feature in His life--the tact, the delicacy, the foresight, the skill in
always putting the man opposed to Him in the wrong, and so winning His
way and carrying others with Him. As you know, this part of His life is
played out especially in connection with the Pandavas. He is the
one who in every difficulty steps forward as ambassador; it is He who
goes with Arjuna and Bhima to slay the giant king Jarasandha, who was
going to make a human sacrifice to Mahadeva, a sacrifice that was put a
stop to as blasphemous; it was He who went with them in order that the
conflict might take place without transgressing the strictest rules of
Kshattriya morality. Follow Him as He and Arjuna and his brother enter
into the city of the king. They will not come by the open gate, that is
the pathway of the friend. They break down a portion of the wall as a
sign that they come as foes. They will not go undecorated; and
challenged why they wore flowers and sandal, the answer is that they
come for the celebration of a triumph, the fulfilling of a vow. Offered
food, the answer of the great ambassador is that they will not take food
then, that they will meet the king later and explain their purpose. When
the time arrives He tells him in the most courteous but the clearest
language that all these acts have been performed that he may know that
they had come not as friends but as foes to challenge him to battle. So
again when the question arises, after the thirteen years of exile, how
shall the land be won back without struggle, without fight, you see Him
standing in the assembly of Pandavas and their friends with the
wisest counsel how perchance war may be averted; you see Him offering to
go as ambassador that all the magic of His golden tongue may be used for
the preservation of peace; you see Him going as ambassador and avoiding
all the pavilions raised by the order of Duryodhana, that He may not
take from one who is a foe a courtesy that might bind him as a friend.
So when he pays the call on Duryodhana that courtesy demands, never
failing in the perfect duty of the ambassador, fulfilling every demand
of politeness, He will not touch the food that would make a bond between
Himself and the one against whom He had come to struggle. See how the
only food that He will take is the food of the King's brother, for that
alone, He says, "is clean and worthy to be eaten by me." See how in the
assembly of hostile kings He tries to pacify and tries to please. See
how He apologises with the gentlest humility; how to the great king, the
blind king, He speaks in the name of the Pandavas as suppliant,
not as outraged and indignant foe. See how with soft words He tries to
turn away words of wrath, and uses every device of oratory to win their
hearts and convince their judgments. See how later again, when the
battle of Kurukshetra is over, when all the sons of the blind king are
slain, see how He goes once more as ambassador to meet the childless
father and, still bitterer, the childless mother, that the first anger
may break itself on Him, and His words may charm away the wrath and
soothe the grief of the bereft. See how later on He still guides and
advises till all the work is done, till His task is accomplished and His
end is drawing near. A statesman of marvellous ability; a politician of
keenest tact and insight; as though to say to men of the world that when
they are acting as men of the world they should be careful of
righteousness, but also careful of discretion and of skill, that there
is nothing alien to the truth of religion in the skill of the tongue and
in the use of the keen intelligence of the brain.
Then pass on again from Him as Statesman to His character as Friend.
Would that I had time to dwell on it, and paint you some of the fair
pictures of His relations with the family He loved so well, from the day
when, standing in the midst of the self-choice of Krishna, the
fair future wife of the Pandavas, He saw for the first time in
that human incarnation Arjuna, His beloved of old. Think what it must
have been, when the eyes of the two young men met, with memories in the
one pair of the close friendship of the past, and the drawing of the
other by the tie of those many births to the ancient friend whom he knew
not. From that day when they first meet in this life onwards, how
constant His friendship, how ceaseless His protection, how careful His
thought to guard their honour and their lives; and yet how wise; at
every point where His presence would have frustrated the object of His
coming, He goes away. He is not present at the great game of dice, for
that was necessary for the working out of the divine purpose; He was
away. Had He been there, He must needs have interfered; had He been
there, He could not have left His friends unaided. He remained away,
until Draupadi cried in her agony for help when her modesty was
threatened; then he came with Dharma and clothed her with garments as
they were dragged from her; but then the game was over, the dice were
cast, and destiny had gone on its appointed road.
How strange to watch that working! One object followed without change,
without hesitation: but every means used that might give people an
opportunity of escaping if only they would. He came to bring about that
battle on Kurukshetra. He came, as we shall see in a moment, in order to
carry out that one object in preparation for the centuries that
stretched in front; but in the carrying of it out, He would give every
chance to men who were entangled in that evil by their own past, so that
if one of them would answer to His pleading he might come over to the
side of light against the forces of darkness. He never wavered in His
object; yet He never left unused one means that man could use to prevent
that object taking place. A lesson full of significance! The will of the
Supreme must be done, but the doing of that will is no excuse for any
individual man who does not carry out the law to the fullest of his
power. Although the will must be carried out, everything should be done
that righteousness permits and that compassion suggests in order that
men may choose light rather than darkness, and that only the resolutely
obstinate may at last be, whelmed in the ruin that falls upon the land.
As Teacher--need I speak of Him as teacher who gave the _Bhagavad-Gita_
between the contending armies on Kurukshetra? Teacher not of Arjuna
alone, not of India alone, but of every human heart which can listen to
spiritual instruction, and understand a little of the profound wisdom
there clothed in the words of man. Remember a later saying: "I, O
Arjuna, am the Teacher and the mind is my pupil;" the mind of every man
who is willing to be taught; the mind of every one who is ready to be
instructed. Never does the spiritual teacher withhold knowledge because
he grudges the giving. He is hampered in the giving by the want of
receptivity in those to whom his message is addressed. Ill do men judge
the divine heart of the great Teachers, or the faint reflection of that
love in the mouth of Their messengers, when they think that knowledge is
withheld because it is a precious possession to be grudgingly dealt out,
that has to be given in as small a share as possible. It is not the
withholding of the teacher but the closing of the heart of the hearer;
not the hesitation of the teacher but the want of the ear that hears;
not the dearth of teachers but the dearth of pupils who are willing and
ready to be taught. I hear men say: "Why not an Avatara now, or if not
an Avatara, why do not the great Rishis come forward to speak Their
golden wisdom in the ears of men? Why do They desert us? Why do They
leave us? Why should this world in this age not have the wisdom as They
gave it of old?" The answer is that They are waiting, waiting, waiting,
with tireless patience, in order to find some one willing to be taught,
and when one human heart opens itself out and says: "O Lord, teach me,"
then the teaching comes down in a stream of divine energy and floods the
heart. And if you have not the teaching, it is because your hearts are
locked with the key of gold, with the key of fame, with the key of
power, and with the key of desire for the enjoyments of this world.
While those keys lock your hearts, the teachers of wisdom cannot enter
in; but unlock the heart and throw away the key, and you will find
yourselves flooded with a wisdom which is ever waiting to come in.
As Searcher of hearts--Ah! here again He is so difficult to understand,
this Lord of Maya, this Master of illusion. He tests the hearts of His
beloved, not so much the world at large. To them is the teaching that
shall guide them aright. For Arjuna, for Bhima, for Yudhishthira,
for them the keener touch, the sharper trial, in order to see if within
the heart one grain of evil still remains, that will prevent their union
with Himself. For what does he seek? That they shall be His very own,
that they shall enter into His being. But they cannot enter therein
while one seed of evil remains in their hearts. They cannot enter
therein while one sin is left in their nature. And so in tenderness and
not in anger, in wisest love and not with a desire to mislead, the Lord
of Love tries the hearts of His beloved, so that any evil that is in
them may be wrung out by the grip that He places on them. Two or three
occasions of it I remember. I may mention perhaps a couple of them to
show you the method of the trial. The battle of Kurukshetra had been
raging many a day; thousands and tens of thousands of the dead lay
scattered on that terrible field, and every day when the sun rose
Bhishma came forth, generalissimo of the army of the Kurus, carrying
before him everything, save where Arjuna barred his way; but Arjuna
could not be everywhere; he was called away, with the horses guided by
the Charioteer Shri Krishna sweeping across the field like a
whirlwind, carrying victory in their course; and where the Charioteer
and Arjuna were not there Bhishma had his way. The hearts of the
Pandavas sank low within them, and at last one night under their
tents, resting ere the next day's struggle, the bitter despondency of
King Yudhishthira broke out in words, and he declared that until
Bhishma was slain nothing could be done. Then came the test from the
lips of the searcher of hearts. "Behold, I will go forth and slay him on
the morrow." Would Yudhishthira consent? A promise stood in his
way. You may remember that when Duryodhana and Arjuna went to Shri
Krishna who lay sleeping, the question arose as to what each
should take. Alone, unarmed, Shri Krishna would go with one, He
would not fight; a mighty battalion of troops He would give to the
other. Arjuna chose the unarmed Krishna; Duryodhana, the mighty
army ready to fight; so the word of the Avatara was pledged that He
would not fight. Unarmed He went into the battle, clad in his yellow
silken robe, and only with the whip of the charioteer in His hand;
twice, in order to stimulate Arjuna into combat, He had sprung down
from the chariot and gone forth with His whip in His hand as though He
would attack Bhishma and slay him where he fought. Each time Arjuna
stopped Him, reminding Him of His words. Now came the trial for the
blameless King, as he is often called; should Shri Krishna
break His word to give him victory? He stood firm. "Thy promise is
given," was his answer; "that promise may not be broken." He passed the
trial; he stood the test. But still one weakness was left in that noble
heart; one underlying weakness that threatened to keep him away from his
Lord. The lack of power to stand absolutely alone in the moment of
trial, the ever clinging to some one stronger than himself, in order
that his own decision might be upheld. That last weakness had to be
burnt out as by fire. In a critical moment of the battle the word came
that the success of Drona was carrying everything before him; that
Drona was resistless and that the only way to slay him was to spread
the report that his son was dead, and then he would no longer fight.
Bhima slew an elephant of the same name as Drona's son, and he said
in the hearing of Drona: "Ashvatthama is dead." But Drona would
not believe unless King Yudhishthira said so. Then the test came.
Will he tell a practical lie but a nominal truth, in order to win the
battle? He refused; not for his brother's pleadings would he do it.
Would he stand firm by truth quite alone when all he revered seemed to
be on the other side? The great One said: "Say that Ashvatthama is
slain." Ought he to have done it because He, Shri Krishna, bade
him? Ought he to have told the lie because the revered One counselled
it? Ah no! neither for the voice of God nor man, may the human soul do a
thing which he knows to be against God and His law; and alone he must
stand in the universe, rather than sin against right. And when the lie
was told under cover of that excuse, Yudhishthira doing what he
wished in his heart under cover of the command from one he revered, then
he fell, his chariot descended to the ground, and suffering and misery
followed him from that day till the day of his ending, until in the face
of the King of the celestials he stood alone, holding the duty of
protection even to a dog higher than divine command and joy of heaven.
And then he showed that the lesson had worked out in his purification,
and that the heart was clean from the slightest taint of weakness. Oh,
but men say, Shri Krishna counselled the telling of a lie! My
brothers, can you not see beneath the illusion? What is there in this
world that the Supreme does not do? There is no life but His, no Self
but His, nothing save His life through all His universe; and every act
is His act, when you go back to the ultimates. He had warned them of
that truth. "I" He said, "am the gambling of the cheat," as well as the
chants of the Veda. Strange lesson, and hard to learn, and yet true. For
at every stage of evolution there is a lesson to be learnt. He teaches
all the lessons; at each point of growth the next step is to be taken,
and very often that step is the experiencing of evil, in order that
suffering may burn the desire for evil out of the very heart. And just
as the knife of the surgeon is different from the knife of the murderer,
although both may pierce the human flesh, the one cutting to cure, the
other to slay; so is the sharp knife of the Supreme, when by experience
of evil and consequent pain He purifies the man, different, because the
motive is other than the doing of evil to gratify passion, the stepping
aside from righteousness in order to please the lower nature.
Last of all He shows himself as the Supreme; there is the
Vaishnava form, the universal form, the form that contains the
universe. But still more is the Supreme seen in the profound wisdom of
the teaching, in the steadfastness of His walk through life. Does it
sound strange to say that God is seen more in the latter than the
former, that the outer form that contains the universe is less divine
than the perfect steadfast nature, swerving neither to the right hand
nor the left? Read that life again with this thought in your mind, of
one purpose followed to its end no matter what forces might play on the
other side, and its greatness may appear.
What did He come to do? He came to give the last lesson to the
Kshattriya caste of India, and to open India to the world. Many lessons
had been given to that great caste. We know that twenty-one times they
had been cut off, and yet re-established. We know that Shri Rama had
shown the perfect life of Kshattriya, as an example that they might
follow. They would not learn the lesson, either by destruction or by
love. They would not follow the example either from fear or from
admiration. Then their hour struck on the bell of Heaven, the knell of
the Kshattriya caste. He came to sweep away that caste and to leave only
scattered remnants of it, dotted over the Indian soil. It had been the
sword of India, the iron wall that ringed her round. He came to shiver
that wall into pieces, and to break the sword that it might not strike
again. It had been used to oppress instead of to protect. It had been
used for tyranny instead of for justice. Therefore he who gave it brake
it, till men should learn by suffering what they would not learn by
precept. And on the field of Kuru, the Kshattriya caste fought its last
great battle; none were left of all that mighty host save a handful,
when the fighting was over. Never has the caste recovered from
Kurukshetra. It has not utterly disappeared. In some districts we find
families belonging to it; but you know well enough that as a caste in
most parts of modern India, you are hard put to find it. Why in the
great counsels of the world's welfare was this done? Not only to teach a
lesson for all time to kings and rulers, that if they would not govern
aright they should not govern at all; but also to lay India open to the
world.
How strange that sounds! To lay her open to invasion? He who loved her
to lay her open to conquest? He who had consecrated her, He who had
hallowed her plains and forests by His treading, and whose voice had
rung through her land? Aye, for He judges not as man judges, and He sees
the end from the beginning. India as she was of old, kept isolated from
all the world, was so kept that she might have the treasure of spiritual
knowledge poured into her and make a vessel for the containing. But when
you fill the vessel, you do not then put that vessel high away on a
shelf, and leave men thirsting for the liquid that it contains. The
mighty One filled His Indian vessel with the water of spiritual
knowledge, and at last the time came when that water should be poured
out for the quenching of the thirst of the world, and should not be left
only for the quenching of the thirst of a single nation, for the use of
a single people. Therefore the Lover of men came, in order that the
water of life might be poured out; He broke down the wall, so that the
foreigner might overstep her borders. The Greeks swept in, the
Mussulmans swept in, invasion after invasion, invasion after invasion,
until the conquerors who now rule India were the latest in time. Do you
see in that only decay, only misery, only that India is under a curse?
Ah no, my brothers! That which seems a curse for the time is for the
world's healing and the world's blessing; and India may well suffer for
a time in order that the world may be redeemed.
What does it mean? I am not speaking politically, but from the
standpoint of a spiritual student, who is trying to understand how the
evolution of the race goes on. The people who last conquered India, who
now rule her as governors, are the people whose language is the most
widely spread of all the languages of the world, and it is likely to
become the world's language. It belongs not only to that little island
of Britain, it belongs also to the great continent of America, to the
great continent of Australia. It has spread from land to land, until
that one tongue is the tongue most widely understood amongst all the
peoples of the world. Other nations are beginning to learn it, because
business and trade and even diplomacy are beginning to be carried on in
that English speech. What wonder then that the Supreme should send to
India this nation whose language is becoming the world-language, and lay
her open to be held as part of that world-wide empire, in order that her
Scriptures, translated into the most widely spoken language, may help
the whole human family and purify and spiritualise the hearts of all His
sons.
There is the deepest object of His coming, to prepare the
spiritualisation of the world. It is not enough that one nation shall be
spiritual; it is not enough that one country shall have wisdom; it is
not enough that one land, however mighty and however beloved--and do not
I love India as few of you love her?--it is not enough that she should
have the gold of spiritual truth, and the rest of the world be paupers
begging for a coin. No; far better that for a time she should sink in
the scale of nations, in order that what she cannot do for herself may
be done by divine agencies that are ever guiding the evolution of the
world. Thus what from outside looks as conquest and subjection, to the
eye of the spirit looks as the opening of the spiritual temple, so that
all the nations may come in and learn.
Only that leaves to you a duty, a responsibility. I hear so much, I have
spoken so often, of the descendants of Rishis and of the blood of the
Rishis in your veins. True, but not enough. If you are again to be
what Shri Krishna means you to be in His eternal counsels, the
Brahmana of nations, the teacher of divine truth, the mouth through
which the Gods speak in the ears of men, then the Indian nation must
purify itself, then the Indian nation must spiritualise itself. Shall
your Scriptures spiritualise the whole world while you remain
unspiritual? Shall the wisdom of the Rishis go out to Mlechchas in
every part of the world, and they learn and profit by it, while you, the
physical descendants of the Rishis, know not your own literature and
love it even less than you know? That is the great lesson with which I
would fain close. So true is this, that, in order to gain teachers of
the Brahmavidya which belongs to this land by right of birth, the great
Rishis have had to send some of their children to other lands in
order that they may come back to teach your own religion amidst your
people. Shall it not be that this shame shall come to an end? Shall it
not be that there are some among you that shall lead again the old
spiritual life, and follow and love the Lord? Shall it not be, not only
here and there, but at last that the whole nation shall show the power
of Shri Krishna in His life incarnated amongst you, which would
really be greater than any special Avatara? May we not hope and pray
that His Avatara shall be the nation that incarnates His knowledge, His
love, His universal brotherliness to every man that treads the soil of
earth? Away with the walls of separation, with the disdain and contempt
and hatred that divide Indian from Indian, and India from the rest of
the world. Let our motto from this time forward be the motto of Shri
Krishna, that as He meets men on any road, so we will walk
beside them on any road as well, for all roads are His. There is no road
which He does not tread, and if we follow the Beloved who leads us, we
must walk as He walks.
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
* * * * *
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