{"id":32,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=32"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:28","slug":"18-social-reform-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/18-social-reform-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-18_Social Reform.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nSocial Reform<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

 
\n            R<\/font>EFORM <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>is not an excellent thing in itself
\nas many Europeanised intellects imagine; neither is it always
\nsafe and good to stand unmoved in the ancient paths as the
\northodox obstinately believe. Reform is sometimes the first step to the abyss,
\nbut immobility is the most perfect way to stagnate and to putrefy. Neither is moderation always the wisest
\ncounsel: the mean is not always golden. It is often an euphemism for purblindness, for a tepid indifference or for a cowardly
\ninefficiency. Men call themselves moderates, conservatives or
\nextremists and manage their conduct and opinions in accordance with a formula. We like to think by systems and parties and
\nforget that truth is the only standard. Systems are merely convenient cases for keeping arranged knowledge, parties a useful
\nmachinery for combined action, but we make of them an excuse
\nfor avoiding the trouble of thought.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOne is astonished at the position of the orthodox. They
\nlabour to deify everything that exists. Hindu society has certain
\narrangements and habits which are merely customary. There is
\nno proof that they existed in ancient times nor any reason why
\nthey should last into the future. It has other arrangements and
\nhabits for which textual authority can be quoted, but it is oftener
\nthe text of the modern Smritikaras than of Parasara and Manu.
\nOur authority for them goes back to the last five hundred years.
\nI do not understand the logic which argues that because a thing
\nhas lasted for five hundred years it must be perpetuated through
\nthe aeons. Neither antiquity nor modernity can be the test of
\ntruth or the test of usefulness. All the Rishis do not belong to
\nthe past; the Avatars still come; revelation still continues.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nSome claim that we must at any rate adhere to Manu and the
\nPuranas, whether because they are sacred or because they are
\nnational. Well, but, if they are sacred, you must keep to the
\nwhole and not cherish isolated texts while disregarding the body
\nof your authority. You cannot pick and choose; you cannot<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 120<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nsay, "This is sacred and I will keep to it, that is less sacred and I
\nwill leave it alone." When you so treat your sacred authority, you are
\nproving that to you it has no sacredness. You are juggling with truth; for you are pretending to consult Manu when
\nyou are really consulting your own opinions, preferences or interests. To recreate Manu entire in modern society is to ask Ganges
\nto flow back to the Himalayas. Manu is no doubt national, but
\nso is the animal sacrifice and the burnt offering. Because a thing
\nis national of the past, it need not follow that it must be national
\nof the future. It is stupid not to recognise altered conditions.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWe have similar apologies for the unintelligent preservation
\nof mere customs; but various as are the lines of defence, I do not
\nknow any that is imperiously conclusive. Custom is śistācāra<\/i>,
\n<\/i>decorum, that which all well-bred and respectable people observe.
\nBut so were the customs of the far past that have been discontinued and, if now revived, would be severely discountenanced and,
\nin many cases, penalised; so too are the customs of the future
\nthat are now being resisted or discouraged, \u2014 even, I am prepared to believe, the future no less than the past prepares for us
\nnew modes of living which in the present would not escape the
\ncensure of the law. It is the ācāra<\/i> that makes the śista<\/i>, not the
\nśista<\/i> who makes the ācāra<\/i>. The ācāra<\/i> is made by the rebel, the
\ninnovator, the man who is regarded in his own time as eccentric,
\ndisreputable or immoral, as was Sri Krishna by Bhurishrava because he upset the old ways and the old standards. Custom may
\nbe better defended as ancestral and therefore cherishable. But if
\nour ancestors had persistently held that view, our so cherished
\ncustoms would never have come into being. Or, more rationally
\ncustom must be preserved because its long utility in the past
\nargues a sovereign virtue for the preservation of society. But to
\nall things there is a date and a limit. All long continued customs
\nhave been sovereignly useful in their time, even totemism and
\npolyandry. We must not ignore the usefulness of the past, but
\nwe seek in preference a present and a future utility.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nCustom and Law may then be altered. For each age its
\nShastra. But we cannot argue straight off that it must be altered,
\nor even if alteration is necessary, that it must be altered in a given
\ndirection. One is repelled by the ignorant enthusiasm of social<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 121<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nreformers. Their minds are usually a strange jumble of ill-digested European notions. Very few of them know anything
\nabout Europe, and even those who have visited it know it badly.
\nBut they will not allow things or ideas contrary to European
\nnotions to be anything but superstitious, barbarous, harmful and
\nbenighted, they will not suffer what is praised and practised in
\nEurope to be anything but rational and enlightened. They are
\nmore appreciative than Occidentals themselves of the strength,
\nknowledge and enjoyment of Europe; they are blinder than the
\nblindest and most self-sufficient Anglo-Saxon to its weakness,
\nignorance and misery. They are charmed by the fair front
\nEurope presents to herself and the world; they are unwilling to
\ndiscern any disease in the entrails, any foulness in the rear. For
\nthe Europeans are as careful to conceal their social as their physical bodies and shrink with more horror from nakedness and
\nindecorum than from the reality of evil. If they see the latter in
\nthemselves, they avert their eyes, crying, "It is nothing or it is
\nlittle; we are healthy, we are perfect, we are immortal." But the
\nface and hands cannot always be covered, and we see blotches.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe social reformer repeats certain stock arguments like
\nshibboleths. For these antiquities he is a fanatic or a crusader.
\nUsually he does not act up to his ideas, but in all sincerity he loves
\nthem and fights for them. He pursues his nostrums as panaceas; it would be infidelity to question or examine their efficacy. His
\nEuropean doctors have told him that early marriage injures the physique of a
\nnation, and that to him is the gospel. It is not convenient to remember that physical deterioration is a modern phenomenon in India and that our grandparents were strong,
\nvigorous and beautiful. <\/b> He hastens to abolish the already disappearing nautch-girl, but it does not seem to concern him that
\nthe prostitute multiplies. Possibly some may think it a gain
\nthat the European form of the malady is replacing the Indian! He tends towards shattering our cooperative system of society
\nand does not see that Europe is striding Titanically towards
\nSocialism.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOrthodox and reformer alike lose themselves in details; but
\nit is principles that determine details. Almost every point that
\nthe social reformers raise could be settled one way or the other<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 122<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwithout effecting the permanent good of society. It is pitiful to
\nsee men labouring the point of marriage between subcastes and
\ntriumphing over an isolated instance. Whether the spirit as well
\nas the body of caste should remain, is the modern question.
\nLet Hindus remember that caste as it stands is merely jāt<\/i>, the
\ntrade guild sanctified but no longer working, it is not the eternal
\nreligion, it is not Chaturvarnya. I do not care whether widows
\nmarry or remain single; but it is of infinite importance to consider how women shall be legally and socially related to man, as
\nhis inferior, equal or superior; for even the relation of superiority
\nis no more impossible in the future than it was in the far-distant
\npast. And the most important question of all is whether society
\nshall be competitive or cooperative, individualistic or communistic. That we should talk so little about these things and be
\nstormy over insignificant details, shows painfully the impoverishment of the average Indian intellect. If these greater things are
\ndecided, as they must be, the smaller will arrange themselves.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThere are standards that are universal and there are standards that are particular. At the present moment all societies
\nare in need of reform, the Parsi, Mahomedan and Christian not
\na whit less than the Hindu which alone seems to feel the need
\nof radical reformation. In the changes of the future the Hindu
\nsociety must take the lead towards the establishment of a new
\nuniversal standard. Yet being Hindu we must seek it through
\nthat which is particular to ourselves. We have one standard
\nthat is at once universal and particular, the eternal religion,
\nwhich is the basis, permanent and always inherent in India, of
\nthe shifting, mutable and multiform thing we call Hinduism.
\nSticking fast where you are like a limpet is not the Dharma,
\nneither is leaping without looking the Dharma. The eternal religion is to realise God in our inner life and our outer existence,
\nin society not less than in the individual. Esa dharmah sanātanah<\/i>.
\n<\/i>God is not antiquity nor novelty: He is not the Manava Dharmashastra, nor Vidyaranya, nor Raghunandan; neither is He an
\nEuropean. God who is essentially Sachchidananda, is in manifestation Satyam, Shakti, Prema, \u2014 Truth, Strength and Love.
\nWhatever is consistent with the truth and principle of things,
\nwhatever increases love among men, whatever makes for the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 123<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nstrength of the individual, the nation and the race, is divine, it
\nis the law of Vaivaswata Manu, it is the sanātana dharma<\/i> and the
\nHindu Shastra. Only, God is the triple harmony, He is not one-sided. Our love must not make us weak, blind or unwise; our
\nstrength must not make us hard and furious; our principle must not make us
\nfanatical or sentimental. Let us think calmly, patiently, impartially; let us love wholly and intensely but wisely;<\/font> 
\n<\/font>let us act with strength, nobility and force. If even then we make
\nmistakes, yet God makes none. We decide and act; He determines the fruit, and whatever He determines is good.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nHe is already determining it. Men have long been troubling
\nthemselves about social reform and blameless orthodoxy, and 
\northodoxy has crumbled without social reform being effected.
\nBut all the time God has been going about India getting His work
\ndone in spite of the talking. Unknown to men the social revolution prepares itself, and it is not in the direction they think.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 124<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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