{"id":2023,"date":"2013-07-13T01:38:58","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:38:58","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:58","slug":"83-passing-thoughts-32-vol-08-karmayogin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/08-karmayogin\/83-passing-thoughts-32-vol-08-karmayogin","title":{"rendered":"-83_Passing Thoughts_32.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tKARMAYOGIN<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA WEEKLY
\n\t\t\tREVIEW <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tof National
\n\t\t\tReligion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c.,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tVol. I <\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t }<\/font><\/td>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSATURDAY 12th<\/sup> FEBRUARY 1910<\/font><\/td>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t{<\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNo. 32<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/font><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPassing Thoughts
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nVedantic Art<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe progress a new tendency or a new movement is making
\ncan be measured by the amount of opposition it meets, and it
\nis encouraging to note that the revival of Indian Art is exciting
\nintellectual opponents to adverse criticism. Mr. Vincent Smith,
\na solid and well-equipped scholar and historian but not hitherto
\nnoted as an art-critic, recently lectured on Indian Art, ancient
\nand modern. It is not surprising that he should find little to praise
\nin the characteristic Vedantic Art of our country and seek to
\nlimit its excellence to a few masterpieces. Neither is it surprising
\nthat he should object to the revival of the national traditions as
\nrestoring Brahminic separateness from the traditions of the rest of the world. These are arguments that are as obvious as they are
\nsuperficial. But it is strange to find him basing his opinion of the
\ninferiority of the Vedantic style on its appeal not being universal.
\nThis merely means that the Vedantic motive and conventions are
\nnew to the European mind, and the average eye, enslaved to old
\nassociations, cannot immediately welcome what is new and ill-understood. Every new step forward in artistic tradition within Europe itself has been met by the same limited comprehension
\nand has had to get the assent first of the trained and sensitive taste and then of the average mind before it could be said<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-448<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nto be universally recognised. The real question is whether the
\nVedantic style has anything in it that is true, deep and universal,
\nwhether it has a motive, a power of interpretation, a success
\nin making Truth reveal itself in form, such as will ensure its
\nconquest of prejudices based purely on inability to receive or
\nwelcome new impressions. The answer to that crucial question
\ncannot be doubtful. Vedantic Art reveals spirit, essential truth,
\nthe soul in the body, the lasting type or idea in the mutable form
\nwith a power and masterly revelation of which European art
\nis incapable. It is therefore sure to conquer Europe as steadily
\nas Indian thought and knowledge are conquering the hard and
\nnarrow materialism of the nineteenth century.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAsceticism and Enjoyment<\/a><\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nSmall things are often indicative of great and far-reaching tendencies. While glancing at the
\nModern Review<\/i>, \u2013always the best worth perusal of our Indian monthlies, \u2013our attention was arrested by a slight illustrated article on Railways in India
\nand America. The writer contrasts the squalor, indigence and
\ndiscomfort of railway travelling in this Paradise of the efficient Anglo-Indian with the lavish comfort and opulence of railway
\nfurnishings and appointments in the United States. The contrast
\nis indicative of the immense gulf between the teeming wealth of
\nAmerica and the miserable indigence of India, once the richest
\ncountry in the world. America is the land above all lands where
\nenjoyment, bhoga, is frankly recognised and accepted. India, many would say, is the land above all lands where bhoga is sternly refused. That is the common view; we are not inclined
\nto think it the correct view. The asceticism of India is a phase,
\na characteristic of a civilisation dominated by an unfavourable
\nenvironment and driven in upon itself. The classical period when
\nIndia was full of life, activity, development, abounding vigour,
\ndefending herself successfully against the impact of the outer
\nbarbarian, was a period of frank and lavish enjoyment far more
\nintellectual, artistic, perfect than anything Europe has ever been
\ncapable of, even at its best. In yet older literature we find the<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-449<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ntrue spirit of India, a splendid capacity for bhoga and tyaga in their highest terms, the utter enjoyment of the householder,
\nthe utter renunciation of the sannyasin. To take the utmost joy of life, to be capable of the utmost renunciation of life, at one
\nand the same time, in the same mind and body, to be master of
\nboth capacities and bound by neither, \u2013this was the secret of India, the mighty discipline of which Janaka was the traditional exemplar. “Renounce all that thou mayest enjoy all,”
\n\u2013this is India’s characteristic message, \u2013not Buddha’s absolute renunciation, not the European’s enslavement to his bodily, vital and
\nintellectual desires and appetites. Tyaga within, bhoga without, \u2013Ananda, the divine delight of the purified soul, embracing both.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAliens in Ancient India<\/a><\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWe extract elsewhere a brief article on the above subject from
\nthe December
\nIndian Review
\n<\/i>for which we had no space in
\nour former issues. The ancient Indian treatment of foreign residents forms a curious contrast to the spirit of exclusion which is
\ngrowing upon modern nations. We have our own doubts about
\nthat little privilege of exemption from suits for debt which
\nMr. Hayavadana Rau mentions with appreciation; it would obviously place the alien merchant at a disadvantage when
\ncompared with the scrupulous honesty of the Indian traders,
\nand we are not sure that it may not have been a subtle stroke of
\nChanakyalike diplomacy to coddle the resident foreign middleman out of existence while favouring the non-resident importer. The chief importance of the article is, however, the incidental
\nlight it throws on the organisation of life in ancient India. We
\nare too apt to forget how noble, great and well-appointed a life it
\nwas. There were no railways, telegraphs or steamships, it is true,
\nand democracy was beginning to go out of fashion in favour
\nof a centralised bureaucratic monarchy. But in spite of these drawbacks, the ancient life of India was as splendid, as careful,
\nas convenient, as humane, as enlightened in its organisation as
\nthat of any modern society or administration.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-450<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Scholarship of Mr. Risley<\/a><\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWe are not concerned with the political issues of Mr. Risley’s great oratorical effort in connection with the Press Bill, for we
\nhave renounced politics; but Mr. Risley as a scholar falls within our province, and we can only hope our remarks on that subject
\nwill not expose us to the provision against bringing officials
\ninto contempt. Even at that risk we must take leave to say
\nthat we can only hope Mr. Risley’s ethnological science is less remarkably muddled than his knowledge of Indian civilisation
\nand literature. In his exhortation to Indian womanhood to stand
\nfast to its ancient moorings he jumbles together Swayamvaras, the rape of the Sabines and Shacuntala in a miraculous fashion! At no Swayamvara that we are aware of, did the women come
\nforward as peacemakers between the abducting hero and the disappointed suitors. Mr. Risley has been misled by pitchforking his early memories of Roman history into Indian epic and narrative.
\nAnd need we say that there was neither Swayamvara, nor fighting nor peacemaking in the story of Shacuntala? This is the first time, moreover, that a startled Indian public has been pointed to
\nShacuntala as the ideal Hindu woman. Sita, Draupadi, Savitri, Damayanti, \u2013these are familiar to us as ideals, but Shacuntala is Mr. Risley’s own addition. To us she is a beautiful poetic creation, not an exemplar of feminine conduct. We observe that
\nthe Bengalee
\n<\/i>is full of admiration for Mr. Risley’s poetic rapture over Shacuntala. We do not know whom we should congratulate more, the poet of the Press Bill or his admirer.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAnarchism<\/a><\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAre we not entitled, by the way, in the interests of the English
\nlanguage, to protest against the misapplication of the word Anarchists to the Indian Terrorists and Anarchism to their policy?
\nTheir methods are wild and lawless, their effort is to create
\nanarchy; but Anarchism and Anarchist are terms which imply
\nsomething very different, a thing as yet unknown either in practice or in theory to India. The Irish Fenians did the same things as<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-451<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe Indian Terrorists are now practising, but nobody ever called them Anarchists; to misapply this term is to bring anarchy into
\nthe modern use of language. It is doubtful whether any Indian
\nwho has not been to Europe, really knows what Anarchism is.
\nPhilosophically, it is the negation of the necessity of government;
\nin practice, it is often the use of assassination to destroy all government irrespective of its nationality or nature. Democracy is as
\nabhorrent to the Anarchist as Czarism, a national government as
\nintolerable as the government of the foreigner. All government
\nis to him an interference with the liberty of the individual, and
\nhe sets out to assassinate Czar or democratic President, constitutional king or imperial Caesar with a terrible impartiality,
\nan insane logicality. For if we ask him how liberty of any kind
\nexcept the liberty of the strong to prey on the weak can exist
\nin the absence of government, he will probably answer that by
\nright education right ideas and right feelings will be established
\nand the spirit of brotherhood will prevent the abuse of liberty,
\nand if anyone infringes this unwritten law, he must be destroyed
\nas if he were a noxious wild beast. And by a parallel logic he
\nseeks to destroy all the living symbols of a state of society which
\nstands in the way of the coming of his millennium.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Gita and Terrorism<\/a><\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nMr. Risley repeats a charge we have grown familiar with, that the Gita has been misused as a gospel of Terrorism. We cannot find any basis for this accusation except the bare fact that the
\nteaching of the Gita was part of the education given by Upendranath Banerji in the Maniktola garden. There is no evidence to show that its tenets were used to justify a gospel of Terrorism.
\nThe only doctrine of the Gita the Terrorist can pervert to his use, is the dictum that the Kshatriya must slay as a part of his duty and he can do it without sin if he puts egoism away
\nand acts selflessly without attachment, in and for God, as a
\nsacrifice, as an offering of action to the Lord of action. If this
\nteaching is in itself false, there is no moral basis for the hero,
\nthe soldier, the judge, the king, the legislature which recognises<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-452<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncapital punishment. They must all be condemned as criminals
\nand offenders against humanity. It is undoubtedly true that since
\nthe revival of religious thought in India the Gita has ceased to be what Mr. Risley calls it, a transcendental philosophy, and has been made a rule of life. It is undoubtedly true that selflessness,
\ncourage, a free and noble activity have been preached as the
\nkernel of the ethics of the Gita. That teaching has in no country been condemned as ignoble, criminal or subversive of morality,
\nnor is a philosophy of any value to any sensible being if it is only
\ntranscendental and cannot be lived. We strongly protest against
\nthe brand of suspicion that has been sought to be placed in many
\nquarters on the teaching and possession of the Gita, \u2013our chief national heritage, our hope for the future, our great force for
\nthe purification of the moral weaknesses that stain and hamper
\nour people.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nOTHER<\/span> WRITINGS<\/span> BY SRI AUROBINDO<\/span> IN THIS ISSUE
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Three Purushas <\/font><\/p>\n

\nA System of National Education I
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nConversations of the Dead I
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAnandamath XIII (continued)
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nMoondac Upanishad of the Atharvaveda I.2, II.1<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-453<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARMAYOGIN A WEEKLY REVIEW of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c., Vol. I  } SATURDAY 12th FEBRUARY 1910 { No. 32   Passing Thoughts  …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-08-karmayogin","wpcat-44-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}