Questions have been raised in several quarters as to the inefficiency of
Pantheism (which term is intended to include Esoteric Buddhism, Adwaitee
Vedantism, and other similar religious systems) to supply a sound basis
of morality.
The philosophical assimilation of meum and teum, it is urged, must of
necessity be followed by their practical confusion, resulting in the
sanction of cruelty, robbery, &c. This line of argument points,
however, most unmistakably to the co-existence of the objection with an
all but utter ignorance of the systems objected to, in the critic's
mind, as we shall show by-and-by. The ultimate sanction of morality, as
is well known, is derived from a desire for the attainment of happiness
and escape from misery. But schools differ in their estimate of
happiness. Exoteric religions base their morality on the hope of reward
and fear of punishment at the hands of an Omnipotent Ruler of the
Universe by following the rules he has at his pleasure laid down for the
obedience of his helpless subjects; in some cases, however, religions
of later growth have made morality to depend on the sentiment of
gratitude to that Ruler for benefits received. The worthlessness, not
to speak of the mischievousness, of such systems of morality is almost
self-evident. As a type of morality founded on hope and fear, we shall
take an instance from the Christian Bible: "He that giveth to the poor
lendeth to the Lord." The duty of supporting the poor is here made to
depend upon prudential motives of laying by for a time when the "giver
to the poor" will be incapable of taking care of himself. But the
Mahabharata says that "He that desireth a return for his good deeds
loseth all merit; he is like a merchant bartering his goods." The true
springs of morality lose their elasticity under the pressure of such
criminal selfishness; all pure and unselfish natures will fly away from
it in disgust.
To avoid such consequences attempts have been made by some recent
reformers of religion to establish morality upon the sentiment of
gratitude to the Lord. But it requires no deep consideration to find
that, in their endeavours to shift the basis of morality, these
reformers have rendered morality entirely baseless. A man has to do
what is represented to be a thing "dear unto the Lord" out of gratitude
for the many blessings He has heaped upon him. But as a matter of fact
he finds that the Lord has heaped upon him curses as well as blessings.
A helpless orphan is expected to be grateful to him for having removed
the props of his life, his parents, because he is told in consolation
that such a calamity is but apparently an evil, but in reality the
All-Merciful has underneath it hidden the greatest possible good. With
equal reason might a preacher of the Avenging Ahriman exhort men to
believe that under the apparent blessings of the "Merciful" Father there
lurks the serpent of evil.
The modern Utilitarians, though the range of their vision is so narrow,
have sterner logic in their teachings. That which tends to a man's
happiness is good, and must be followed, and the contrary shunned as
evil. So far so good. But the practical application of the doctrine is
fraught with mischief. Cribbed, cabined, and confined, by rank
Materialism, within the short space between birth and death, the
Utilitarians' scheme of happiness is merely a deformed torso, which
cannot certainly be considered as the fair goddess of our devotion.
The only scientific basis of morality is to be sought for in the
soul-consoling doctrines of Lord Buddha or Sri Sankaracharya. The
starting-point of the "pantheistic" (we use the word for want of a better
one) system of morality is a clear perception of the unity of the one
energy operating in the manifested Cosmos, the grand result which it is
incessantly striving to produce, and the affinity of the immortal human
spirit and its latent powers with that energy, and its capacity to
cooperate with the one life in achieving its mighty object.
Now knowledge or jnanam is divided into two classes by Adwaitee
philosophers--Paroksha and Aparoksha. The former kind of knowledge
consists in intellectual assent to a stated proposition, the latter in
the actual realization of it. The object which a Buddhist or Adwaitee
Yogi sets before himself is the realization of the oneness of existence,
and the practice of morality is the most powerful means to that end, as
we proceed to show. The principal obstacle to the realization of this
oneness is the inborn habit of man of always placing himself at the
centre of the Universe. Whatever a man might act, think, or feel, the
irrepressible personality is sure to be the central figure. This, as
will appear on reflection, is that which prevents every individual from
filling his proper sphere in existence, where he only is exactly in
place and no other individual is. The realization of this harmony is
the practical or objective aspect of the GRAND PROBLEM. And the
practice of morality is the effort to find out this sphere; morality,
indeed, is the Ariadne's clue in the Cretan labyrinth in which man is
placed. From the study of the sacred philosophy preached by Lord Buddha
or Sri Sankara, paroksha knowledge (or shall we say belief?), in the
unity of existence is derived, but without the practice of morality that
knowledge cannot be converted into the highest kind of knowledge, or
aproksha jnanam, and thus lead to the attainment of mukti. It availeth
naught to intellectually grasp the notion of your being everything and
Brahma, if it is not realized in practical acts of life. To confuse
meum and teum in the vulgar sense is but to destroy the harmony of
existence by a false assertion of "I," and is as foolish as the anxiety
to nourish the legs at the expense of the arms. You cannot be one with
all, unless all your acts, thoughts, and feelings synchronize with the
onward march of Nature. What is meant by the Brahmajnani being beyond
the reach of Karma, can be fully realized only by a man who has found
out his exact position in harmony with the One Life in Nature; that man
sees how a Brahmajnani can act only in unison with Nature, and never in
discord with it: to use the phraseology of ancient writers on
Occultism, a Brahmajnani is a real "co-worker with Nature." Not only
European Sanskritists, but also exoteric Yogis, fall into the grievous
mistake of supposing that, in the opinion of our sacred writers, a human
being can escape the operation of the law of Karma by adopting a
condition of masterly inactivity, entirely losing sight of the fact that
even a rigid abstinence from physical acts does not produce inactivity
on the higher astral and spiritual planes. Sri Sankara has very
conclusively proved, in his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, that such
a supposition is nothing short of a delusion. The great teacher shows
there that forcibly repressing the physical body from working does not
free one from vasana or vritti--the inherent inclination of the mind to
work. There is a tendency, in every department of Nature, for an act to
repeat itself; the Karma acquired in the last preceding birth is always
trying to forge fresh links in the chain, and thereby lead to continued
material existence;--and this tendency can only be counteracted by
unselfishly performing all the duties appertaining to the sphere in
which a person is born; such a course alone can produce chitta suddhi,
(purification of the mind), without which the capacity of perceiving
spiritual truths can never be acquired.
A few words must here be said about the physical inactivity of the Yogi
or the Mahatma. Inactivity of the physical body (sthula sarira) does
not indicate a condition of inactivity either on the astral or the
spiritual plane of action. The human spirit is in its highest state of
activity in samadhi, (highest trance) and not, as is generally supposed,
in a dormant, quiescent condition. And, moreover, it will be easily
seen, by any one who examines the nature of occult dynamics, that a
given amount of energy expended on the spiritual or astral plane is
productive of far greater results than the same amount expended on the
physical objective plane of existence. When an Adept has placed himself
en rapport with the universal mind he becomes a real power in Nature.
Even on the objective plane of existence the difference between brain
and muscular energy, in their capacity of producing widespread and
far-reaching results, can he very easily perceived. The amount of
physical energy expended by the discoverer of the steam-engine might not
have been more than that expended by a hardworking day-labourer. But
the practical results of the labourer's work can never be compared with
the results achieved by the discovery of the steam-engine. Similarly,
the ultimate effects of spiritual energy are infinitely greater than
those of intellectual energy.
From the above considerations it is abundantly clear that the initiatory
training of a true Vedantin Raj Yogi must be the nourishing of a
sleepless and ardent desire of doing all in his power for the good of
mankind on the ordinary physical plane, his activity being transferred,
however, to the higher astral and spiritual planes as his development
proceeds. In course of time, as the Truth becomes realized, the
situation is rendered quite clear to the Yogi, and he is placed beyond
the criticism of any ordinary man. The Mahanirvan Tantra says:--
Charanti trigunatite ko vidhir ko ishedhava.
"For one, walking beyond the three gunas--Satva (feeling of
gratification), Rajas (passional activity) and Tamas (inertness)--what
injunction or what restriction is there?"--in the consideration of men,
walled in on all sides by the objective plane of existence. This does
not mean that a Mahatma can or will ever neglect the laws of morality,
but that he, having unified his individual nature with Great Nature
herself, is constitutionally incapable of violating any one of the laws
of nature, and no man can constitute himself a judge of the conduct of
the Great one without knowing the laws of all the planes of Nature's
activity. (As honest men are honest without the least consideration of
the) criminal law, so a Mahatma is moral without reference to the laws
of morality.
These are, however, sublime topics: we shall before conclusion notice
some other considerations which lead the ordinary "pantheist" to the
true foundation of morality. Happiness has been defined by John Stuart
Mill as the state of absence of opposition. Manu gives the definition
in more forcible terms:
Sarvam paravasam duhkham
Sarva matmavasam sukham
Idam jnayo samasena
Lakshanam sukhaduhkhayo.
"Every kind of subjugation to another is pain, and subjugation to one's
self is happiness: in brief, this is to be known as the characteristic
marks of the two." Now, it is universally admitted that the whole
system of Nature is moving in a particular direction, and this
direction, we are taught, is determined by the composition of two
forces--namely, the one acting from that pole of existence ordinarily
called "matter" towards the other pole called "spirit," and the other in
the opposite direction. The very fact that Nature is moving shows that
these two forces are not equal in magnitude. The plane on which the
activity of the first force predominates is called in occult treatises
the "ascending arc," and the corresponding plane of the activity of the
other force is styled the "descending arc." A little reflection will
show that the work of evolution begins on the descending arc and works
its way upwards through the ascending arc. From this it follows that
the force directed towards spirit is the one which must, though not
without hard struggle, ultimately prevail. This is the great directing
energy of Nature, and, although disturbed by the operation of the
antagonistic force, it is this that gives the law to her; the other is
merely its negative aspect, for convenience regarded as a separate
agent. If an individual attempts to move in a direction other than that
in which Nature is moving, that individual is sure to be crushed, sooner
or later, by the enormous pressure of the opposing force. We need not
say that such a result would be the very reverse of pleasurable. The
only way, therefore, in which happiness might be attained is by merging
one's nature in great Mother Nature, and following the direction in
which she herself is moving: this again can only be accomplished by
assimilating men's individual conduct with the triumphant force of
Nature, the other force being always overcome with terrific
catastrophes. The effort to assimilate the individual with the
universal law is popularly known as the practice of morality. Obedience
to this universal law, after ascertaining it, is true religion, which
has been defined by Lord Buddha "as the realization of the True."
An example will serve to illustrate the position. Can a practical
pantheist, or, in other words, an occultist, utter a falsehood? Now, it
will be readily admitted that life manifests itself by the power of
acquiring sensation, temporary dormancy of that power being suspended
animation. If a man receives a particular series of sensations and
pretends they are other than they really are, the result is that he
exercises his will-power in opposition to a law of Nature on which, as
we have shown, life depends, and thereby becomes suicide on a minor
scale. Space prevents further discussion, but all the ten deadly sins
mentioned by Manu and Buddha can be satisfactorily dealt with in the
light sought to be focused here.
--Mohini M. Chatterji