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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781032128832 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
| Publication date: | 11/30/2023 |
| Series: | Routledge Revivals |
| Pages: | 190 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d) |
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Read an Excerpt
Excerpt from the chapter "The Spirit of Hinduism" from Hinduism: Its Meaning for the Liberation of the Spirit.
According to Hinduism, religion is experience and not the mere acceptance of certain time-honoured dogmas or creeds. To know God is to become like God. A man may quote scripture, engage in ritual, perform social service, or pray with regularity, but unless he has realized the divine spirit in his heart, he is still a phenomenal being, a victim of the pairs of opposites. One can experience God as tangibly as "a fruit lying on the palm of one's hand," which means that in this very life a man can suppress his lower nature, manifest his higher nature, and become perfect. Through the experience of God, a man's doubts disappear and "the knots of his heart are cut asunder." By ridding himself of the desires clinging to his heart, a mortal becomes immortal in this very body. That the attainment of immortality is not the prerogative of a chosen few, but the birthright of all, is the conviction of every good Hindu.
The four cardinal principles of Hinduism may be summed up as follows: the non-duality of the Godhead, the divinity of the soul, the unity of existence, and the harmony of religions. On these four principles the faith of a good Hindu is based. The articles of that faith will be discussed in detail in the succeeding chapters of this book.
Contrary to the opinion held by many both inside and outside India, Hinduism has never condemned a rich and full life in the world or extolled poverty as a virtue in itself-though the case is different with monks, who voluntarily take the vow of mendicancy. Dharma, or righteousness, has been defined as what is conducive to both the enjoyment of legitimate material pleasures and the realization of the highest good, according to people's different stages of evolution. The Upanishads exhort men to enjoy life for a hundred years, giving up greed and possessiveness. It was India's fabulous wealth that invited foreign invaders, from the Greeks to the modern Europeans. Religion has never been the cause of India's poverty; it is indifference to religious precepts that has been largely responsible for her general backwardness. In an ideal society the majority of people should be householders performing their different duties as priests and philosophers, kings and warriors, tradesmen and farmers, and lastly as manual workers, according to their innate aptitudes. Only a minority should be monks, practicing renunciation, both external and internal, in order to demonstrate the supremacy of the spirit.
One sees in India a large number of persons wandering about in monastic garb, many of whom are not genuine mendicants. These persons have taken to the monastic life for various reasons. According to the philosophically sound nondualistic interpretation of Vedanta, the knowledge of the nondual Brahman is utterly incompatible with the performance of duties which admit of the triple factors of doer, instrument of action, and result. Hence people have often sought what they thought to be an easy way to the highest knowledge through renunciation of worldly duties. A negative interpretation of the doctrine of Maya is often responsible for the erroneous notion that the world is unreal. Buddha definitely taught that Nirvana could be attained only by world-renouncing monks, and his followers later welcomed people to the monastic life without much discrimination. Because of the general spirit of renunciation that pervades Hinduism, the monastic life has an irresistible appeal for religious-minded Hindus. A man who cannot easily earn his livelihood, when dressed as a monk always obtains a few morsels of food from god-fearing and hospitable householders. Furthermore, on account of the frustrations caused by prolonged foreign domination, many Hindus have sought an escape from the exacting demands of life by renouncing the world and making a cult of poverty and asceticism. All this accounts for the presence of numerous monks in Hindu society. There are, of course, many genuine monks who, through renunciation of the world, have kept alive the highest ideals of Hinduism. In recent times Swami Vivekananda gave a new direction to monastic life by supplementing the ideal of renunciation with that of service to humanity, exhorting monks to work for the uplift of the masses. Heeding his advice, many individual monks and many monastic organizations have taken up various social and educational activities to improve the people's condition.
But the general tenor of Hinduism has been to encourage householders to enjoy material goods without deviating from the path of righteousness. A Hindu proverb says: "Fortune in full measure resides in trade and commerce, one half of that in agriculture, and one half again of that in service to the government; but the goddess of fortune quickly runs away from a beggar." The life depicted in the Vedas and Puranas is a joyous, affirmative, optimistic, and creative life. What is seen in India today in society and religion is not a true index of Indian culture.
Religion has always been the backbone of India. During the days of her national misfortune it was religion that saved Hindu society from total disintegration. All through the period of her political decline, saints and mystics have urged her to give up vanity and pride, and cultivate love of men and devotion to God. India listened to their advice and survived. In the history of the world she is perhaps the solitary instance of an ancient nation whose soul could not be destroyed by ruthless conquerors either by force or persuasion, while many younger nations have disappeared after a meteoric display of physical power and glory.