he was would have suspected this dormant longing and yet late in life it asserted itself powerfully. He could get no help from his Christian friends and teachers. So he put himself under the spiritual instruction of a Hindu Yogi. He had some remarkable spiritual experiences which he has described in his book, Fifty Years’ Pilgrimage of a Convert (C.L.S. Madras). Those of us who knew him intimately and came into close contact with him could bear witness to the fact that he reached a higher spiritual level as the result of these experiences.

Even though a missionary may not himself be able to give help in these matters he ought to make it possible for his Indian fellow-workers to acquire a knowledge of Mysticism, Western and Eastern. Mysticism is the last thing to be despised by the Christian worker in India. Every theological student should be given an introduction to the study of Mysticism. Our Indian pastors and teachers should be provided with opportunities whereby they can acquaint themselves with the main mystical developments in the Christian Church in Europe. In dealing with Hindus likewise we should emphasise the mystical side of Christianity and use cheap editions of such mystical books as the Imitation of Christ and the Confessions of St. Augustine in evangelistic work.

The Adoration of God

We have been dealing so far with the general principle that the experiences of the bhaktas belong to the realm of Mysticism and that Christian workers, whether missionary or Indian, should make themselves familiar with the history of Mysticism both in the Christian Church and in India. We may now go on to consider some specific directions along which the mystical aspects should be emphasised and developed in India. In my new book, The Gospel and India’s Heritage (S.P.C.K., London), I have sought to work out in some detail the affinity of mystical Christianity with the best there is in the realm of bhakti thought and experience. Here I may summarise rapidly the main conclusions to which I have been led during several years of study and meditation.

Once I was discussing with the Bishop of Madras the subject of the Indianisation of Christian worship. He said, ‘I think it would be far better if in our morning and evening services in India we begin not with a call to penitence but with a call to the adoration of God’. A call to the adoration of God is apt to meet with a deeper response than a call to penitence. The history of bhakti thought shows us that the driving impulse with some of the finest religious men in India has been the passion for God. The infinite grandeur, the alluring beauty, the abundant mercy and the unlimited love of God have captured the heart and soul of India. Belief in these have controlled all the best thinking of India. Men have been stirred to surrender their best in their search for God. With a radiance on their countenance and a joy welling up in their hearts they have trodden the path that leads to the feet of God. When we say this we are also obliged to say that the conviction of sin has not by any means been as deep and strong as the passion for God. It has not been the driving impulse of the religious life in India. We know how in Christian thought the burden of sin weighs heavily on the soul and drives it to God for forgiveness and peace. As we study the religious life and literature of India we do not find that the sense of guilt has anything like the keenness and the anguish which we have come to associate with it in many types of Christian experience.

Christian workers in India have generally begun their preaching and their teaching with an appeal to the conscience. Sometimes when this appeal has not met with a ready response they have made an effort to deepen the sense of sin. In this they have not always been successful. The reason is that in the Hindu religious consciousness the sense of sin is not the deepest fact, but the longing for God is the deepest. Why should we not begin with this longing for God and make it the starting point of all our Christian teaching in India? Such a challenge is likely to strike deeper root in India than the appeal to the sense of guilt. No one will question the value of this approach. Religion is ultimately concerned with God. In starting the religious quest therefore with God as our dominant, objective we cannot possibly go wrong.

There is the danger that the longing for God may prove to be nothing more than a desire for a rapturous emotional experience. We should make it perfectly clear what we mean by God and what we mean by union with Him. Both these conceptions of God and of life with Him must be made fully ethical. God is absolutely pure, holy truthful, loving and gracious. A vision of God as holy, will certainly lead to the conviction of man’s unworthiness. The clearest example we have of this is Isaiah. When he saw God in all His holiness and majesty he was filled with a sense of awe. In great fear he cried, ‘Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips’. Then he was purified. Whenever the conviction of God’s goodness and majesty dawns upon the soul the sense of man’s sin is deepened. There is a glimpse of this idea in the Bhagavad Gita (chap, xi.) where, after seeing a vision, Arjuna pleads for forgiveness. We would do well to develop this line of thought. Have you a deep longing for God? Do you desire to see God? Do you passionately yearn to live with Him? These are some of the noblest impulses of the human heart. May God help you to realise them. But remember that God is a holy being and that union with Him involves the strictest ethical qualifications. We do not hold communion with God by merely feeling a rapturous emotion. We have fellowship with Him by doing His will and acting as He demands of us. Such a life of conformity to God is filled with joy and rapture.

Prayer as Communion

We have to learn from the bhaktas the great lesson that prayer is fundamentally a means of communion with God. A great deal of our Christian prayer is petition. We believe that God is full of love for us and that He is interested in the smallest details of our life. Hence, we go to Him for help. All this is perfectly true. God is indeed interested in all our life. He is willing to help us in whatever matter we ask for His help. The resources at His disposal are unlimited, and He can and does give us all the kinds of help we need. The consequence of this theory and practice of prayer is that prayer often comes to be nothing more than a series of petitions. We forget that there is an unreality about our life with God if every time, we seek His Presence we seek it only for the sake of obtaining some favour. A son who approaches his father only in order to get a cheque from him does not hold the ideal relation which a son should have to his father. It is very important for us to remember that the most uplifting and ennobling experience in life is fellowship with God. God is our Father, and we would do well to live in His Presence utterly oblivious of our immediate needs but simply aware of His goodness, truth and beauty. It is necessary for us to dwell thus with Him, not always thinking of what we can get out of such fellowship. That is the supreme demand of love, the demand for a personal companionship.

Two dear friends find the greatest joy in being with each other. Friendship is, of course, more than this. There are times when friendship calls for sacrifice and service. One of the friends is in great sorrow and difficulty. Then it is obviously necessary that the other should do his utmost to help him. But normally by friendship we mean the joy of companionship, two kindred spirits living together, drawing delight from each other’s presence, working together for common purposes and sharing in common difficulties. Such should be our life with God. God lays upon us great tasks. He calls us to be co-workers with Him in His Kingdom. But He calls us also to be His friends, abiding in His joy and gathering delight from His Presence.

The Immanence of God

This realisation that our life with God is close and intimate leads to the doctrine of Immanence. The Hindu bhaktas speak again and again of God as dwelling in the depths of their souls. He is closer to them than their life. He is hidden in their inmost being. Like the juice which flows in the sugarcane. He lives in the devotee’s soul. God is not conceived of as only external to the soul. He is most vitally connected with the deepest parts of man’s being. In the New Testament we have considerable teaching about the Immanence of God. St. Paul’s whole life is focussed around the indwelling Christ. The formula which St. Paul uses most frequently to express his relationship with Christ is ‘in Christ’. In one great utterance he sums up effectively his whole life as it was lived in relation to Christ, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. St. John loves to dwell on the immanent Christ. Abide in me and I in you is to him the supreme secret of the Christian life. Yet in our ordinary Christian preaching we say very little about the indwelling Christ. We dwell upon the beauty of His character, upon His wonderful sacrifice on the Cross, upon the moral energy which He continually gives to His followers. All these aspects of Christ’s life and work are quite important. But we say very little about the fact that He dwells in our inmost hearts.

The doctrine of Immanence in India has led to some dangers. If God is immanent in the world of nature as well as in the heart of man, is there any difference between these two types of Immanence? Is His Immanence in nature the same as His Immanence in man? The Hindu thinker does not always draw a careful distinction between these two types of Immanence. God to him is the source of the physical energy which flows through the unfolding blossom and of the spiritual power that springs in the human heart. This has given an aspect of inevitability to the Hindu doctrine of Immanence. God is present in the human heart, whatever you may say or do, just as He is always present in the running stream or on the snow-capped peak. The moral qualifications tend to be neglected. That our highest life with God is possible only if we keep ourselves pure and clean tends to be forgotten. While it is true that God is always present in us making it possible for us even to live the ordinary physical life, his highest and deepest Immanence is conditioned by moral qualifications. It is only as we approximate more and more to His holy character that we feel most really His Immanence. That the moral qualifications necessary for Immanence often get neglected in Hindu thought is evident from what some Hindu bhaktas say to the effect that God is present just as much in the harlot as in the saint. This is not by any means a correct or a helpful way of stating the indwelling aspect of God. While it is true that God is present in the worst sinner seeking to kindle his conscience, it must be acknowledged that this Immanence reaches its full significance only when the ethical conditions are fulfilled. To stress the Immanence of God at the expense of morality is dangerous.

But do not let us, because of these dangers, neglect to emphasise the Immanence of God. The experience of the indwelling God belongs to the very texture of the Christian soul. We would do well in India to make the doctrine of Immanence central in our thinking and to follow it out in all its possible bearings.

The Joy of the Religious Life

One of the striking characteristics of bhakti experience is its joy. All, over the country in different ages men have felt the rapture of union with God. Religion is not a matter of toil and effort. Religion is not a hard and difficult thing. The bhaktas have been one in their conviction that there is a radiance about the spiritual life. This joy was ranged with the bhaktas through the whole gamut of human emotion, now fervent and ecstatic but kept well in check, now breaking out into rapturous song and dance, and now filling the whole life with gentle and pleasant feeling. The bhaktas are right in their central conviction that joy is an essential quality of the spiritual life. Our fellowship with God fills us with real happiness.

The bhaktas are wrong when they sometimes make joy and not God their primary objective. To hear Hindus talk today about Ananda one sometimes gets the impression that their quest is for joy. If they do this they are forgetting one of the most important facts about the religious life. God is the goal of our life. We seek Him whatever may be the consequence. In seeking Him we are not merely seeking joy; we are seeking a personal relationship with a personal God. This relationship always brings joy. But it is not the joy we are after but God.

The Hindu bhaktas fail in their doctrine of joy to reckon with whole realms of suffering and sorrow which alas! Are too prevalent in the world. Our Lord possessed the deepest joy in His life. But He was prepared to drink life’s suffering to its last dregs. He suffered as no other man did. St. Paul speaks again and again of joy as the fundamental quality of the Christian life, and yet he suffered greatly. Few men endured more persecution for the sake of the Gospel. It is our duty as Christians to stress the note of joy in India. This will stir the Hindu soul most deeply: In our ordinary, Christian teaching we have forgotten to stress the element of joy. We have been apt to consider the Christian life as nothing but suffering and sacrifice. It is essentially a joyous life and even when there is suffering and sacrifice there is joy. Sadhu Sunder Singh was true both to his Indian heritage, and to his Christian teaching when, cast into prison for preaching the Gospel, he wrote on the fly leaf of his New Testament, ‘The Presence of Christ has changed this prison into heaven’. That is real Christian experience. Whether we are on the hill-top of prosperity and success or sit in the valley of failure and humiliation, God abides with us, ever filling our hearts with a joy which no man can take away from us.

The Conception of Suffering in Vedic Thought

BY A.J.C. SELVARATNAM

1. Rig Veda

In the Rig Veda we notice that suffering may be due to the sins of one’s ancestors. The doctrine of solidarity which played an important part in the development of Hebrew thought is also present in Hinduism. Individuals may suffer the punishment that others may rightly merit. The part this idea played in the minds of the men of this age is seen in the prayers addressed to the gods soliciting them for release from such responsibility:

    Set us free from the misdeeds of our fathers,
    From those that we ourselves have perpetrated.

¹

Again,

    Remove far hence the debts by me contracted:
    Let me not suffer, king, for guilt of others

²

Side by side with this conception of corporate responsibility which leads to individual suffering we also notice the idea that suffering is closely connected with the failure of man to fulfil the divine rita.³ Hence, we find the following appeal:

    Whatever ordinance (rata) of thine;
    God Varuna, we violate
    As human beings day by day
    Yet to the stroke subject us not,
    Death dealing of the angry one,
    The wrath of the incensed one,

⁴

Varuna is the upholder of the divine rita. Hence, all prayers are addressed to him.

Vasistha learns that the cause of his suffering is due to his failure to obey Varuna, and the consequent indignation of the god. Hence, he craves forgiveness from him promising to ‘serve him the merciful, erstwhile the angry’.⁵ A further illustration of the truth that suffering is due to the displeasure of Varuna is seen in the imploring cry of a man smitten with dropsy. He prays forgiveness and restoration to health:

    Somehow through weakness of my will,
    I went astray, O shining one,
    Be gracious, mighty Lord, and spare.

⁶

In these and many other prayers we do not notice a deep consciousness of sin but fear of the punishment that follows in its train.

But there are some in which the devotee feels that sin has severed his communion with Varuna, and as a result suffers from intense mental anguish.

    But now what has become of this our friendship
    When lovingly we walked together erstwhile
    When sovereign Varuna, to thy lofty palace
    Thy thousand gates have I had admittance?

⁷

The idea that suffering endured for another is efficacious is recognised in the Rig Veda. The legend of Sunahsepha bears this out. Though the substitute for Harischandra escapes death, we notice that the singing of the hymns is sufficient for the gods to have pity on him, and to absolve him for whom he was offered. The legend is this Harichandra, a childless king, vows that if he is blessed with a son, he would offer him to Varuna. The god grants his request, but the king is not prepared to fulfil his part of the bargain. Varuna afflicts him with a sore disease. Harichandra, therefore, requests his son Rohita to consent to his death. This Rohita would not. He, however, is able to bargain with a starving Brahman to sell his son for two hundred cows. Sunabsepha, for such is the name of the Brahman’s son, is brought and tied to the sacrificial post. Here he sings prayers to the gods with seven hymns from the Rig Veda (I. 24-30). The gods are moved with compassion and release him. Harischandra too is cured of his grievous affliction.

In the Rig Veda we even catch glimpses of the conception of a suffering God, which had it developed would have led Hindu thought into wider channels than to the stagnant waters of karma and samsara:

    He, for gods sake, chose death to be his portion
    He chose not, for men's sake, a life eternal
    Yama delivered up his own dear body.

⁸

‘If this is a correct translation the reference may be to a voluntary and sacrificial death on the part of Yama, in order to open up for gods and men a path to heaven. Yama might have had a life eternal upon earth, but he chose death and gave up his body for the sake of others. We are reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down His life for His own … and thus opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers’.⁹

Suffering undergone because of membership in a group, punishment for failure to obey the divine rita and affliction endured for the sins of another are some of the chief, traits: in the Rig Vedic thought about suffering. Another trait, though not so prominent as these yet important in the light of later thought, is the conviction that death is not the end of existence and that the good are rewarded with bliss, while the wicked suffer for their misdeeds. It is their evil life that has brought upon them the sufferings of hell:

    Roaming about like motherless young women
    Of evil way like dames that trick their husbands
    As such being full of sin, untie, unfaithful
    They for themselves this deep place have created.

¹⁰

Indra is even invoked to thrust all wicked doers into the dark abyss from which they may never return.

    0 Indra, Soma dash the evildoers down.
    Into the pit the gloom profound and bottomless
    So that not one of them may ever thence emerge
    Such be your wrathful might to overpower them.

¹¹

In this connection it may be noticed that the theory of samsara, which was to play an important part in Upanishadic thought, has not yet made its appearance. We have no inkling as yet of samsara or even of gradations of happiness, observes Prof. Radhakrishnan.¹² Suffering in the Rig Veda is not in terms of sin committed in previous births.

2. Transition to the Upanishads

The later Vedas and the Brahmanas mark the transition from the Rig Vedic times to that of the Upanishads. The rich and glowing joy of the Rig Veda period is followed by dark gloom. The mind is continually haunted by the dread fear of goblins and gods. They are the sources of all the trouble that mortals have to undergo. ‘The catastrophes are traced to dissatisfied spirits. When a man falls ill the magician and not the physician is sent for, and he employs spells to entice the spirit away from the patient’.¹³ The only solution is to sacrifice to these spirits and to wear charms. Sin is now regarded as something that may become magically attached to a man. It is like an infectious disease, which one may contract without being aware of it. Hence, the prayer during this period is to be saved from sin which brings pain and sorrow in its train. Amulets are the most useful in this fight against infection. Thus, in one hymn the prayer is, ‘what sin my mother, my father and what my own brothers, what we ourselves have done, from that shall this divine forest-tree shield us’.¹⁴ Sin even may be passed on to men by the gods:

    On Trita the gods wiped off that sin:
    Trita wiped it off on human beings.

¹⁵

Human beings thus had to suffer for sins for which they were in no way responsible. Demons, ill-omens, sorcery all played an important part in intensifying the gloom and making minds that were once happy and gay to live in constant dread of some wandering spirits that Inhabited some trees or some forsaken spot.

With the deepening of the gloom begins asceticism. But it is not suffering endured to atone for sin. It is rather an unholy desire to be equal to the gods and to attain magical power. The power of the gods is due to their austerities (tapas) and man too can win it, if he diligently follows the path of self-mortification. Even those who wish to attain fame are advised to try the way of tapas.¹⁶

Thus, suffering during this period becomes either an infection, which one may easily contract from another, or if an attempt is made to face it boldly, it becomes a stepping stone to worldly fame.

Furthermore, the suffering of the wicked after death becomes gruesome. Men are pictured as sitting in the midst of a stream of blood. The righteous punish their enemies, by cutting them up and devouring them with the exulting cry. ‘Thus, have they done to us in yonder world, and so we do to them again in this world’.¹⁷ Side by side with this, suggestions for the formulation of the theory of rebirth can be noticed. The righteous and the wicked after experiencing their rewards and punishments cannot continue in heaven or hell. They have to die to that life to be reborn on earth. Thus, an endless circuit of births, deaths and periods of enjoyment of rewards for deeds is suggested. But it is only a suggestion which develops into the theory of karma and samsara in the period of the Upanishads.¹⁸

3. The Upanishads

In the study of the Rig Veda we noticed that suffering may be due to the failure to obey the divine rita. This idea comes to the forefront in the Upanishads. All suffering is traced to one’s evil deeds (karma). Men suffer the consequences of their evil deeds and enjoy the fruits of their good ones. This theory Prof. Radhakrishnan describes as follows: ‘The law of karma is the counterpart in the moral world of the physical law of uniformity. It is the law of the conservation of moral energy. The vision of law and order is revealed in the rita of the Rig Veda. According to the principle of karma there is nothing uncertain or capricious in the moral world. We reap what we sow. The good seed brings a harvest of good, the evil of evil.’¹⁹ Thus, the theory of karma is quite like that of Ezekiel, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die’, but it differs from what he taught, in that it assumes that an individual suffers for the sins of his previous births. It is in this way that it explains the problem that Job was faced with. Unable to understand the inequalities of this life, the Upanishads try to explain that they are due to the sins of previous existences. The individual soul has to pass through a series of births expiating for some sins and committing others. It is a cyclic process, Man’s lot is to do good and to acquiesce in his suffering. It is karma that decides the position of the Brahman and the outcaste. The former is born a high caste man because of his good deeds, the latter an outcaste because of his stinking conduct in his previous existence. Thus, in the Chandogya Upanishad we read on, ‘Those who are of pleasant conduct here - the prospect is indeed, that they will enter a pleasant womb, either that of a Brahman or the womb of a Kshatriya or the womb of a Vaisya. But those who are of stinking conduct here - the prospect is indeed, that they will enter a stinking womb, either the womb of a dog or the womb of an outcaste’.²⁰

Again in the Svetasvatara Upanishad, we read, ‘According to the deeds the embodied one successively assumes forms in various conditions’.²¹

Thus, the theory of karma and samsara (transmigration) explains all the inequalities of life as due to man’s past sin. He should not complain, since he is the cause of it. He should rather acquiesce in his suffering. On this Prof. Radhakrishnan writes: ‘There is no doctrine that is so valuable in life and conduct as the karma theory. Whatever happens to us in this life we have to submit in meek resignation for it is the result of our past doings. Yet the future is in our power, and we can work with hope and confidence. Karma inspires hope for the future and resignation to the past’.²² Cold comfort to the man who is wearing out daily through disease! The theory in its attempt to solve the inequalities of life brings in further suffering to the individual. He learns not only that his suffering is due to his past sins; but that he must be born again and again to be immolated on the altar of suffering.

And what is the hope for the future that Prof. Radhakrishnan refers to? It is mukti or emancipation, which Prof. Das Gupta defines as ‘the state of infiniteness that a man attains when he knows his own self and thus becomes a Brahman. The ceaseless course of transmigration is only for those who are ignorant. The wise man who has divested himself of all passions and knows himself to be Brahman, at once becomes Brahman and no bondage of any kind can affect him.’²³

Thus, the knowledge that the individual soul is Brahman will release the soul from the bonds that tie it to the wheel of samsara. But this identity cannot be realised as long as the soul is full of desires. Yajnavalkya tells us that the man of desires obtains the results of his deeds and returns again to the world of action. On the other hand, the man who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose desire is the soul-his breaths do not depart. Being very Brahma he goes to Brahma. On this point there is this verse:

    When are liberated all
    The desires that lodge in one's heart
    Then a mortal becomes immortal
    Therein he reaches Brahma.

²⁴

Again in another Upanishad we read that this identity immediately removes all the consequences of good and evil:

    When a seer sees the brilliant
    Maker, Lord, Person, the Brahma-source,
    Then being a knower, shaking off good and evil
    Stainless he attains identity with Him.

²⁵

Therefore, to attain this identity with the Brahmanatman, which ends all the ills that flesh is heir to, is the anxious thought of many a man. The following lines echo the cry of one of these: - ‘Such is one am I, sir, knowing the sacred saying but not knowing the Soul (Atman). It has been heard by me from those who are like you, sir, that he who knows the Soul (Atman) crosses over sorrow. Such a sorrowing one am I, sir. Do you, sir, cause me, who am such a one, to cross over to the other side of sorrow.’²⁶

But what is the Brahman state, and how is it to be attained? Brahman is thought of as ananda, but ananda means something more that what is connoted by the word ‘joy’. In him there is perfect harmony, no sorrow or suffering. He is quite oblivious to the suffering of mankind. Unaffected by the karmic process, he is in perfect harmony. The distinctions of the many do not affect him. In his unity he surpasses them. Therefore, the individual soul, if it is to escape from the world of births and deaths, has to realise its oneness with the Brahman. Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) marks this state of realisation. No longer is the soul subject to the vicissitudes of plurality. It is one with Brahman, in which there is no room for otherness.

Thus, in the Brahman state there is no communion with the Absolute, but an absorption in which the individual loses his personality in the impersonal Absolute. Such mukti as this attained through the loss of human personality in the Brahman is indeed too great a price paid for any kind of salvation for it sacrifices the worth of human personality at the altar of the impersonal Absolute.

How is this union to be attained? It is to be attained by the conquering of, the desires, which prevent assimilation into the Brahman. Meditation is advised as the best way to conquer the desires and to realise oneness with the Brahman.

Taking as a bow the great weapon of the Upanishads, One should put upon it an arrow sharpened by meditation. Stretching It with a thought directed to the essence of That, Penetrate that Imperishable as the mark, my friend.

    Brahma is said to be the mark.
    By the undistracted man is It to be penetrated.
    One should come to be in It, as the arrow (in the mark).

²⁷

Note the word ‘should’ which characterises all that is taught in the Upanishads as to how ‘mukti’ may be attained: The birth-weary-soul has to come to be in Brahma. It has to conquer its desires. But how could it? St. Paul’s confession tells us that man by his power cannot conquer his desires.²⁸ He needs help from outside. The Impersonal Brahman cannot help him. He is in ananda, beyond the sorrow and strife of the world. To stretch out His hand to help is to be drawn into the weary round of births and deaths. Hence, He remains in ananda, waiting for the individual soul to come to Him and be absorbed into him.

This indeed is no hope but despair. Is it a satisfying solution to the problem of suffering to be told that men suffer for their sins, and that the only way to escape is to be absorbed into the Brahman, by freeing themselves from the desires of the world, and that to accomplish this no help can be given? The Upanishads in trying to unravel the Gordian knot have made it more intricate.

Recent Books on Hinduism

BY A.J.APPASAMY

Under the heading ‘Recent Book on Hinduism’. I expect to write every quarter about three or four important books on Hinduism. Both in India and abroad various books are being published about Hinduism. Within the compass of a short article it will be impossible to write about all the books that come out. A selection will have to be made. These are the principles I shall try and keep in view. The books will deal with the different aspects of Hinduism, popular as well as philosophical and literary. The highly technical books meant for the specialist will be excluded as their appeal is likely to be limited. Hinduism is a living religion. It is making many adjustments to modern conditions. I will try and write about the books on Hinduism with the modern outlook as well as the books which set forth traditional Hinduism.

The three books selected for review in this article are:

1. World War and Its Only Cure-World Order and World Religion by Bhagavan Das. (The Author, Benares Cantonment, Rs. 2/8).

2. Poems by Rabindranath Tagore (Visva-Bharati, 2, College Square, Calcutta, Rs 2/-).

3. Sankaracharya by S. Suryanarayana Sastri (G. A. Natesan & Co., Madras, Rs. 12/-).

Part 1

A good many books are now appearing about the Post War World. This book by Dr. Bhagavan Das is particularly interesting as it reflects the views of a learned Hindu scholar who seeks to face the problems of the present day in the light of the religious and social teachings of Hinduism. I met Dr. Bhagavan Das in Benares. He is one of the friends of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism. In January 1941, he inaugurated the meetings of the Society with a friendly Tea in his house. He is now aged about eighty-four. His father had destined him for government service, but he chose religious and social work as his vocation. A man of means, he has faithfully devoted his long life to such work. He has to his credit several books, one of which The Science of the Emotions has been translated into some European languages. For some years he was associated with the Central Hindu College in Benares, out of which the Benares Hindu University has grown into its present large dimensions. He is held in high respect by a large circle of friends and readers.

This book, written in the evening of his life, shows a wide and accurate knowledge of political, social and spiritual conditions all over the world and of the various solutions which are being proposed for Post-War Reconstruction. His own suggestions are mainly two. To the British Government, he says, ‘Declare Dominion Status for India, now, at once, (with certain conditions)’. The second suggestion is addressed to Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress. He says-

1. Call all belligerents to announce an Armistice, and place their respective schemes of a “Better World”, before the world and before a representative international committee; and
2. Appoint a committee to draft a Scheme of Swaraj for India, embodying a comprehensive social structure.

These two suggestions are developed in the book at great length. The special interest of this book for readers of The Pilgrim is its attitude to Hinduism. The author feels strongly that Hinduism is corrupt. He even goes to the length of saying that it is more corrupt than any other religion. He is anxious to learn and practise whatever is of value in Christianity, Islam and other religions. But he is assured that in its essence and in its ancient purity Hinduism is quite adequate to the needs of the present day. He is particularly confident that the Hindu institution of Varnashrama Dharma is necessary to complete the social structure of the Post-War World. He says that he has expounded the real meaning of Varnashrama Dharma as he understands it in two or three books. Here in this volume he explains it briefly. The following paragraph gives the gist of his thought. It is impossible for any individual to carry out the Divine will, observe the Golden Rule, perform his duty, and achieve any reasonable amount of Happiness here and hereafter, (i.e., secure Material and Spiritual Bread); (i) if the community, the society, amidst which he is born, lives, and dies, is not systematically organised for peace and prosperity, which includes, as a subsidiary, organisation for defence; and (ii) if the life of the individual is not correctly mapped out and planned, and fitted into that social organisation, in such a: way, that each person, in accord with his special temperament and vocational aptitude, (a) receives appropriate education, (b) readily secures, or is provided with; a suitable occupation for his and family’s livelihood, with due regard to that aptitude as ascertained and developed by his educators, (c) retires from bread-winning work in right time, to take up someone or more out of numerous kinds of honorary unremunerated public duties, in keeping with his special capacities, and, finally, (d) spends the last years of his Physical life in ever greater absorption in spiritual exercises meditations, well-wishing to the world at large, and promoting the general welfare by pouring into the moral psychical. Atmosphere, a continuous stream of benevolence, “good-will”, and the powerful influence of high example of life well-lived in the past, and now incarnating God’s blessings of renunciant selflessness, contented repose of soul, and all resignedness and spiritual peace. (Pages 482, 483)

It is really difficult to understand how Varnashrama Dharma can be the solution of the problems of modern society: At its worst this characteristic institution of Hinduism has split up Hindu society into thousands of castes and has segregated about one-fourth of the people of India and denied them even the elementary rights and privileges of men. As far as I can understand, Dr. Bhagavan Das does not want Varnashrama Dharma on the hereditary basis. Minus the hereditary basis, how does this institution differ from the modern social structure in the various countries of the world, by which men choose and follow different professions according to their interests, temperaments, and opportunities? The institution of Varnashrama Dharma has been given a long trial in India under exceptionally favourable circumstances. It has proved to be the bane of Hindu society. I fail to see how it can yet be modified and deprived of its inherent weakness to suit modern conditions.

Part 2

This new volume of poems by Rabindranath Tagore contains material which has not been published before in any book. The last nine poems were translated by Dr. Amiya Chakravarty; all the other poems were translated into English by the Poet himself.

The special interest of this book is that many of the poems were composed during the last few months of his life when the Poet was seriously ill. The poems in Gitanjali show that even in middle age the poet was facing the problems of pain, bereavement, and death. Gitanjali, was written when Tagore was only forty-nine years old. He was still in the prime of his life. He possessed abundant energy and was doing a great deal of writing. His wife’s death had made bereavement very real to him, But his own death was still far off. In this volume, however, suffering, separation and death were coming much closer to him. He was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. In 1937, he had a serious illness. The first poem written after the recovery of his consciousness brings out vividly the darkness through which he passed and the thrill of the newly awakening life.

    Behind an infinite secrecy of the dark
    from which the world of prying lights was shut out
    there walked in the Destroyer,
    and underneath the pall of an ominous hush
    rehearsed reparation in the deep of my being.
    At last the stage was made vacant
    for the new act of life's play,
    when a fiery finger from the sky touched a fringe of the darkness
    and a lightning thrill
    pierced the immensity of sleep
    breaking it to pieces.
    A stream of awakening began to course through
        the veins of a blind inertness -
    as the first flood of the rainy June pursues its branching path
    amidst the emptiness of a dry river bed.
    Big boulders of shadows barricaded the passage of light
    and created confusion -
    they were swept away,
    and the spirit of new life unbarred herself:
    in a luminous horizon of peace.

— Pages 155, 156

The first time I heard Rabindranath Tagore was in 1916 when he gave a reading in New York from his poems and stories. The large theatre in which he read was well-filled with an enthusiastic audience, mostly women. I remember the applause with which his reading of selected poems from The Crescent Moon and the story of Cabuliwallah was greeted. The one vivid impression which that reading left in my mind (and which has lasted all through the years) was that he was a poet of joy. The common things of life - the sunlight, the dew drop, the rain-cloud and the green blade, - all fascinated him and stirred him deeply. Towards the end of his life, his physical powers began to fail, his eyes were dim, and his ears were dull. Even then his old joy in the world, in human life and in God did not leave him. On his seventy-seventh birthday he wrote a poem addressing it to Mother Earth and said,

    Cripple me, if you will,
    shut out all light from my eyes,
    shroud me in the shadow of infirmity,
    yet in the dilapidated temple of my being
    the ancient god will remain enthroned.
    Work your havoc and pile up the wreck,
    yet in the midst of this ruin
    the luminous spot of inward joy
    will burn bright as ever

— Page 163

And yet, we can gather from another poem that the iron had entered into his soul and that he had learnt the meaning and value of pain.

    On the bank of Rup-Narain
    I arise, awake;
    this world, I realise,
    is not a dream.
    In words writ in blood I saw
    my being manifest,
    my own self I knew
    through repeated hurts
    and pain.
    Hard is truth,
    that hardness I loved,
    never it deceives.
    Death-long tapasya of suffering is this life,
    to win truth's terrible value,
    and to pay all debts in death

— Page 189

The void and emptiness left by the death of a beloved one is fully reflected in the human anguish and bewilderment of the following lines.

    The sunlight blazes not
    this lonely midday.
    At the empty chair I glance,
    no trace of consolation is there.
    Filling its heart
    words of despair seem to rise in lament,
    the voice of emptiness
    laden with compassion
    whose inmost meaning cannot be grasped.

    Like a dog looking with sad eyes
    for his lost master,
    his heart wailing with a blind sorrow,
    not knowing what happened and why,
    seeking everywhere with unavailing eyes;

    More tender and sore even than his pain
    seems the voice of the chair,
    its dumb pain of emptiness
    pervading the room
    bereft of the dear one.

— Pages 187, 188

This experience of baffling uncertainty and keen suffering is common to millions of men and women. But not so common is the assurance and hope of the following poem, originally written in Bengali when he was forty years old, but translated into English by the poet himself after the death of C.F. Andrews.

    Far as I gaze at the depth of Thy immensity
    I find no trace there of sorrow or death or separation.
    Death assumes its aspect of terror
    and sorrow its pain
    only when, away from Thee.
    I turn my face towards my own dark self.
    Thou All Perfect,
    everything abides at Thy feet
    for all time.
    The fear of loss only clings to me
    with its ceaseless grief,
    but the shame of my penury
    and my life's burden
    vanish in a moment
    when I feel Thy presence
    in the centre of my being.

— Page 31

I regard this as the finest poem in this volume. It is interesting to know’that when a simple Sradh ceremony of the Poet was performed at Shantiniketan it was brought to a close with this poem.

In the same ceremony another beautiful poem of Tagore was recited.

    In front lies the ocean of peace
    Launch the boat, Helmsman.
    You will be the comrade ever,
    Take O take him in your lap.
    In the path of the Infinite
    will shine the Dhruva-tara.
    Giver of freedom, your forgiveness, your mercy
    will be wealth inexhaustible
    in the eternal journey.
    May the mortal bonds perish,
    May the vast universe take him in its arms,
    And may he know in his fearless heart
    The Great Unknown.

— Page 194

Part 3

Professor Suryanarayana Sastri’s book on Sankaracharya is an excellent introduction to the subject. Mr. Sastri began a serious study of Indian Philosophy from his student days. If I remember rightly, he wrote at Oxford a thesis on Sankara and Bradley. After a brief career as a barrister in Madura, he became the Reader in Indian Philosophy in the University of Madras. ” For several years now he has made a deep study of the Sanskrit Advaitic texts some of which he has edited, translated or expounded. The present unpretentious little book, therefore, is the work of an authority on the subject.

In the first forty pages he has attempted to give a biography of Sankara, neither reduced to a skeleton nor overcharged with the fabulous. The authentic facts about Sankara’s life are but few. He was a native of Travancore and was the only son of his father who died when the boy was very young. Sankara was precocious in his studies as well as in his eager desire for renunciation. He became a Sanyasin in his youth and after receiving formal instruction travelled widely in India, challenged and silenced his opponents, wrote some important books and firmly established Advaita He founded several mutts which became the centres of his teaching and influence. He died at the early age of thirty-two. After considering carefully the relevant data, the author accepts the date generally assigned to Sankara, namely, 788 to 820 A. D. The legendary details of Sankara’s life are then discussed, and an attempt is made to arrive at the nucleus of historical fact.

In the same spirit of critical enquiry the author examines in nine pages the authenticity or otherwise of the many works attributed to Sankara. He regards as genuine twenty-four works-the Sutra Bashya, the Gita Bashya, the Commentaries on Ten Upanishads, hymns like the Dakshinamurthyashtaka, the Dasasloki and the Bhaja Govinda and minor expository or dialectical works in prose or in verse such as Atmaboda and Satasloki. Three hundred and eighty-four works traditionally ascribed to Sankara are dismissed as doubtful or as non-genuine. The abundance of the literary output by a young man of thirty-two, not to speak of its high philosophical and literary standard, marks Sankara out to be a man of supreme genius.

In another seventy-eight pages the author gives an account of Sankara’s philosophy, at once reliable and clear: It is only an expert like Mr. Suryanarayana Sastri who could have given a lucid exposition like this. Here again he seeks to be detached in his estimate. He thus states the main strength of Sankara’s position. ‘It has no quarrel with other systems; for, as has been said, one does not quarrel with one’s own hands or feet. Our knowledge is defective, our affections are divisive, our goals are trivial But they come as goods, when they appear on the scene, to the individuals suited thereto; by their very pursuit, they get outgrown and give place to larger ideals, broader visions, nobler pleasures; what has taken place, however, is a sublimation of the lower into the higher, not a fight between the two, resulting in the defeat of the former.’ (Page 122)

Mr. Suryanarayana Sastri regards Sankara’s teaching about Karma and about Jivan-mukta as the weak points in his system. ‘The follower of Dharma with his cast-iron code of rituals mechanically effective through a mysterious aura evokes rightly enough the indignation of Sankara; this, however, almost blinds him to the value that may be claimed legitimately for the performance of karma. The observance of karma needs not be merely a preliminary discipline, as held by Sankara and his strict adherents, disappearing with the onset of knowledge, like clouds when the rainy season is over; that discipline, when perfected, may itself be the self-transcendence known as Brahman- realisation; it may, in the alternative, be a useful aid to knowledge discipline, just as a horse is to the wayfaring pedestrian. The possibility of such value for karma whether by itself or in combination with knowledge, is rigidly discountenanced by Sankara, who thus lays himself open to the charge of intellectualist bias. And here a writer like Mandana Misra seems sounder. That is also the case in regard to the doctrine of release in embodiment (jivanmukti). Mandana is aware of the logical impropriety of linking together realisation and bondage; he would therefore say either that release for the jivanmukta is not realised, but prospective, or, in the alternative, for him too avidya is gone, leaving behind only a trace, which, however, has not the power to bind; this is analogous to our continuing to tremble for a while even after a fully satisfactory assurance that the feared snake is but a rope. Sankara does none of those things, but just refers us to experience (possibly his own), an appeal that sounds singularly unconvincing in our day’. (Pages 126, 127)

The Allahabad Institute of Hinduism, January 1942

By R.C. DAS, M.A.

It was a matter of great regret and disappointment that the month’s projected Institute at Benares in last October could not be held for financial and other reasons. But it was a partial compensation and a matter of satisfaction that a short course of study for a fortnight was arranged at Allahabad.

Six Christian teachers and two local scholars spoke on different aspects of Hindu thought and practice. There were seven students who came from U. P., Bihar, C. P. and Ahmedabad and four local ones. The lecturers and students represented different types of work such as teachers, ministers, missionaries and evangelists and also various communions such as Anglicans, Methodists, Disciples, Presbyterians, Friends etc.

Though the membership was not large it was a group of persons keenly interested in the purpose and objects for which the Institute was convened, and the whole time was filled with strenuous work.

The names and qualifications of the lecturers and the titles of their subjects are already known to the public through the prospectus and the Christian press. The fine delivery and clear exposition by Prof. V.E. Dutt of Serampore College of the difficult subject of “The Vedanta in relation to Christianity” is worthy of special mention. Dr. M.P. Davis of Raipur, C.P. gave us in his very well planned and interesting lectures the sweep of Hinduism over the village life of India. Mr. G.W. Maw of the Friends’ Service Council gave us on the screen some magnificent views and graphic pictures of his experiences of pilgrimage on the Haridwar-Badrinath Road. To these friends our special thanks are due.

On the financial side the institution almost paid its way - except the publicity expense of the Convener. Some of the speakers met their own expenses The students stayed in the Y. M. C. A. and classes were held at the Bible House. But for the generous help, hearty co-operation and hard work of Rev. H. O. and Mrs. Balasundaram of the Bible Society, especially in providing hospitality, the Institute could not have been the success it was. They have placed us under a deep debt of gratitude and obligation.

The practical work of investigation and visits to different institutions and in particular to the Kumbh Mela was well carried out. Some of us were able to make important contacts with Sadhus and heads of organisations and also to give some help at the Christian preaching camp arranged by the local Workers’ Fellowship with Mr. Balasundaram as its chief organiser.

Strict railway restrictions and great floods were responsible for comparatively small numbers of pilgrims; yet on the average on the chief days of bathing they easily rose to a million.

Gita Explained

In the April issue of The Pilgrim a brief account was given of Dnyaneshwar 7 His commentary on the Bhagavad Gita is available in English - Gita Explained by Dnyaneshwar Maharaja, translated by Manu Subedar, B.A., B.Sc., London; Bar-at-Law and published by the Author at Palli Hill, Bandra, for Rs. 5/-. The book is well-printed. The translation is quite technical and readable and gives a good idea of the rich imagery, the philosophical acumen and the deep devotion of Dnyaneshwar. This book is essential to all advanced students of Hindu Bhakti.

Printed at the Hilal Press, Tirunelveli 7-1942

Invitation to Membership

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism has the following purposes:

1. To create and maintain adequate interest in the study of Hinduism by Christians.
2. To carry on this study in a sympathetic, constructive, and critical way for the purpose of effective evangelism.
3. To achieve the above objects in co-operation with church and mission bodies.

The activities of this Society are:

1. To encourage the organisation of a permanent School of Hinduism.
2. To conduct in Benares (and if possible in a South Indian centre) an Institute of Hinduism stressing its popular aspects.
3. To discover scholars of Hinduism with teaching and literary abilities.
4. To foster the publication of papers and books bearing on Hinduism, its relation to Christianity, and work among Hindus.

Membership is open to individuals, institutions and societies who are in sympathy with the above objects. Individuals will pay a minimum annual, subscription of Rs 2/- and institutions and societies a minimum annual subscription “of Ra 25/-. Every member will receive The Pilgrim regularly.

Membership fees and gifts may be sent to the Rev. S.R. Holt, Benares: United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment, U. P.

Oxford Pamphlet on Indian Affairs

The Cultural Problem

By A.J. APPASAMY
Sir ABDUL QADIR
R.P. MASANI
Sir SARVEPADDI RADHAKRISHNAN
Sir JOGENDRA SINGH

How is the unity of India to be maintained in the face of cultural diversity? This is the question of which five contributors, members of, the major communities of the country, set out to answer in this pamphlet. Such cultural differences as exist are associated with religion, but religious differences ought never to give rise to communal strife: ‘the great religious teachers speak with one voice’. Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dr. R.P. Masani see hope for the future in a new world religion, the religion of Humanity, but Dr. Appasamy points out that ‘neither the Christian nor the Muslim will agree to a complete synthesis of religions’. Nevertheless, though they would not go all the way with Sir Jogendra Singh in his assertion that it would be hard ‘to prove any difference in culture among ninety percent of our population’, all the contributors are agreed that to create separate cultural regions would be as deplorable as it is unnecessary. In the words of Sir Abdul Qadir, the surest approach to the goal of a united Indian nation is by a frank recognition of the existing differences and a serious effort to minimise them and to accelerate the process of fusion of cultures? Several ways in which cultural divergencies can be reduced are suggested.

UNIVERSITY PRESS BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS