Ancient Ideals in Modern Life: Four Lectures by Annie Besant

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Episode Transcript

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Section one of Ancient Ideals in ModernLife four Lectures. This is a LibriVox
recording. All LibriVox recordings are inthe public domain. For more information or
to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dotorg. Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four
Lectures by Anni Bezant forward in thefollowing lectures. I have endeavored to discharge

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the duty incumbent on the spiritual teacher, however humble, the grade of holding
up the ideal to be aimed at, of reproving the evils of the day,
of indicating the path along which theideal may be approached. The task
is one beset with difficulties, butnot for that reason may it be avoided.

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Cowards shrink back appalled by obstacles,Heroes overcome them. At the dawning
of the twentieth century, India standsnear the parting of the ways. One
way leads downwards to death, theother upwards to life. Many of her
noblest children are hopeless of her future, and would let her expire peacefully rather

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than prolong the death passage by remediesdeemed useless. Others, loving her well
but ignorantly, would in the effortto save her cast aside to the winds
all her traditions, and seek bymodern Western medicines her cure, but really
her death. Others yet again believethat before her there dons a new era

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of spiritual life and of material greatness, and would seek to revive her ancient
ideals and wed to them all thatis best in modern life. Of these
am I who have spoken these discoursesas a first contribution to that end.
For I am a humble servant ofthe great masters, who declared that they

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would welcome any who would aid themin the task of regenerating India, and
I would fain have humble share inthat mighty endeavor. Hitherto, in my
lectures during seven years, I havebeen content to raise the old ideals before
the eyes of India and of theworld, and to seek to inspire the
Hindus with love and reverence for theirancient faith. The work has not been

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unfruitful. The impulse given to Hinduismby the teaching of H. P.
Blavatsky and the work of Colonel H. S Olcott has been strengthened, and
the part played by the Theosophical Societyin the revival of Hinduism is admitted by
friends and foes alike. But Ihave observed, with regret, though without

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surprise, that evil has trodden closeon the heels of good, and that
while religion has been vivified, abusesand superstitions have also shown more vitality.
Hence the duty becomes incumbent on meto speak as plainly against these abuses in
superstitions as in favor of the ancientfaith. I may not let them be

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confounded with the truth I teach,nor may I stand as endorsing them,
because reproclaiming the immemorial Dharma. Ifthey triumph or remain welded into the fabric
of Hinduism, India will perish,and perish shamefully. To separate the rotting
from the pure is the condition oflife, and those love not India wisely,

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who would leave the rotten, failingit from public gaze. Because attached
to that which is pure, corruptionspreads, and its spread is death,
whether in the body of the individualor in that of the nation. Hence
I have spoken plainly of the abusesand of the need for their extirpation.

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A few points on which I hadintended to touch, but which were omitted
for lack of time have been addedto the lectures and are distinguished by enclosure
within square brackets. Though the lecturesare addressed to Hindus, many of the
matters dealt with, especially in thefirst and last lectures, are applicable outside
Hinduism and describe ideals that might beincorporated generally in modern life to its great

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improvement. And in any case,the raising of India must interest all who
belong to the great Empire of whichIndia forms a part. May the proposals
here made, if wise and good, win the assent and support of India's
children, and so prove a steptowards her redemption and forward. Read by

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Sandra Section two of Ancient Ideals inModern Life, four lectures. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordingsare in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visitLibriVox dot org. Read by Social c

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Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four Lecturesby Annie Bessant. Lecture ie the Four
Ashramas Part one Brothers. For fiveand twenty years, the Theosophical Society has
been at work in the world,carrying out amid many difficulties and against many

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obstacles the great work entrusted to itscharge. During these five and twenty years,
it has been gathering experience. Ithas been learning its strength and its
weakness. It has found out manymistakes, it has corrected many blunders.
It has learned the lessons of experiencewhich will serve it well in the centuries

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that lie ahead. The ending ofthe twenty fifth year of the Society coincides
with the ending of the century asmarked by the Western calculation, and as
you know, just about the sametime there ends one of the smaller cycles
reckoned from the Eastern standpar So,we find ourselves today at one of those

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periods in the world's history at whichgreat changes are initiated and great impulses given
for the forward movement of humanity.It is the time of great opportunities,
but also a time of great responsibilities, when choices made are full of great
results, when steps taken decide thepath along which nations will go for many

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a year, perhaps for many acentury to come. At this standpoint,
then I ask you with me tolook forward as well as backward. I
ask you to look forward to thatwhich India may become for the world.
I ask you to look forward totheir destiny, which it is within her
power to accomplish if she takes theright step. I call you to stand

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for a moment at this meeting ofthe ways, and see along which way
you will elect to tread. Thechoices that the Gods give to the nations
are choices which cannot be avoided.But upon the nature of the choice which
answers to the summons from above dependsthe immediate destiny of the nation and the
part which it will have to playin the near future of the world.

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The society founded by some of thegreatershees of India to do certain work in
the world, is a society that, by its very nature and constitution should
be prepared to take a leading partin this choice. If among the Hindus
who have come into the society thereis not the courage of initiation and the

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power to help India at the stageof her destiny, then for the East
the society will largely have failed inits purpose, and its failure in the
East will bring about its failure inthe West. For as momentous to the
society is the way along which itelects to go, as is momentous for

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the nation the path along way whichit decides to tread. For the last
seven years I have been living andworking among you, trying to understand,
trying to grasp the conditions and thedifficulties of the situation, trying to see
along which road the redemption for Indiamay possibly be found. Surely during these

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years I may at least have solived as to win from you trust enough
to believe that my heart is Hinduas yours, my faith and my hope
the same as yours. And ifin the study that lies before us I
speak words with which any of youmay disagree, and on such topics disagreement

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is inevitable, I pray you tobelieve that I speak with pure intent,
with love for India and for India'sfaith. Any errors I may make are
errors of the head, not ofthe heart. And if on some points
I have to speak on facts thatI and I think most of you look
on with grief and shame, itis in the hope that, recognizing the

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facts, we may find a wayto lead India out of her present condition,
that we may find the road wherethe blessings of the Gods may rest
on India, leading her to takeher right place amid the nations, and
fitting her to be the spiritual teacherof mankind. In speaking of the subjects,

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there is a definite plan that Ipropose to follow. First, I
shall sketch the ancient ideal, sofar as I can, of course,
for no tongue of man may sketchthat divine ideal as it really is in
the eyes of the gods and inthe hearts of the great rasies who threw
down the reflection of that image onthe world. But at least I hope

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so to speak of that ideal,that you may see its beauty, that
above all you may estimate its value, not only to India, but to
the whole world at large. Itdoes not exist for any one land,
though it was given to one land. It exists for all the world.
But it cannot spread over the worldunless it spreads from its center. The

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ancient ideals are in your charge,placed in your hands by those who gave
them to the Indian people. Andit must not be that in any change
needed to adapt India to modern environment, those great ideals shall be blurred or
their brightness diminished. They must keeptheir full spiritual glory, their fair proportions

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and their pure outlines. All changesmust be to make them again shine out
in practice, and not to alteror lower them according to the passing fashions
and fancies of the day. Ishall, in every case first try to
put the ancient ideal before you,and then, in sad and bitter contrast

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the present as it is, acontrast so terrible and so heart breaking that
any lover of India might well weepyears of blood over what might be the
ideal and what is the actual inIndia, A contrast so terrible indeed,
that were it not that we believethat the gods were ever watching over India,
we might sink down and say thatno revival for India is possible.

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But since we believe that the spiritualforces are mighty enough to subdue all things,
there still lingers in the hearts ofsome of us the hope that India
may yet produce children spiritual enough tolead the necessary changes along the right road,
with hearts heroic enough to sacrifice themselvesfor the mother of us all,
and so make possible the redemption ofwhich we dream for which we dare to

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hope. The third part of eachdiscourse, then, after the ideal and
the actual will deal with the changeswhich may lead India from her present position
to the height which is her rightfulplace and which she ought to occupy in
the world of the future, inthe evolution of humanity, her rightful place
as the teacher, the spiritual teacherof mankind. This is the study to

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which we are going to devote ourselves, and to this I shall try to
win your assent and sympathy, andmore your active work. The first lecture
will be largely of the nature ofan introduction, and I fear it may
tax your patience by its length.For I want to put before you a
world picture. Unless I can showyou the great goal at which we are

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to aim, all the later proposalswill be unintelligible and will lose their power
to attract you by their fitness forthe proposed end. You must see the
goal before you can estimate the rightnessor the wrongness of the path that assumes
to lead to it. And thatgoal is a greater one than many of

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you dream. I must open byasking you to take a wider look at
history than you are wont to do, and that not from the standpoint of
the physical plane where nation is warringagainst nation, where one is jealous of
the other, where the desire ofone is to rule the other, where
there is the hatred of the oppressedand the tyranny of the strong. Leave

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all these things aside. They arebut the things of the physical plane.
Let us rise to a point whencesome glimpse of the divine plan may be
seen, so that we may beable to recognize at least something of the
part to be played in connection withit by the nation with which we are
concerned. Where is India standing now? What is her environment? Looking back

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over the past centuries, we seethat nation after nation has invaded India,
has tried to settle in her andhas tried to rule her. One nation
after another has been, as itwere, tried in order to find out
whether it had the qualities in itwhich made a common future with India possible.

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See how one nation after another fromthe West has tried to establish itself
within her borders. You need notgo so far back as the invasion of
the Greeks to see how one Europeannation after another has made her little footing
in India's soil, and then hasfallen into the background You only need to
look two or three centuries back tosee how the Portuguese, the Dutch,

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the French have made attempts to dwellon Indian soil, and yet have well
nigh disappeared. Then there came acolony from the far west, the colony
of England, and that has grown, has spread, has increased its power,
until at the present day we findthe great dominant power of England extending
directly over the great portion of Indiaand influencing very largely those portions of the

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country which are not under her immediatesway. As a result of this,
we find here East and West,living side by side, England and India
established in this vast peninsula, parts, as it were, of one great
empire, which shows signs of becomingone of the great world empires of history.

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We see as we glance backwards,that from time to time on the
stage of history there arises a powerwhich molds into one nationality, many nations,
and builds up a mighty fabric ofa world empire, ruling undisputed over
the earth. You will find thatevery sub race of what the Theosophists call

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our great Aryan race has had sucha world empire in connection with its own
development. The first branch of theAryan people, who settled to the south
of the Himalayas, built a mightyempire. Although the Aryan civilization was not
far extended, and outside the bordersof India, most of the people were
uncivilized, and there existed great masseswho were barbarians. Still we find them

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paying tribute and underdue subordination. Andthe great rulers of the earth were along
the line of the past monarchs ofIndia. When we follow the birth of
one subrace after another, the sametruth comes out. The world Empire of
the Acadians. The Babylonians, whichjoined Babylon and Chaldea, is another world

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empire belonging to another sub race.Then, coming to the subrace of the
Iranians, we have the Empire ofPersia dominating the civilized world and ruling over
the subject nations. Then we findthe world Empire of the Celtic sub race,
with its center in Rome, dominatingthe world, as did the other
empires that had passed away before it. Each of these world empires nursed in

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itself the growth of its own subraceand formed the guard around the cradle in
which the new sub brace was born. The fifth sub race, the Teutonic,
has not yet completed itself, andalready signs are visible that it has
to accomplish the same destiny in humanevolution. There is dawning now on the

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vision of the earth, a vastTeutonic world Empire, formed by the English
and their colonies, with their hugeoffshoot of the United States, and with
the Germans bound in close alliance.That world Empire will be the next to
dominate humanity, in order that,by its great power imposing peace upon the

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world, it may be the cradleof the next sub race, whose watchword
is peace instead of war, whosewatchword is brotherhood instead of competition. That
race will be born in the midstof the world. Peace and peace will
be characteristic of its civilization. Whatis the part that India is to play?
Therein you may find her a conquerednation won by the sword, ruled

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by the sword, and that swordheld in the hand of the dominant factor
in the coming world Empire. Butat the same time you find her thought,
her teaching, her ancient literature translatedinto the Vladish tongue, which is
the most widely spread tongue on earthand is fast becoming the world language,
which is spreading in every direction,which is talked by the foremost nations of

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the world. Thus, while politicallyshe is subject, her thought is beginning
to dominate the whole of that Westerncivilization. That is the first point which
marks the place that India will havein this great evolution. In the older
days, she was the spiritual leaderof the world, and now nations are

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being prepared to recognize her again inthat loftiest and most sacred of characters.
Her great teachings are becoming assimilated allover the world through this vehicle of a
world language, which is being madepart of our own national life. As
her teachings are more and more widelyaccepted, what will be the one supreme
teaching which will come as the keynoteof all the next civilization. The great

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teaching of India, the most precious, the most wise, and the most
far reaching, is the unity ofthe self, the one self in which
all things are, and which livesand moves in all that is India's central
and most important teaching. There isoneself, one existence in that life.

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All other lives in here in thatconsciousness. All other consciousnesses have their roots.
There is but one without a second, and in that all things exist.
That is the teaching which spoken bythe mouth of India, is spreading
over the whole world. And behold, that is the very keynote of the

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race that is to be born.That race will recognize the spiritual unity of
all humanity. Therefore, it isthat unity the one obligatory object of the
Theosophical Society, the recognition of thebrotherhood of man, which can only be
defended on the ground of a spiritualunity. All men are brothers, no

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matter what their color may be,no matter what their race, no matter
what their traditions, customs, andorigin may be, they all are within
the spiritual unity which underlies all mankind. That is the keynote of the next
subrace, the mark of the comingcivilization. Is it with our significance that

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the keynote of the coming subrace isthe supreme teaching of India. If this
possession of the teaching is to bearfruit, what is the next step that
India must take. India must fitherself for the great position and build up
a nation worthy to be the spiritualteacher of mankind. If India can do
that. If she can build upagain her religion in the purity of ancient

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ideals, in possession of all thespiritual forces contained in the inheritance of the
past. If India can train hersons to be noble in character, pure
in life, lofty in intelligence,spiritual inaspiration, then India's part in the
World Empire will not be the partof a conquered nation, but of an

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integral part of that empire. Honoredas the teacher and religious guide to the
nations of the world, she willbe no longer a subject nation, but
will be a part of a mightycommonwealth, some of her sons sharing the
burden of the world Empire as counselorsand rulers, while her teachers bring their

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great religion to spiritualize every other faith, bring the wisdom of the past to
enlighten the ignorance of the present,noble, honored and everywhere revered. That
is the possibility before you. Butonly if you rise to the height of
your destiny and fit yourselves to beentrusted with such mighty power. That then

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is the goal to be aimed at. And the means is that training,
the education of the people, theraising of man by man until the whole
nation is raised. Do not deceiveyourselves of imagining that the greatness of the
past will make by itself the greatnessof your future. If you cannot rise
to greatness, there is no greatnesspossible for India. For the greatness of

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a nation is measured by the individualgreatness of her sons. And unless Indians
can be great, how can Indiabe mighty? Have view the stuff in
you to make part of such aworld empire? Only the gods can tell.
But they have given you the opportunity, which shows that the possibility is
there. For the gods have neveroffered opportunity unless the one to whom it

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is offered has in him the possibilityof success. It is for us to
try to build that success not onlyinto a possibility, but into a certainty,
as may be done if our heartsare heroic, and if we are
willing to struyck live to make ourselvesworthy of that future such then the goal.

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The critical question now is can Indiaadapt herself to this modern environment.
A part of India is determined notto move at all, but to stay
where it is. That means death. Life may be measured by the power
to adapt the body, the mind, and the whole nature to the environment

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in which, by the divine providenceand organism is placed. People talk of
the spirit of the age, somewith enthusiasm, some with contempt, some
with love, some with hatred,some with the desire to go with it,
and some with the desire to opposeit. What is then the spirit

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of the age? Fundamentally it isthe divine impulse carrying man along the road
of evolution. It is often surroundedby blunders, often hidden by mistakes,
often impede by the childish ignorance ofthose whom Ishwra is endeavoring to guide.
The true spirit of the age shouldand must be studied in order that we

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may see whither the divine will isleading the world. Do you think that
any other will can guide this worldsave the will of Ishra himself? Are
men so strong do you imagine thatthey can turn the car of evolution against
the will of Ishra? Amidst thejarring wills, the foolish deeds, the

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mistakes, the blunders, and thesins of mankind, the one divine will
is working out its unchangeable purpose andmolding even men's follies and crimes to the
working out of its own supreme purpose. For humanity is the potter's clay,
which is set on the wheel.And as the potter turns his will,

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so does Ishra turn the world wheel. Whereon the clay is human heart and
human mind, and the vessels areformed by him and by none other.
We are blind and foolish if weset ourselves against the deep running tendencies of
the day. Many tendencies are superficial. But our duty is to study and
to understand the main current, thecurrent of evolution, and then to bring

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our energies to cooperate with the divinepurpose. For all that goes against the
will must be shattered into pieces,while all that goes with it is part
of his life and an organ forhis work. To set ourselves stubbornly,
to stand in one place and tosay, because this in the past was
good, therefore it must be goodfor the present and the future. Therefore

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I will not mold myself to thetendencies of the age, nor adapt myself
to my environment. This is tobe dead, that is to be fossilized,
that is to be left behind inthe forward march of evolution. On
the other hand, to go forwardwith headlong precipitancy, without thought or consideration,
without reverence for the past, withoutunderstanding the causes it has set up,

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the tendencies it has bequeathed that spellsruin as much as immovability and fossilization
spell death. Between these two dangers, then the nation has to steer its
way between those who will change nothingso that India cannot live, and those
who will change everything so that Indiawill practically disappear. Neither of these roads

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is the role that the wise shouldtread. We should preserve the Indian type,
the Indian spirituality that is the problemfor spirituality is India's special charge in
the world's future. But while preservingIndia's type and India's spirituality, we should
weave into India's national life everything good, everything valuable that every other nation has

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to give, everything of value thatmodern progress has acquired. We should choose
and discriminate. Take what is goodand read what is evil. Neither become
westernized by swallowing everything that the Westhas without regard to India's type, nor
become a dead fossil interesting to thegeologists of the future, bearing no part

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in the living evolution of the race. This is the problem. If we
can solve it rightly, then Indiahas a future, a future is so
glorious that it will be greater thanher past. If we cannot solve it,
then India falls out of the nationsof the world, and some other
nation, taking up her knowledge andwielding it with all that is good in

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the west, will take the place. That is India's birthright as eldest son
of the Aryan race. But surelythat shall never be her fate. She
cannot disappear from the world. Indiabeloved of the gods. She cannot thus
vanish from the world's history while theyare ruling. Make no mistake. If

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this is to be done, itis to be done by sacrifice. For
no good thing is one without sacrifice. No great gift is given save when
the fire of sacrifice has gone upto heaven and made its appeal to the
mighty ones. There. India cannotbe redeemed honest. India's sons are ready
to give themselves for their race,to offer themselves up on the altar of

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sacrifice for India's future. For prejudicesare strong. There is a mass of
ignorant prejudices and conventions against which thebravest hearts must dash themselves in order to
break it down. Some hearts willbe broken in the attempt, But as
they break, they will leave theirimpress on that wall of dogged prejudice,

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and it will be the weaker becausethey have suffered. Are there any among
you prepared to act as well asspeak, prepare to live as well as
talk? Will you give merely whatis so easy to give the applause of
your hands instead of the work ofyour lives. Will you speak warmly in
this hall for the changes that mustbe made in order that India may live,

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And then go out into the worldoutside and live the life of the
majority, as though the ideal wasnever put before you doing what everybody does.
Have you not in you the courageand the devotion to set an example
and to give up your own socialposition? Nay, even your lives are
far far harder your children's lives,to sacrifice those on the altar in order

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that India may survive. If someof you will do that, then the
future is secure. But if youare all cowards at heart, then the
sentence will pass, Destiny will putits pen through India's name, and India
will exist no more. Such,then, are the introductory ideas that govern
these lectures. Let us pass fromthem to the ideals of the past,

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to the actual of the present,and to the future that we are going
to try to build. I shallnot, in this quote many texts,
and thus enter into a war withcommentators. Texts may be found in support
of opposed views if taken alone withoutcontext and qualification. Persons of most divergent
ideas appeal to the same authorities.I shall put the ideal before you as

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I have been taught of it,as I have seen it, letting its
own beauty and sweet reasonableness, recommendit to your hearts and consciences. Here
and there I may refer to sacredliterature for illustration, But I am not
building up those ideals by laborious comparisonof text, but from our knowledge of

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the facts. The special part ofour subject that we are going to study
today is comparatively easy. No veryserious opposition in the minds of many is
likely to arise about it. Thereis one point, however, which will
need the sacrifice of which I havejust been speaking, in order that it
may be practically worked out, butfor the most part the road is fairly

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clear with regard to the four GreatIdeals in life. End of section two
Section three of Ancient Ideals in ModernLife four Lectures. This is the LibriVox
recording. All Liberrivox recordings are inthe public domain. For more information or

(31:18):
to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dotorg. Read by sosiel C. Ancient
Ideals in Modern Life four Lectures byAnnibscanth. Section three Lecture one, Part
two. The four Ashamas a lifewhich is well ordered from beginning to end.

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That is what is implied in thephrase the four ashramas. Two of
them, namely that of the studentand that of the householder. These two
may be said to represent in thelife of an individual, that outward going
energy which carries the jiva into whatwe call the proveriti marga, the great
path of action along which the worldrolls, and which each individual man treads

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within the limit of a life inhis own little way. The life of
the student and the life of thehouseholder, these form the proverrethi marga of
the individual. The two later stages, the life of the Vana Pasta and
that of the sanyasi. These arethe stages of withdrawal from the world,

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and may be said to represent theniverrethi marga in the life of the individual.
It is well to recognize this soas to have an orderly view of
life. So wisely did the ancientones mark out the road along which a
man should tread, that any manwho takes this plan of life, divided
into four stages will find his outgoingand indrawing energies rightly balanced. First the

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student stage, properly lived and worthilycarried out. Then the householder stage,
with all its busy activity in everydirection of worldly business. Then the gradual
withdrawal from activity, the turning inward, the life of comparative seclusion, of

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prayer and of meditation, of givinga wise counsel to the younger generation engaged
in worldly activities, And then forsome at least, the life of complete
renunciation. Any man who takes thisplan of life and lives it out will
find that he cannot have a lifewhich should be more wisely ordered, which

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should be made better than that inwhich to spend his days from birth to
death. This is not an idealfor one nation only, but for all
nations, not for one time,but for all times, one half of
the life active and stirring, theother half quiet, self controlled, and

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self contained. In the east andin the west alike, this ancient ideal
of a well ordered life might wellbe revived, might well be again practiced.
And then we should not see,on the one hand, the pitiable
spectacle of boys thrown into the lifeof the householder before the time has come,
and on the other hand, theequally pitiable spectacle of the old man,

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whose heart should be turned to thehigher life, still grasping money and
power until death wrenches away what hewill not voluntarily lose. Let us take
the four stages in order and considereach. First, the student life.
What was the ideal of the pastthat you may read in detail in your

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books. Here I shall outline itonly the boy was placed in the hands
of his teacher to be trained andeducated on every side of his nature.
The education given to him was onewhich drew out his powers in the four
great factors which formed the human constitution. First, we always read of boys

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that they were worst in the Vedas. The boys were taught religion, they
were trained in the sacred literature oftheir faith and in the actual daily practice
of their religious ceremonies. Thus wefind that Ramachandra was not only thoroughly trained
in the knowledge of the scriptures,but also that he performed his sonha morning

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and evening, and was thus trainedin the outer religious duties as well as
in sacred learning, both being necessaryfor the evolution of spirituality. You know
how under the wise hands of histeacher he learned the great science of the
self, the secret of peace,and how his religious nature was trained and

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developed. He who needed no education, save for the instruction that his example
might give as to how the youngshould be trained. That is the first
note of ancient education. The nextpoint is that the boys were trained in
morality. The moral nature was trainedas well as the spiritual. They were
taught to be obedient, reverent,truthful, brave, courageous, to love

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and respect their parents and teachers,to be unselfish, to concern themselves with
the welfare of those around them.He was intent on the welfare of others.
That is given as the crown ofthe moral education of the boy.
In the third place, the intellectwas trained. The boys were taught the
different branches of science and instructed invarious kinds of theoretical and practical knowledge.

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Intelligence, the third part of humannature, received its proper training, along
with the spiritual and the moral.Lastly, the body was trained. The
physical part received due attention. Theywere taught games and manly exercises, to
ride, to drive, to managetheir own bodies and the bodies of the

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animals who served the needs of man. Thus the education given was all round
education. Every part of man's naturereceived its proper training. The result was
that when the boys went out intothe world, they went out ready to
play their parts as members of agreat state, as citizens of a great

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nation, highly pious, moral,learned, and strong. These four great
characteristics marked the result of education inancient India. What do we find in
modern India? An education directed toone part of the boy's nature, only
developing the intelligence, training the intellect, but leaving entirely on one side the

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spiritual nature and the moral or emotionalnature disregarded. The education as now given
disregards for the most part, thephysical nature, also centering itself on the
growth of intelligence. On the developmentof intellect alone. Even that I may
say in passing is not done inthe best possible way. Such an education

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as that can never build up atrue man of the world, able to
discharge his duties in the world.Only one part of him has been developed,
only one quarter of his whole naturehas been trained. Moral character has
been neglected, spirituality has been ignored. Body has been left weak, overstrained,

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overworked. What sort of a nationcan you have where the education given
to its young is but one quarterof what it should be, one fourth
only given, and that too imperfectlyand inadequately. What is the result?
You get plenty of clever men,but for the most part they are selfish,

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thinking only of their own aims,each man fighting for his own hand,
careless of the welfare of the nationas a whole, gaining for himself
or for his family, caring nothow others suffer. Provided that he succeeds
looking on with cold and indifferent eyes, had all wrongs perpetrated around him,

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his heart not moved with sympathy forthe trouble and the misery of the people.
He is the man developed in intelligence, but lacking in character, in
self respect, in public spirit,in straightforward speaking of truth, in uprightness
of words and life. That isthe result we see around us the result

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of the neglect of religion and ofmorality. How many men today are intent
upon the welfare of others, forgetfulof their own success. How many realize
that no man can truly succeed unlesshe raises others with him. At the
same time, how many remember thatthere is only one life, that the

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man who tries to wrench himself awayfrom it in selfishness and indifference, only
succeeds in shutting out much of thelife from himself, And that the wall
that he builds to exclude his neighborfrom himself excludes himself from the life that
flows around him. What are wethen to do, to do practically and
not in theory only, not leavingfor the future that work which must be

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done now. As you know,the attempt to bring back the ancient ideal
is already being made in your midst. This very college, in the hall
of which I am now speaking,is the work of those who are avowed
to the restoration of the ancient typeof education, of that fourfold training of

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the nature, which alone can buildup the India of the future. Though
not seeking to reproduce entirely the oldmodels, it is the ideal that we
must see and that we must reproducein modern garb, adapting it to the
times. Would it surprise you toknow that in the English nation this fourfold
education is even now being given inthe public schools and universities. If you

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go to any English public school,you will find that it begins its work
every day with the worship of Godand the reading of Christian scriptures. Every
boy is taught to worship and istrained in definite moral ideals. You will
find that not only is religion thustaught along with morality, but that a

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good physical training is also given andinsisted upon. In the great public schools,
every boy is made to play,to exercise his body, to work
his limbs and strengthen his muscles.And if you go to Harrow, Eaton,
Rugby, or Winchester, you willfind the fourfold education there, though

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of course on Christian lines. Theold ideal is being worked out there in
principle, and the fundamental ground planof the education is right and sound,
and it makes patriots as well asall round developed men. While they nourish
love of religion, they nourish patriotismat the same time. If you go

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to the Harrow School Chapel, youwill find its walls decorated with brass plates
bearing the names of old Harrow boyswho have served their country well, so
that when the boys worship God,they see before their eyes the names of
the old Harrow boys who once satwhere they sat, who as men,
have given up their lives in timesof need for Queen and country, who

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have died for fatherland, and whohave held the name of England high among
the nations. No boy can worshipin that chapel without receiving some inspiration to
heroic living, without welding his loveof country into his religion. Ideals are
molded in this way, and theygrew up country loving, patriotic, proud

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of their land, and so worthyto be citizens of their country. We
must revive this education here. Howis this to be done? Is it
to be done by forty or fiftypeople like ourselves, who are weak in
number and in intellectual power? Ifwe be left unsupported? No, do

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you not realize that this question isyour question, not ours? Only?
Your boys are the future citizens ofIndia. What are you doing to educate
them in the ancient ideals which willmake them worthy citizens? It is not
enough to applaud me. Are youworking for this education? Are you giving

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it your time, your labor asyou would give them to some object which
should go to make your own happiness. If you do not do that,
what right have you to cheer whenother people work and give mere empty applause
with regard to this education? Ihave somewhat more to say, and here
comes a point for which I askyou're careful your thoughtful attention. I find

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when I read the old scriptures thatduring the period of student life, the
student was always under the vow ofbramacharia. I find that every student was
under that vow of virginity, ofabsolute celibacy, and until the student period
was over, he was not permittedto enter the household life thirty six,

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eighteen or nine years, these otherperiods given for the student life. During
that period, absolute celibacy was imposedupon the student. Until that period was
over, he was not allowed totake a wife. And we often read
of a man as a warrior beforehe became a husband. What has become

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of that old ideal? In modernIndia? Boys in school are found to
be fathers of children, boys whohave not yet even passed into college are
found with the baby at home,a child, the son of a child.
It is utterly against the old ideals. It is destructive of India's life.

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What is the result that a boyat the end of his college life
is often weak in body? Hisnervous system is weakened, his brain power
is exhausted, and he is awreck physically when he ought to be in
the full flush and vigor of manhood. The pressure of modern education puts a

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heavy strain upon him. And thenadded to that are the duties of the
husband, the responsibility of the father. My brothers, it is not right.
It means the ruin of India.You find yourselves old when you ought
to be but middle age. Doyou not see that you are not what

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you should be? Do you notsee that the brain does not and cannot
bear the tremendous strain put upon it. Do you not see that the stature
of Indians is growing less. Wherethe marriages are the earliest, There the
stature is the lowest, and itis getting worse and worse. In some

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parts of India, the marrying ofa baby in the cradle is permitted,
and this is followed by very earlyparenthood is that a part of India's life
as it was, meant to bemolded by the great gods who gave their
laws through ancient legislators. This isa question, the answer to which is

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in your own hands. The difficultywe know well enough. For a man
who dares to act according to theancient ideals will find himself surrounded by hundreds
of unkind critics, men who havenot the courage to act, although in
their hearts often longing for and desiringchange. How many fathers have told me,

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yes, we know that it isnecessary, But how few have the
courage to act upon their opinion andface the social difficulties that action would bring.
Yet only by such courage are greatchange is made and nations redeemed.
We have come down through cowardice,we must mount through courage. We have

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become degraded through ignorance. We mustrise again by education and restoring the old
ideals. If some of you havethe courage to say, we will not
act against the ancient rules, wewill not do that which we know to
be wrong morally and to be evilphysically. And if you will therefore make

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the marriage period later, no matterwho may oppose, then you will begin
to take the first practical step towardsthe training of a stronger, manlier,
and more vigorous race. I amnot asking you to throw off the old
customs and to adopt new ones,as some others have advised. I am

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asking you to restore the old andI suggest as a step that the first
marriage of a girl might be atfourteen and of a boy at eighteen,
and the second actual marriage two yearslater. For both. If this rule
were followed, you would soon seethe effects in the strengthening of the race.

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I do most earnestly hope that wemay begin to set this example gradually
in this school and college. Wecannot make the full change back to the
old ideal at once, but Ido trust that we may be able gradually
to work towards the ancient ideal,and thus may set an example which all

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lovers of India will venture to follow. That we may strike the key note
of a better physical future for Indiaand build up a stronger manhood. After
the student age was accomplished and theboy had grown to manhood, then he
had to enter upon household life.What influence that household life has upon the

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evolution of character? You must knowif you realize its intention. It is
the great school of unselfishness, oftemperance, of learning to help the weak,
of learning self sacrifice in the easiestway, where love leads to sacrifice
and rewards it as it is made. The love of husband and wife,

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the purest and noblest of earthly feelings, nearest the love of the soul to
God himself. The love of fatherfor children, of children for father,
with the protection given on the oneside and the gratitude and veneration given on
the other. These other household educatorsof the soul. It is said truly

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that all other ashamas take refuge inthis as their strong support. Learning to
be detached in the middle of attachment, learning the lesson of chastity, where
all power of enjoyment is held.These are some of the lessons of family
life. But how much change iswanted if the old, beautiful ideal is

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to shine out? Clearly? Onthis I shall have to speak more when
I come to deal with India's womanhood. There is no ideal of marriage like
the Indian ideal, only that idealis rarely found fulfilled today. Consider the
father and the children is the idealof that relationship carried out in modern India.

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Is not there too much reserve onone side and too much timidity on
the other. Is not the relationshipof father and son too often lacking in
frank confidence on the side of theson. Do the fathers think enough of
the happiness and amusement of the sunmaking the home life bright and attractive?
Are they not too often self centeredand indifferent to the wants of the sons,

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too forgetful of the cravings of youth. The boy is often too shy
alas to speak to the father,and so the son goes out and finds
amusement hand in hand with vice wherehe ought to have found it with his
father's sympathy, and so hand inhand with virtue. Indian boys too often
go astray because of the want ofsympathy and frank friendships with their parents,

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by the parents laying all stress onauthority and little stress on tenderness. Boys
need tenderness and sympathy and loving guidancein the hot days of youth. I
say this because boys sometimes come tome with complaints on their lips that their
home life is so dull and drearythat they long to get away from it.

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Authority is too stringent and too unsympathetic, and hence a tendency in sons
to rebel. Where the sons showrebellion, the father is often far more
to be blamed than the son.It is the lack of sympathy with the
impulses and cravings of youth that oftenleads to revolt. The father's lack of

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tenderness and sympathy has as its inevitableresult, the rebellion of the son,
not always expressed, but none theless dangerous. The father ought to be
his truest friend, his dearest sympathizer, his most loving counselor. And where
the son finds his father to besuch that son is never rebellious. When

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we find trouble in the home,we must look for its cause to the
superior, rather than to the inferior. Most breaches in relationship begin in the
fault of the higher, and notin that of the lower. When the
higher fails in his duty, itis then that the lower begins to fail.
Also, it is a matter ofeach man to think out for himself,

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For the ideal is where the fatheris his son's best friend, and
the son is the father's most lovedcompanion. Let everyone see how far this
is true. In his own homethere is a fatherly love where uttermost tenderness
meets folly and transgression and redeems themby its divine force. If the true

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household life could be restored, thenthe active life in the world will be
led as it should be, andwe shall see everywhere the ancient models of
true grihasta, then will be seenat the end of household life, a
readiness to pass on into the nextstage, where active life is given up
and the life of religious meditation iscarried on. How shall we adapt the

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Vanaprasta stage to modern life. Itis scarcely in accordance with the modern idea
to go into a jungle, totake refuge in a cave in order to
spend in seclusion the latter years oflife. Modern civilization trains men in a
way which scarcely leaves them fit totake to that actual mode of life.

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So complex have grown men's wants inmodern times. But might it not be
possible for the elders among us togradually let go all money making, to
let go all household authority, tolet go all business and the taking of
an active part in life, lettingthe younger ones take their place in these

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respects, Can they not turn tothe niverrethi marga? Might it not be
that they should pass into a lifeof quiet and dignified partial seclusion, where
their lives might be chiefly given toworship, meditation, thought, and development
of the higher nature, And wherethey would always be available as the wisest
of counselors, rich in life's experience, and all the better counselors, because

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their personal interest had gone in thematters on which they gave counsel, and
thus the advice would be free fromprejudice and bias. Would not India be
the richer if the old men performedthat part of their duty, If withdrawing
from activity, they became the guidesand advisers of the young, trusted and

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loved because they had experience and wisdomand were willing to give them to the
young. Would not the re establishmentof that ashrama be a great blessing in
modern life? The last stage ofsanyasa needs such high spiritual development that few

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probably would be able to pass intoit. But if that is not now
quite possible, it would become possible. A few generations. Hence, when
the general level of spirituality had risenunder the right living of the three preceding
ashramas, the name of Sanyasi iscommon enough in modern India. It may

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be well to say here that householdlife is a stage which very few can
afford to avoid. So important isit as a spiritual school. Wisely did
the Indian sages prescribe it as awell nigh universal obligation. For few and
far between are those who can leadthe life of the true Sanyasi even in
old age, and still fewer arethose who can safely embrace it in youth.

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It is true that there is nofairer ideal than that of the Bala
Yogi, the spotless Kumara, theboy saint. When a great soul incarnates
for the helping of the world,he may lead the ascetic life from childhood.
But too many lads and young menhastily take the garb of the Tsadu
in modern days, allured by itsouter freedom an absence of care and responsibility,

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adopting it in order to avoid burdenand not in order to bear a
heavier. Robust and lazy such menswarm over the country by thousands, living
on the earnings of others and givingnothing back in benefit to the community.
Too often profligate, taking advantage oftheir sacred garb to corrupt and lead astray.

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Sensualists not ascetics, luxurious, notself controlled. The true sanyasi is
of priceless value, and the poorestmay rejoice to share with him his scanty
meal. His spiritual value outweighs amillionfold any physical need. He may have.

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His purity and devotion still purify theatmosphere and preserve spirituality from perishing outright.
But thesathus, who are vicious andlazy, useless alike to the gods
and to men, those shame theold ideal and turn men's hearts against the
very name of Senyasa. For theyoung men, then, except in rare

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cases, the life of the householdwith his compulsory responsibilities and inevitable burdens.
Through these a man learns to rulehimself, to master his lower nature,
and then he can be free withoutdanger to himself and to the community.
The great ideals of the past,adapted to the present and worked out in

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modern India, would spread from Indiato other nations of the world and would
gradually mold them into the same,rational, wholesome method of living, and
thus the whole world would be changedand carried on. We should gradually see
in the Western world as well,the purity of youth, the unselfish,

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generous life of the householder, replacingthe comparative ideals of modern civilization. We
should see the old men retiring andbecoming counselors and guides of families, and
a few here and there showing thegreat ideal of complete renunciation, of utter
indifference to all that the world cangive. Is it not worthwhile to rebuild

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that ideal here where its roots arestill struck, and where men's hearts still
chaeriship, and thus give to theworld a bright, object lesson of human
life, led in a reasonable spiritualfashion, of every part of man,
developed in its place, and usedfor the good of community. That is

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the thought that I would ask youto take away from this first of our
evenings. Together, study your ownpractical daily life and see where it fails.
And when you have seen this,then steadily walk back along the road
which will bring the ancient ideal backamongst us as a living fact. Do
not act impulsively, but carefully thinkout the question, and when you have

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thought it out, then act.Do not be content with idle dreaming.
Do not be content with simple aspirationand pious hope. Do not say we
hope that in the future India willgo along these lines, but rather say,
by the blessings of the gods,India, which is ourselves, shall

(01:00:13):
enter upon these lines in the personsof us, her living sons. We
shall take these little boys, whoare the citizens of the future India,
and educate them upon ancient models,so that they shall be trained as India's
boys would be. We shall bringthem under the influence of the old inspiration,
so that when they become heads ofhouseholds, they shall be examples of

(01:00:37):
what Indian husbands and fathers should be. We will hold up before them the
ideal of honored old age, respected, loved, reverenced by all. In
the plastic years of youth. Weshall hold up this ideal before them.
Nay, we shall ourselves live theideal before them. Imperfectly, though it

(01:00:59):
may be. They will work itout better. With better opportunities, they
will produce nobler models, and thenext generation will be higher still, and
the generation succeeding it will be loftierstill, and thus a new India will
be built up generation after generation.But the foundation shall be laid now,

(01:01:21):
without delay, without putting it offto the future. We will lay the
foundation, we, the living peopleof modern India, without shrinking from what
it costs us. We will laythe foundation, and on that our boys
shall build, and on their workour grandchildren shall build, and on that

(01:01:43):
again our great grandchildren. And thusshall be made a noble, purer and
more spiritual India. Such an Indiawill be fit to be the spiritual teacher
of all nations. Such an Indiawill be the Brahmana of humanity. Her
voice the voice of the gods.That is the glorious ideal of which I

(01:02:04):
call you to lay the foundation.Set you firm the stones on which the
edifice shall rest, and they whocome after us shall build the temple above
them. End of section three,Section four of Ancient Ideals in Modern Life

(01:02:28):
four Lectures. This is a LibriVoxrecording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information orto volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four Lecturesby any Bissant Lecture two Temples,
Priests and Worship, Part one.Brothers, if you look back to India

(01:02:54):
twenty five years ago, you willbe struck with the fact that the growing
youths of India at that time werevery largely materialized through the influence of purely
secular and Western training. That thetendency of the intelligent men of the time
was to turn more and more awayfrom their ancestral faith and to take as

(01:03:15):
their prophets Huxley, Spencer, Milland Hegel, rather than the great rishies
of the past. That tendency fatalto all spiritual life, and therefore to
the very life of India herself,has now most happily been checked. And
we find, as we look roundthe young men of the day, that

(01:03:36):
there is more and more inclination amongthem to learn about their religion, to
respect the great scriptures, to regardthe past with the reverence that is its
due, and to nurse some dawninghopes of the revival of the past spirituality
and past glory. That change isso clear, so marked, so indisputable,

(01:03:59):
that it is recognized on all handsalike. Some speak of it with
rejoicing, others with disapproval. Butwhether it be looked at by friend or
by foe, by those who praiseor by those who blame it, there
is equally the recognition of the fact. On that point, no challenge,
no dispute, arises. Side byside with this great revival of Hinduism,

(01:04:25):
there has of course been a revivalalso of some things that are regrettable.
For evil follows good as the shadowfollows the body, and we know from
the highest authority that all actions areenveloped in evil, as fire is surrounded
by smoke. It is one ofthe conditions of action in an imperfect world

(01:04:46):
that evil shall ever tread on theheels of good, and that all that
we can hope to do is toget the preponderance of good. If we
expect undiluted good, then we aredoomed to disappointment. We must be content
to win the most good with theleast possible evil, and if we succeed
in that, we shall have servedour generation well. It is equally clear,

(01:05:12):
I think that all who take partin that great revival of religion,
in however humble a way, mustalso do their utmost to minimize any evils
which may follow on its progressive path. Those who have a share in the
work of recalling the Indian people totheir great ideals, and of striving to
fan into flame the smoldering spark ofspiritual life have certainly the duty of giving

(01:05:38):
warning of the dangers that attend onthe revival, of trying to check abuses
at the same time that they stimulatereligious fervor and true spirituality. Religion has
two great enemies that have ever accompaniedit along its path throughout the history of
humanity. Materialism on the one side, superstition on the other, Both are

(01:06:02):
dangerous to true religion. Both holdweapons whereby to destroy the work of religion,
to render her useless to mankind.Materialism stands out a pronounced and open
enemy, with sword uplifted, tryingto strike her down. Superstition, more
insidiously, creeps up behind her,and, veiling her own face in the

(01:06:26):
mask of piety, offers the poisonedcup to her lips, striving to weaken,
if not wholly to destroy. Thosewho are servants of religion must seek
to guard her alike against the swordof the open foe and the poison cup
of the secret enemy. For lifemay be destroyed, whether by sword thrust

(01:06:47):
or by poison, and the faithfulservant must guard the life of his mistress
against both enemies, and warn theworld of the double peril that assails her.
But in dealing with such a subjectas that to which we turn our
thoughts this evening, we are facedwith the greatest and subtlest of difficulties.

(01:07:08):
I know of no subject which isharder to deal with rightly than the one
to which we are now to devoteour attention, Bound up as it is,
with all the feelings of reverence anddevotion that innoble and elevate humanity sacred
beyond all sacredness to those who knowsomething of what lies beyond the visible.

(01:07:29):
With the power of words too feebleto describe all that it includes, all
that it indicates, how can onedeal with those errors that injure it without
seeming to touch the sacred ark inwhich the life of the nation is enclosed.
There is a story in an ancientHebrew scripture that once the ark of
the Lord was being taken along theroad to its resting place, And as

(01:07:53):
the oxen drew the ark, someroughness in the road made it shake backward
and forward, so that it seemedin perilel falling. A man moved by
hasty impulse, put forward a roughand careless hand to touch the ark of
the Lord. The motive was good, but the action mistaken. As he
touched the ark, the power ofthe life that was in it smote him,

(01:08:16):
and he fell to the ground,senseless and slain, having touched so
unprepared the holy Ark of Israel.So great is a danger of touching these
arks of spiritual life, unless thehand be purified, unless the heart be
devoted. May the great Gods protectme who speak, and you who listen.

(01:08:41):
Lest in our very desire of servingthe great faith of our forefathers,
any irreverence should enter our hearts andwrong that which we earnestly desire to serve.
If there were a great one whoselimbs were loaded with fetters, who
was chained so that he could notmove to do his beneficent work, he

(01:09:01):
would do a useful service who stroveto file away the fetters that loaded his
limbs and prevented them from moving.And so it may be that, as
in the course of thousands of years, the great truths of Hinduism have become
surrounded on some points by errors,by superstitions and by evil practices, we

(01:09:24):
may be able, with all reverencefor truth, to file away the fetters
that clog the limbs of this greatestof religions, and so set her free
in modern days, as she wasin the ancient, to bless all India
with her power, and to drawthe hearts of all men to herself.
Just because the religion is so high, there is danger lest the errors encumbering

(01:09:48):
her should injure more than if thereligion were less lofty. A man who
is standing on the ground cannot bemuch injured by a fall, but a
man who has climbed up high mayshatter his limbs in the falling. So
it has ever been the case thatwhere the holiest is degraded, the most

(01:10:08):
harm is done. The loftier andthe greater the ideal, the more fatal
is the degradation of that ideal inits injurious power over the hearts and lives
of men. What was the templein the ancient days? What the image
of God? What the sacred shrinewherein it twelt? What the holy places

(01:10:29):
of pilgrimage, the turthas whither menwent to clans Alike the body and the
mind. What were all these inthe wonderful past, when every priest was
a true knower of the Supreme,and when the sacred science of the Self
shown in all its glory over thesacred land of India. What the temple
was in those ancient days, thoseperhaps best can tell. Who know what

(01:10:54):
the temples are today in the higherregions of the universe, The faint reflection
of whose glory was seen in thetemples of Hinduism, in the sounding of
the mantras uttered by lips Worthy torecite them. What then was the temple?
In those days? The temple wasthe center of divine influence, the

(01:11:14):
place where the presence of the godswas known and felt, where the glory
of the Gods would now and againshine forth in the eyes of the worshippers,
and where the love of the Bakhtawould draw down a visible manifestation of
the compassion of the deity. EveryOne coming with love and devotion to such
a temple found descending upon him acelestial influence that calmed the mind, that

(01:11:41):
elevated the spirit, that changed allthoughts of the world into thoughts of heaven,
and that made prayer arise, uncheckedby any obstacle, so that the
man felt, for the time beingas if he had entered within the very
gates of Svarga. So mighty apower was there that even the most careless
man who came there was for themoment changed and spiritualized by the wondrous force

(01:12:06):
which dwelt in the temple, bythe power radiated from the image of the
God within it. Such was theconsecration in the ancient days, when wisdom
and purity were always present in theleaders, in the days when knowledge spoke
the mantra, when none might comenear the temple as priest whose heart and
lips were not purified with the divinefire, When the priest who took the

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offerings of the faithful stood with outstretchedhands that were pure, when every offering
was sanctified by the love of thegiver, and sanctified still further by the
priest's hands as he took them topass them on as offerings to the gods.
So all alike were blessed, andthe holy influence radiated all around the

(01:12:53):
temple. Naturally, men dreamed thatin the temple, and it was not
all a dream. With the chantingof the mantras, the music of the
divas mingled its heavenly strain, andthat the worshippers, unseen but not unfelt,
joined in the worship of men.Such was the ancient temple a center

(01:13:15):
of spiritual life, and the imagesthat in those temples stood to remind the
worshippers of those mighty ones, someof whose attributes were shown forth by symbols,
by signs, by gestures. Thosegreat images were full of that power
which in its lowest form we speakof as magnetic, but which in its
highest form is a mighty spiritual force. For just as on the physical plane,

(01:13:42):
a man may take an object,may magnetize it and give it power
to heal diseases by mere contact,so can great richies, servants of the
high gods use the spiritual forces ofwhich the physical magnetism is the faintest reflection,
can pour that on the sacred image, can vivify it, can give
it mighty power, so that thevibrations coming from it harmonize everything that approaches

(01:14:06):
it. The bodies of the worshippers, the subtle body as well as the
physical, are thus made to vibraterhythmically with those higher vibrations, and thus
cease to be obstacles to the spirituallife, and serve instead as vehicles whereby
the Spirit may reach them. Sogreat is the force of such an image,

(01:14:27):
so mighty the power that it canexercise over worshippers who come with faith
and devotion. Such the idea ofwhat the image of a God should be,
Such in truth it was in theold days, and such it might
be to day. Then there werethe sacred turthas to which men and women
made pilgrimage, where they found somegreat Rishi, who, going down into

(01:14:51):
the water, consecrated that water byhis own spiritual influence and force, and
gave it power which the bare watercould by itself never have, who,
by the pouring out of the spirituallife within him, imparted to the fluid
the sacred power, which affected thebody, the mind, and the very

(01:15:12):
spirit of those who went into it. In the ancient days, when Rishi
had done his consecrating work, hisdisciples went into the water after him,
and then the crowd of pilgrims,treading with reverence, with solemnity, with
dignity, entered into the flood,thus rendered magnetic by the spiritual force poured
out into it. Imagine to yourselfthose ceremonies of the past. See how

(01:15:38):
they were pure, See how theywere holy, See how no hard words
were ever heard, How there wasno roughness, no jostling, nothing that
could disturb the sacred peace, theperfect harmony of the place. And then
you may dimly feel what pilgrimage meantin those days. Then you may dimly

(01:15:58):
feel what power of holiness came downon men in such a place to raise
them above the world in which theywere living. You can catch some faint
idea, and it can only bethe faintest of what the gods can do
for man, if man will onlymake the conditions that render it possible for
them to act, If they willbut prepare the physical world so that the

(01:16:20):
celestial life may flow down into cleanvessels that will not pollute the holy flood
that pours into them. If inthose days of the past, you could
have attended one of the ancient sacrifices, if you could have been present at
one of the ceremonies in those dayswhen the priests who served at the altar

(01:16:41):
were every one of them learned inthe Vedas, every one of them pure
in heart and in life at suchas ceremony, what would you have seen?
You would have seen earthly priests servingat the earthly altar. And then
if your eyes were open, youwould have seen the high gods who had
come down in order to be partakersof the offerings that were laid on the

(01:17:04):
altar. The great ricies, thesages, the mighty ones of the older
days, came to bless those whowere truly worshiping, to give the celestial
benediction to the sacrifice that was pureand to the worshippers who were worthy to
receive it. Vast hosts of heavenlyvisitors and heavenly choristers singing in harmony with

(01:17:27):
the mantras sung below, and rainof flowers celestial flowers as the sign that
the sacrifice was accepted, that thegods were well pleased. So great was
this religion in its older days,a copy of that which is mightiest in
the unseen world. Its temples modelsof celestial temples, its ceremonies, a

(01:17:48):
reflection of the ceremonies by which thespiritual evolution of the world is carried on.
Its priests, representatives of that highpriesthood who in the very presence of
the gods perform the Yajna and theYoga, by which alone the races of
men are led along the path ofthe higher life, and are guided from

(01:18:09):
the state of the brutes to thestate of the gods themselves. This religion
of Hinduism is the nearest copy ofthat divine ritual that exists on earth,
given to man, more perfectly modeledby the gods themselves than is the case
with any other faith that has beengiven to the human race. And therefore

(01:18:30):
is Hinduism dear to the heart ofthe occultist, divine in its ideas,
sacred and spiritual in its ceremonies,with all the mighty powers of the gods
within it. That is the religionwhich your fathers have bequeathed to you.
What have you done with that inheritance, oh you who boast yourselves their children.

(01:18:54):
Nor was that great and magnificent ritualand public religious life the only thing
that they gave to their beloved sonsand daughters of the Indian land they came
into the family, as they cameinto the temples, they gave them gurus
to teach them to guard from dawnto sunset the life of men and women.
To guide from conception to cremation.They gave to the family gurus who

(01:19:18):
should lead them step by step alongthe sacred path of life. There was
no incident in the life that wasnot consecrated by the touch of the Guru's
hand. He gave the second birth, while the father and mother gave the
physical birth only. And so wasthis the highest and most sacred of all
earthly ties, the tie between theGuru and the sishah. It was the

(01:19:43):
holiest of all charges, the chargeplaced in the Guru's hand to train the
soul, to guide the feet alongthe ancient narrow path as sharp as the
edge of the razor. Such wasthe Guru in the olden days, Such
his place in the family, suchhis help to those to whom he was
sent. Nor may the Poorohita beignored, who performed the household ceremonies of

(01:20:08):
religion. As the Guru gave thetraining to the soul, he also was
wise and pure. He also learnedand noble. If I name the name
of Hashishta, I name one ofthose who was household priest in the elder
days. Such then was this mightyreligion nay A million times more than this,

(01:20:30):
If only I had words whereby totell it. No thought of yours
can paint a picture more divine thanwas once seen in ancient India. All
words fail in telling of its beauty, All languages cold to describe the glory
of its power. What are thetemples now? And what their servants?
What the images and the tirthas?What is the family Guru and the family

(01:20:57):
Parohita? Let us remember, bringthat great ideal touch with careful hands all
that represents it. But nonetheless,let us see whether there do not exist
today evils of the gravest character whichare preventing the work of this great religion,
which are alienating the minds of someof the brightest children of India from

(01:21:17):
their ancestral faith, Which are weaponswhereby those who believe not in this faith
try to turn men's heart against it. I know, and you know it
also too well, that when thosewho are not Hindus in belief speak of
Hinduism, they do not speak ofthe glory of its scriptures, or of

(01:21:38):
the greatness of its philosophy, orof the wonders of its spiritual devotion.
They do not dwell on all thesegreat things which cannot be separated from any
true view of Hinduism. They takeup certain abuses. They point to scandals
that dishonor ancient fanes and pollute holyplaces, and bringing those out into the

(01:22:00):
light of day, they make themstand as the marks of this holy religion.
We cannot answer them alas we cannotanswer them because their reproaches are based
on facts that we know to betrue. Temples throughout modern India, how
far does the old consecrating influence stilllive in them to day? In some

(01:22:21):
it is still found. In goinginto some of the Indian temples, one
feels coming down into them. Evenin the outer courts, where stand those
who are not Hindus by birth,and who are therefore not permitted to enter
the sanctuary, One feels even therethe holy influence which was once so potent,

(01:22:42):
But it is faint and feeble,as though preparing to depart and to
be felt no more. I havebeen into some of the temples here where
there is still some touch of theancient power, still some vibrations of the
ancient spiritual magnetism, still some influencesthat calms the mind and fills the heart
with emotions of Bakti with love toGod and man. But those temples are

(01:23:09):
few and far between, and area small minority, instead of being everywhere
as they were in the older days, in a vast number. There is
no influence at all, no morethan there is in the world around them.
In sum at least, the influenceis of positive evil and not of

(01:23:29):
good magnetism, where want of learningand want of purity have polluted the ancient
magnetism that once dwelt therein Why becausewhen this great blessing of spiritual force is
given to any material object or place, it is not given as a force
that remains there, unchanged, nomatter what the surroundings. It tends,

(01:23:53):
as do all energies, gradually todissipate unless it is reinforced. Unless it
is renewed, it lessens in itspotency. That there is still some left
some of it in these temples ischiefly due to the crowds of pious worshippers
who go thither to make their offeringsto the gods. Their love and their

(01:24:15):
devotion reinforce the spiritual power that stillremains in some holy places, and the
possibility is thus shown of what mightreturn if duty were done on every hand.
What is true of the temples istrue of too many of the sacred
images. They too have lost theirancient power and no longer radiate much of

(01:24:35):
the celestial energy. But still,when a man with a heart of love
goes to bow down before such animage, the God will send him blessing,
even though he dwells not there habitually. For love in the human heart
attracts the love of the great ones, and they answer, however unworthy,

(01:24:56):
the surroundings where any soul of manis seeking after God and the Temple of
Brahmanas you know, as I knowthat, both in the South and in
the North, it is no wordof reverence that springs to the lips when
people speak about the Temple Brahmanas haveI not been told in Southern India by

(01:25:16):
man after man religious devoted at heartthoroughly Hindu worshippers in the temples, worshipers
of the Gods, that their greatdifficulty is that their temple priests are unlearned,
and that they are profligate in lifeas well as unversed in the knowledge
that should be theirs. Have theynot complained in bitter grief that this is

(01:25:41):
the great hindrance to religion, thatshame is continually being brought upon them.
Have they not prayed that some helpmay be given them to educate the priesthood
and to render those pure who servethe gods. For if a man of
evil life and foul thought stand besidesthe image of a God receiving the offerings
that are made, the foulness ofhis magnetism pours out upon the sacred image

(01:26:08):
and blasphemes it with a blasphemy worsea thousandfold than any attacks of missionaries can
be. For no words of theirscan injure it much, but the ignorance
and the impurity of the priests driveaway the celestial energy. Do we not
know that the very names of Mahatsand Pandas carry to the ears of many

(01:26:29):
who hear them, associations of degradationand not of spiritual power, of shame
and not of pride. Do wenot know that, if we stand at
a sacred tritha, we see theirscenes that make us turn away in bitter
shame, shocked at the rapacity ofthose who gather round the pilgrims, and
who in the very water that shouldbe sacred to the blessed gods absolutely strive

(01:26:56):
with each other physically to drag thepilgrims into their own hands for the sake
of money. Can the gods comedown to such places? Why there are
temples where learned and devout Hindus willnot allow women of their families even to
go. Can the gods come downto places where women are not safe?
Can the holy ones descend where shameis wrought in the name of piety and

(01:27:20):
religion? My brothers, these arethe scandals that are hindering the growth of
Hinduism. They are known, theyare whispered from one to another. They
are the cankers of this great religion, and they are eating away at its
heart and turning it against its ownchildren, who ought to be its most
faithful lovers and most ardent admirers.Do we not know that too often the

(01:27:46):
family Guru is not even looked onwith love and honor, not always because
of Western education and falling away fromreligion, but because it is hard to
give respect where there is nothing thatis respectable, And that most sacred of
all names, the name of Guru, has come to be a name that
some men shrink from using to anyteacher, they revere because of the shame

(01:28:11):
that has been brought upon it bythose who bear it unworthily, and of
section four recording by Olivia. Sectionfive of Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four
Lectures. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public

(01:28:32):
domain. For more information or tovolunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four Lecturesby any Bissant. Lecture two Temples,
Priests and Worship, Part two.If a man has in him a heart

(01:28:54):
that is strong enough, a faiththat is heroic enough to look through the
unworthy gurul to the great Guru,whose power may come down even through that
unworthy channel. If a man hascourage, devotion, and insight enough to
disregard the unworthy form and see init merely a channel for the power that

(01:29:15):
is divine, then the mantra givenby even such a Guru will purify and
spiritualize the man who takes it,and he will not suffer because the one
who gave it was not worthy tobe the giver. Do not then break
the tie of love the tie ofduty, even when the representative is unworthy

(01:29:38):
be patient for a little time.Bear with these unworthy ones, for the
sake of the ideal they represent,for the sake of the glory of the
past, and for the holiness ofthe name that is cast as a veil
over the unworthiness of the present.Remember that blessing will come to you even
through these, if you are worthyto receive it. But for those who

(01:30:02):
thus prostitute the holiest of names,who by ignorance and profligacy blaspheme the most
sacred of relations, for them theirlies in the future, the lowest of
narakas the doom of those who haveblasphemed the divine in man and have outraged
that which is the holiest and themost pregnant with the salvation of mankind.

(01:30:27):
Do you dream, because you livein modern days, that these great things
are but shadows of their former selves? Do you dream that they have lost
their real force, That the greattruths have lost their vital energy, That
the holy mantras have now no power, That the sacred scriptures have now no
magic and no strength. The changeis not in them, but in those

(01:30:50):
who use them, in whose handsthey are as forms empty of all life.
These things which once brought down themary powers of God before the senses
of men. I who speak toyou, I bear you witness that these
scriptures, which are yours, butwhose powers you know not, are still

(01:31:12):
as mighty as ever they were inancient days. That these mantras have still
as much of the ancient power asever, if only they are rightly uttered.
For I know that where the sacredshlokahs have been chanted by lips that
were wise and pure, all thatis said of the old days is true
to day, really as ever itwas in the past, even now.

(01:31:34):
To hear such chanting, the divasthrong from every quarter, making the air
vibrant with the rustle of their celestialgarments, filling the whole air with perfume,
while the silver tinklings of the bellsof the heavenly choristers chime in harmoniously
with the sonorous chanting of the samskritslochahs by the priest. That is still

(01:31:57):
true. It is not the formthat is wanting, It is the life
that should animate the form. Thereis the difficulty. It is that which
we have to seek. My brothers, is it possible for us to find
out a remedy without breaking the oldideals and while keeping them still sacred,

(01:32:17):
is it possible to get rid ofthe abuses which are strangling them to death
and to give back to India whatshe once possessed. I know well that
it would be easy enough to sweepaway all these abuses, for it would
not take much to stir the Indianheart to anger so that it would sweep
them all away. But it wouldat the same time sweep away all the

(01:32:41):
forms that need to be revivified,all the ideals, and not only the
abuses. There is the difficulty thatfaces us. Better be patient and bear
much, working slowly for change,than break all the vessels which contain the
possibilities of Indian spirituality for the future. It is easy enough by acts and

(01:33:01):
laws to change the outer things,to stop the outer scandals, easy enough
by acts that might be passed bya Christian government to say that a man,
once convicted of crime, should notagain be placed on the gaddie.
But are you sure that in thatquick and hasty method of reform, you
would not destroy the very thing thatwe must preserve if India's spirituality is to

(01:33:27):
survive. It is not always theoutwardly quickest way that is the best way
to take, especially in matter spiritual, which count time but little, which
regard the ideal as vital. Therefore, it is that in the lines that
I suggest, I put on oneside the rough and ready methods, whereby
politicians correct political abuses in matters wherethe conditions may be changed by enacting laws.

(01:33:54):
The evil here lies deeper than anylaw can touch. The harm is
rooted in regions in which no actcan run. Slow. Must be the
methods by which the deep change canbe brought about. Can we not be
patient in our workings if we seethe goal at which we aim? Two
things are chiefly wanted in order thatthe abuses I have spoken of may be

(01:34:17):
cleared away. One is the slowmethod of education, the other a rise
in the spirituality of the people ofthe Hindus themselves. I know full will
that these methods will not recommend themselvesto those who are so angry with the
evils that they see that they wouldstrike quickly in order to get rid of

(01:34:38):
them at once. I do notplead for the abuse when I ask you
to be patient in bearing it.The words of a wise teacher of the
ancient times should be remembered when hetold his disciples not to pull up too
hastily the weeds that had grown alongwith the wheat, lest they should also
pull up the young corn, butrather until the corn was strong enough to

(01:35:01):
bear the movement around its roots,so that the weeds might be gathered and
thrown into the fire, which wastheir proper place, without injuring the corn.
Education is the first thing wanted.When I speak of the ignorance of
the priesthood, I refer to thepriestly class spoken of above, and not
of course to those learned pandits profoundin their scholarship, whose learning is a

(01:35:27):
glory to their land, and whohave kept alive Indian philosophy. I am
not speaking of these great lights ofmodern India, but I speak of the
temple priests. That is where educationmust begin in order to strike at the
very root of mischief. You mustremember that significant declaration of Manu when he
said that as an elephant made ofwood, as an antelope made of leather,

(01:35:50):
so is an ignorant Brahmana. Thesethree have only the names. I
have met many a Bramana in southernIndia, who is ignorant even of Sanskrit,
and who knew not the very meaningof the mantras that he repeated,
even in the mere outward meaning oftheir words, far less the spiritual meaning

(01:36:11):
that underlies them. I have seenbramanas officiate at sacred ceremonies who could not
even pronounce aright their Sanskrit words,and who used wrong words in the midst
of the mantras, so taking awaythe little efficacy that they might have had
had they been rightly pronounced. Otherwords of Manu come to my mind,

(01:36:32):
certainly, not lacking in strength,as a eunuch is unproductive with women,
and a cow with a cow isunprolific. Even so useless is the Ramana,
who is not instructed in the Vedas. No words of mine are these
but words of that mighty teacher whostands at the head of Hinduism, nay
at the head of the present race. Shall we not then try to win

(01:36:56):
the priests to submit to education.Shall we not try to make it easy
so that education shall be open tothem on every side? Is it not
for us to reform the priesthood?Not from below may the purifying fire ascend.
It is for the priesthood to reformitself, and this it will do
if educated. The fire must comefrom the heart of the priestly community to

(01:37:21):
purify it. Otherwise the work willbe ill done and the results will be
transitory and poor. But there isalready a movement in southern India among the
religious Hindu community, and they haveappealed to us here to lend them a
helping hand in gaining a learned priesthood. Some of the trustees of the temples

(01:37:42):
have come and asked us whether itwas not possible, in connection with this
central Hindu college, to open atheological department where sons of priests might be
trained and educated and then go backto the temples and take up their father's
work, worthy to be servants ofhigh gods. The working out of that
plan is already in contemplation. Therewill be here made arrangements by which the

(01:38:06):
sons of priests will be taken supportedby those who send them, in order
that they may be trained in theelements of general morality and religion, and
also in Western knowledge. For itis necessary that the priest should not be
divided from the people by knowing nothingof that which they know. And therefore
it is proposed with the approval ofthose who have spoken to us that the

(01:38:30):
boys should be first trained in theordinary curriculum, and should then pass into
the theological department, and there betrained further in Sanskrit learning, as well
as in the ceremonial knowledge pertaining tothe duties of the priesthood. If that
scheme be carried out, if thecollege here cooperate with our brothers in the
South in this respect, surely thatwill be the beginning of brighter days.

(01:38:55):
If we can send forth a learnedpriesthood, such a priesthood will be pure
in life than if it is utterlyignorant, for with ignorance goes degradation.
If that task can be accomplished here, then a great work will be done
for India's future when the priests thustrained will go back to the temples that
they serve, and their lead livesrespected by the community, honorable, upright,

(01:39:19):
pious examples to those who throng tothe temples. So in other parts
of India, similar movements might bebegun. There is possibility of reform here.
Let us then plead with the prieststo educate themselves. Let us make
it easy for them to do it. There are plenty of funds contributed by

(01:39:41):
pious people, Why should not thesebe used for the benefit of the priesthood,
so that the temples may be servedby learned and pious Brahmanas this is
dealing with the very root of theevil, is it not a thousand times
better to do this than to appealto government to acts which simply cut off
the heads of abuses while the rootsremain untouched. Let us work patiently then,

(01:40:08):
and within thirty years the priests willbe changed without giving religious feeling a
shock, without outraging its sensibilities.That is not all. Every nation has
as its teachers the teachers that itdeserves. If there are serving in the
temples many who have no right tobe there, it is because of the

(01:40:29):
low level of spirituality in the massesof the people. Karma gives to every
nation that which that nation has earned. The priesthood given to India is fitted
to the degraded spiritual life among herpeople. It is the way of the
West to see the outer evils onlyand to try to destroy them. It

(01:40:50):
is the way of the East tostudy the law of Karma and to sow
seeds that shall bring forth fair harvest. Interests of our lives are not centered
in one life, as the Westthinks. But we are taught that we
are not bounded by these bodies.We are living life after life, and
so we can afford to work forthe future as men work who know that

(01:41:15):
their life goes on growing and evolving. Let us then turn our hearts and
lives towards ancient ideals. Let usbegin by spiritualizing ourselves. Let us worship
faithfully and with devotion. Let usmeditate daily, steadily and perseveringly for spiritual
fervor. Let us purify our livesand learn charity, tenderness, love of

(01:41:39):
all that is around us. Letus improve ourselves, and Karma will and
must send us priests who will beworthy to serve at the altar and in
the family. Let us trust theGood Law and the Gods behind every phenomenon.
Their power is real, the powerthat guides all nations. Let us

(01:42:00):
offer pure lives of devotion, andthey will give us back as reward.
A pure priesthood and teachers who arelearned and spiritual men. Those two methods
of change. I venture to recommendto you the education of the priesthood and
the raising of the standard of spiritualityin the nation. Let each man take

(01:42:20):
this to himself and not put itoff on his neighbor. Let us not
say India has sunk low, butrather let us say I have sunk low,
and I must rise. If everyman says that, then India will
rise. If each man will cultivatethe vineyard of his own life, the

(01:42:42):
whole area will be cultivated, andthe blessings of the gods will be once
more upon the people. So withregard to the family Guru and the family
priests, rather work hard and waitthan hastily break up and destroy. But
there is one outer thing that youmight fairly do in every ceremony where choice

(01:43:04):
is yours. When there are ceremoniesto which you invite Brahmanas, and you
choose them from among the great massaround you, then without transcending your own
proper duty, you could always chooseonly the learned and the pure. You
should, on such occasions leave onone side the illiterate and the profligate.

(01:43:26):
Where choice is yours, why shouldyou not choose the useful instead of those
that are branded as useless. Thusyou will bring about some changes that will
come more rapidly without touching the holyideals that we all feel the necessity of
preserving. Still further, it seemsto me it may be possible to go.

(01:43:46):
But here I speak with something ofdoubt, because of the exceeding difficulty
of finding any person who has aright to move in the matter of finding
any recognized authority, is it quiteimpossible that we might win the more thoughtful,
the more learned of the priesthood tojoin with us and give us their

(01:44:06):
helping hand in stopping some of theworst scandals that go on around us day
by day. Might it not bepossible that a body of good mahans and
pandas should, as a first step, exclude from his office a mahunt or
panda who has been condemned by lawfor some shameful crime. I do not

(01:44:27):
see any lack of readiness on theirpart to go to the courts where their
own interests are concerned, so thatthey already have recourse to the ruling power.
With regard to temporalities, we allknow how the money offered to the
gods is squandered in courts in litigatingcases, and how the offerings of the
faithful are spent on the law andthe lawyers. We all know also that

(01:44:50):
priests themselves sometimes mortgage away their rightsto receive such offerings, and that the
offerings of Hindus intended to support theirlife pigeon go to persons outside Hinduism,
to those who are not even ofthe Hindu faith. It does not seem
impossible, therefore, that the samepower might be invoked by the more worthy

(01:45:12):
of the priests to redress flagrant scandals, to interfere with and prevent unworthy priests
from continuing to receive emoluments belonging totheir office. It does not seem impossible
that the honorable men might make atribunal whose voice should be recognized as authoritative
by the civil government, so thatwhen it pronounced a man unworthy, its

(01:45:35):
decision should be recognized as barring himfrom bringing any suit to claim any place
in a temple, or any maintenanceor proprietary rights. It seems to me
not impossible that such a thing mightbe done applied first to a man condemned
by the law for a crime.It might be applied gradually as the standard

(01:45:57):
rises to less flagrant cases. Butthis plan can only be worked out by
those who are learned alike in religionand in law. I can only in
this give hints and suggestions. Itis for wise and learned Hindus to see
if anything can be done practically inthis direction without injuring the ideal of a
true priesthood, and without destroying anythingthat is worthy of preservation. If some

(01:46:23):
such immediate changes can be brought about, and if the growing spirituality of the
people and improved education raise the statusof the priesthood. If these purifying forces
go on step by step, thenit would seem that brighter days will dawn
again for Hindu faith and Hindu practice. Apart from the ignorance and the immorality

(01:46:45):
of the priesthood, there are otherthings that need to be changed in connection
with some few of the temples,though happily found only in comparatively few.
Animal sacrifice and notch girls. Iknow well, perhaps better than many of
those who defend it, the hiddentruth out of which animal sacrifice has arisen.
But the slaying of animals as nowperformed is utterly indefensible, and the

(01:47:11):
shedding of their blood pollutes and defilesthe temples where it takes place. A
surik are these animal sacrifices of thekhali Yuga, tormenting the aggregated elements forming
the body and me also seated inthe inner body, and they should be
entirely discontinued, so with the notchgirls. Originally there existed in connection with

(01:47:35):
the temples a band of pure maidens, vestal virgins, through whose unsullied lips,
from time to time a god ora great Rishi would speak, warning
or teaching the worshippers. Only apure virgin could serve as such a vehicle
for the temporary embodiment of a greatone whose physical body was far away.

(01:47:58):
These virgins were guarded with the greatestcare and were looked on with the greatest
reverence theirs. It was to servethe priests ministering at the shrine, and
to weave the mystic dance with sacredgarlands, moving to the measure of the
music that they chanted amid the fragrantsmoke of incense, as the stately procession
moved from Faine to Faine. Asthe priests degenerated, they dragged down the

(01:48:24):
temple maidens with them, until nowtheir name carries with it only suggestions of
shameful vice. Little wonder that allgood influences have fled, where womanhood is
thus degraded, and the highest spiritualuses have been changed into lowest sin.
Is it all a dream, impossibleof realization? That Indian temples shall again

(01:48:47):
be what once they were, ThatIndian sacred images again shall have their divine
power, That Indian priests shall againbe what they ought to be, models
for these for whom they minister.That gurus shall be wise, pious,
and learned, worthy to train theirshishas along the path of wisdom, virtue

(01:49:09):
and piety. Is this only autopian dream, my brothers, I cannot
think it, For in this landthere still remains what no other land in
the world possesses. There is stilla spiritual life hidden within the hearts of
men. There are still places whereit makes itself felt. There are still

(01:49:30):
spots which are holy and which arekept holy for the sake of the future
that yet shall be born. Thereis still in the hearts of the Indian
people a spiritual fiber that elsewhere isnot found. There is still response from
them to a spiritual appeal that noother nation in the world is as yet
able to give. Is all thatto be wasted, all these to be

(01:49:54):
lost. At the very moment whenIndian thought is penetrating the world, is
in herself to be excluded from thatgreat life that through her is pouring out
to the nations of the West.That need not be, that shall not
be, if only India's children willdo what they should do, by virtue

(01:50:15):
of the past behind them, byvirtue of the gods above them, by
virtue of the great ricis who stilllive, and who love their ancient fatherland,
who even in their high estate,turn eyes of tenderest love on India's
children and welcome them with a greaterjoy than they welcome the children of other
lands. Then shall India rise.I cannot believe that India has no future,

(01:50:42):
that this greatest of all faiths hasno revival possible, which shall place
her on a pinnacle where all theworld shall worship her as a mighty power
for spirituality. Surely she shall,despite all be the mother of spiritual races.
Yet unborn, I dream of atime when temples again shall be centers

(01:51:03):
of spiritual life, when the sacredmantras shall ring out again in all their
purifying, harmonizing force, When thelanguage of the divas shall regain its ancient
power, when the hearts of menshall bow in worship before the great gods
who rule over mankind, and beforethe divine teachers, who are their nearest

(01:51:24):
priests. Of that I dream,my brothers, and I know that even
if this dream be but a dream, which may the gods forbid, even
then it is good to work forspiritual regeneration. Whether this dream be true
or not, no force can bewasted, no change that is for good

(01:51:45):
can be lost. Spirituality growing hereshall cause spirituality to grow all the world
over. Even if the crown ofspirituality may not be India's, nay,
may go elsewhere, those who workfor her to day will be content that
somewhere there will rise a spiritual teacherbefore whom all the world shall bow in

(01:52:08):
homage. That spiritual teacher may wearan Indian body, may be in the
likeness of the Rishis of old.For that, I pray the gods for
that I work. For that Igive the life that now I hold,
And I pray you that you alsowill give your lives. You who have
the privilege of Hindu birth, whichin this life I have not, You

(01:52:31):
who can go into the temples whereI may not go, who may worship
where I may not worship. Iam pleading for that which should be dearer
to you than it is to me. Will you be deaf to the pleadings
of love? And let India perishas she must perish if her religion dies

(01:52:54):
and of section five recording by OliviaSections of Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four
lectures. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public
domain. For more information or tovolunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.

(01:53:14):
Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four Lecturesby any Peasant. The caste System Lecture
three, Part one. My brothers, we are to study tonight that characteristic
system of caste which we find inIndia from the very earliest days of the
Aryan civilization, which has persisted inits form down to the present time,

(01:53:36):
and which is probably the chief reasonfor the stability of Indian society. In
studying this system, we shall proceedalong the same lines that we have hitherto
followed. First, we shall lookat it in its state of perfection.
Then we shall see it as ithas degenerated until it reached its present position.
Then we shall consider whether any changesare practicable which should restore it to

(01:53:59):
its former usefulness and glory, anddeprive it of the many disadvantages and mischiefs
at present connected with it. Anysubject that deals with the social life of
a people needs very careful consideration,and suggestions of the introduction of any changes
must be made with the greatest caution, with the greatest deliberation. Therefore,
in dealing with the latter part ofthis subject, I shall put before you

(01:54:21):
tentatively certain propositions which may serve atleast as the basis for discussion, even
if not accepted in the form inwhich they are originally presented. It seems
to me necessary, in dealing withthe point of this kind, and with
all questions like this, that weshould distinguish very clearly between that which is
essential and that which is non essential. That is, we must divide our

(01:54:43):
subject into those parts which are vital, those parts which are permanent, and
the parts which are non essential,which are temporary, which do not spring
out of the original principles, buthave to do with the more modern conditions
accretions that have grown up around thesystem, and which by no means are
as to its fatality. But ratherdetrimental to its life. Now, as

(01:55:03):
regards the original idea of the castesystem, it is laid down exceedingly,
carefully and clearly among many other passagesin the bagavad Gita fourth discourse. Here
Shri Krishna himself says, the forecasts were emanated from me by the different
distribution of energies and actions, knowme to be the author of them.

(01:55:25):
That is a distinct declaration from thelips of Shri Krishna himself as to the
origin of the system. He putshimself forward as the author, and he
states that the division rests on certainfundamental principles in nature and follows a certain
distribution of qualities or energies into actions. We find, if we take the
terms there used, that it isthe distribution of the gunas and the karmas

(01:55:47):
that determine casts. These are theessential fundamental qualities in nature and the actions
arising from them which cause certain inevitableresults. On these two things, the
foe casts, he declares, arebased. They are not according to this
arbitrary distinctions. They are not accordingto this artificial creations of society. They

(01:56:10):
are fundamental natural divisions based on differencesof materials based on resulting differences of actions.
Such is declared by the mouth ofthe Great Teacher to be the foundation
of the four castes. In manyother passages we find the same idea worked
out. Some of the great teachersgive certain qualities as characteristic of each of

(01:56:30):
the four castes. Some go sofar as to say that if these qualities
do not exist in a man bornin any particular cast he is not really
a member of that caste. Totake a case from the Maha Barata,
reciting the qualities belonging to a Bramenaand the qualities belonging to a Shitra,
the teacher declared, quote, ifthese qualities are seen in a Cidra and

(01:56:51):
are not found in a Brahmana,then the Shitra is not a citra,
nor is that Brahmana a Bramena endquote. So we see that this view
of the system is put forward thatthere are certain fundamental differences in nature,
and the caste system being based onthese, should show out the same characteristic
differences. If we study the systemcarefully, we shall find that these four

(01:57:15):
casts present the path of evolution alongwhich a human soul develops. We shall
find in fact that these fundamental divisionsare by no means peculiar to Hinduism,
are not only to be found inIndia, but that they are universal in
their nature. They are recognizable overthe whole of the countries of the world.
The difference that we see between Indiaand the other states of the West

(01:57:36):
is simply this that in the Hindusystem, these differences are recognized and society
is definitely organized on their basis,while in the other countries these differences are
not definitely recognized and the social orderis not connected with them. Where you
get a system in which these differencesare recognized and that the social order is
based upon them, it is spokenof as a system of castes. Where

(01:57:59):
you have a society without this recognition, but where the qualities assert themselves in
spite of the ignoring of them.We speak of a system of classes.
But the lines are easy to beseen and may be definitely recognized. And
you find in all past civilizations aswell as in the present civilization, the
same lines of cleavage, the samenatural fundamental distinctions. Now in the definite

(01:58:21):
recognition of these lines of cleavage,there is a distinct social value. It
tends towards the stability of society.It tends to contentment, to the absence
of continual competition and strife, andit makes society orderly and progressive at the
same time. It is not withoutsignificance that in one of the social utopias
which have been sketched in the Westwe find a system of society outlined by

(01:58:45):
the great French philosopher Auguste Comte,whose philosophy is now called the positive philosophy,
and who found it on that philosophythe reorganization of society. It is
not without significance at the caste systemis there definitive we revived, and the
characteristic marks imprinted on it by Hindusages are found reappearing. In this latest

(01:59:05):
offspring of Western political social thought.We have there a well organized priestly class
on the lines of the cast ofthe Brahmanas I have not time to tell
you the details of that system,of which one note is the mystical one
of organizing in sevens, but itis important that the man at the head
of that class is to appoint oneof his fellow priests as his successor,

(01:59:28):
so that the authority is always fromabove and never from below. The whole
control over commerce is to be ina class corresponding to that which we here
call the Weishia caste, great capitalistswho organize labor. And again in a
separate body we have the proletariat representingthe Shitra cast The only caste that does
not appear in this utopia is theKshatriya. Because the whole of this system

(01:59:53):
is based on the supposition that societywill be peaceful there being an absence of
war, there's no need for amilitary class. We have thus a definite
caste system re established on purely scientificlines, and the motto of the positive
society is order with progress. Thisis the same fundamental notion as we have

(02:00:13):
in connection with the great Indian systemof caste. The next thing to remember
is that this system, as regardsthe soul, is a great educated system.
Reincarnation is always implied in it.The soul passes from one caste to
another according to the qualities it hasdeveloped, according to the actions it has
performed. It may rise upward orit may sink downwards. But always the

(02:00:36):
effect of one berth shows itself inanother berth, and the soul is led
stage by stage along the pathway ofevolution. And very plainly is this shown
when you look upon the caste systemin its pure form. The higher the
caste, the greater the restrictions,the heavier the duties, the more burdensome
the weight of responsibility blased on itsshoulders. This system, in its original

(02:00:59):
form was not a system of rightsclaimed by a caste, but a system
of duties imposed on a caste.The higher the caste, the heavier the
duties. As you study it,you find that the easiest life, the
life with the least responsibility, withthe least difficulty, with the least restriction,
was the life of a member ofthe lowest caste, and not of
the highest. As a man rosefrom one cast to another, as the

(02:01:23):
soul grew older and stronger, hewas made to resign more and more.
Every restriction that was put upon aman was put on in order to make
him of greater service, and notto minister to his vanity or pride.
If the Braminah were surrounded with respect, it was on his shoulders that lay
the burden of renunciation and sacrifice,of poverty and learning. All these restrictions

(02:01:45):
were not made that he might beseparated from the people and pride himself on
his separateness, but that he mightbe kept pure as a channel through which
divine life might flow to the people. And a man could only pass into
that cast when he had learned thelesson of sacrifice, when he had learned
to serve as a shidra, whenhe had learned to give and be charitable
as of aisha, when he hadlearned to sacrifice life itself as eksatria.

(02:02:11):
Then when he had become a loverof asceticism and learning, then was he
permitted to pass into the order ofbrahmenas to give himself to the people as
their teacher, counselor, and guide. That was the original idea of the
system. That the kind of wayin which the system worked, it is
well that you should be aware inconnection with it, that a certain definite

(02:02:32):
type of subtle body belonged to eachcaste according to the qualities we read,
the casts were emanated, but thequalities were expressed in the subtle invisible bodies.
And the type of each caste ismarked in the nature of the invisible
bodies that belonged to it. Thatsuk Sma Sarira, the subtle body was
different in the four casts, wasbuilt up according to the qualities of each

(02:02:56):
special guest, so that four typesof suksma shoulds belonged to the four casts,
and the qualities were expressed in appropriateorganisms and had each their appropriate vehicle
in which they could manifest. Whatthen, was the part which heredity played
in this system. Heredity was theobvious necessary way of providing suitable physical bodies

(02:03:18):
to suit each type of subtle bodiesin which the qualities were manifested. It
was necessary to build up by physicaleretity the kind of physical body which should
answer to the type of the invisiblebody, and so heredity became a part,
a necessary part of this system,in order that the physical body might
be suited to the subtle body,that the whole of the men might be

(02:03:40):
consistent, and that there might notbe inconcruity between the subtle and the gross
vehicles. How enormous was the difficultyof changing from one cast to another,
you may estimate by the famous andwell known case of Vishuvamitra. If you
realize this difference of bodies, thenyou will be able to unders stand why
it was so difficult for a manto pass from one cast to another.

(02:04:03):
Vishwamitra having been born in the Khatriyacaste, with the sukshma sharira of the
Kshatriya and the physical body fitted byKshatriya heredity to serving correspondence with that subtle
body. It was by no meansan easy thing for him to change from
the cast of Shatriyas into the castof Brahmanas. In needed, you may

(02:04:25):
remember a process of yoga prolonged throughan enormous number of years in order to
make the necessary changes in those bodieswhich might render the transition possible. It
was not a thing of a day, or a month or a year.
It was not that a man shouldmerely show the qualities of the higher order.
But it was only definite yogic practicesprolonged through enormous periods of time,

(02:04:46):
by which changes were made in thetype which rendered it possible for the gods
to greet him with the title ofBrahmarshi. Looking backwards, we cannot but
recognize these fundamental types, great linesof cleavage, and the place of heredity
as an essential part of the systemin the well organized arrangement of the whole.

(02:05:09):
A man who did not perform thedharma of his caste and thus made
a discord between the invisible and visiblebodies, was in the old days outcasted,
and thus the purity of caste wasmaintained. Thus, suitable physical bodies
were continually produced by heredity, andpure heredity was protected by outcasting. Thus,

(02:05:30):
studying we begin to see how andwhy this system was formed, and
how and why it has given toIndian society such remarkable stability. Further than
this, we may notice that,from a true Hindus standpoint, one particular
life in a body was not regardedof such great importance as it is now
generally regarded in modern India. Aman who by his past was born in

(02:05:56):
a body of a particular caste didnot look upon that as a matter of
such vital import as people are inclinedto do in these degenerate days. The
man took the karma of his bodywith perfect cheerfulness, knew it was only
for a short time, was contentto accept it for that time and to
build for himself a better body inthe future. If he found that in
the past he had built a bodywhich was unsatisfactory to him, you find

(02:06:20):
a man in any order, willinglytaking up the duties of that order,
and discharging them with contentment, andrecognizing his place in the commonwealth. If
I wanted to give an example,I might take the very speaker of Bagpat
Khitan Shri Krishna himself, who,having chosen to be borne in the cast
of Ekshatriya because that was the bestbody for the work which was to be

(02:06:42):
done, never dreamed of asserting hisown inner superiority, his own divine nature,
but willingly bowed down and washed thefeet of Brominas, showing an example
which was due from the body whichhe had chosen to take, and which
was appropriate to the situation which heheld in life. I say that in
order that this old view may bebefore you in its various aspects, and

(02:07:04):
that you may realize how in thosedays, when the spiritual laws were better
understood, the castes worked without rebellionor discontent on the part of any member,
however great or low his position,For it was recognized that all souls
passed through all castes. In turn, that if a man was born in
a low cast today, he hadonly to evolve a higher nature in order

(02:07:27):
to be born in a higher castThereafter, men did not look on birth
as a matter of chance, butas a matter of law, and they
accepted the working of the good Lawand conformed themselves to its provisions. Gradually,
however, a change arose. Thissystem, originally founded and worked by
great ricies. The different castes inhabitedby souls of strongly marked in different characteristics,

(02:07:49):
worked well enough in those days,But as less and less developed souls
were born into the system, theirqualities no longer coincided with the special caste
into which they were born. Lessand less evolved souls came into Indian bodies
for training and instruction, and wereno longer able to fulfill the dharma of
the cast in which they were born. Then began the time of the multiplication

(02:08:13):
of castes and the subdivisions of theoriginal four great orders. Men, who
could not show out the qualities whichin themselves would win the respect generally due
to their caste, began inventing artificialbarriers by which they might separate themselves from
others. Not showing out any differencein the soul, they laid more and

(02:08:33):
more stress on social and personal advantages. They built up wall after wall.
They built up distinction after distinction toextort respect where their qualities did not naturally
win it, and so introduced artificialdistinctions which were not present in nature and
had no basis in the facts oflife. Then there grew up these endless

(02:08:54):
subdivisions, which are the great invery baneful characteristics caste system in the modern
days, hundreds upon hundreds of subcasts, effacing the original order, hundreds of
subcasts, blurring all the natural linesand resting on unreal, unnatural, purely
artificial foundations, increased in their numberby vanity and pride, continually multiplied by

(02:09:20):
the spirit of exclusiveness, as menlost sight of the unity of the self
and forgot that the forecasts were thefour ways of expressing his qualities. Thus
multiplied by this spirit of difference andseparateness, the number of subcasts and subdivisions
grew more and more exclusiveness grew upin the heart. A man prided himself

(02:09:41):
on the particular subdivision in which hewas born, and put out his brothers,
excluding them from his own subdivision,and ever striving to multiply distinctions,
as separateness grew even more plainly marked. Hence we find today that the spirit
of caste is essentially a spirit ofanad exclusiveness, a spirit of pride and

(02:10:01):
vanity, of indifference to the feelingsof others, of harshness and contempt towards
those who are excluded from special privileges. We find in it an indifference to
the feelings of those who are shutout. And instead of a man thinking
that he was born a Brahmana inorder that he should serve those around him,
he prides himself on being a Brahmanain order to stand apart from them

(02:10:24):
and above them, claiming for himselfprivileges and distinctions that they are not allowed
to acquire. At the same timethat this has been done, the dharma
of the caste has been utterly neglected. That a man should be poor and
learned, that used to be theglory of a Brahmana, but in modern
days, that he should be richand ignorant is generally his pride. Instead

(02:10:46):
of finding the Brahmana versed in theVedas, you find him pleading in the
law courts and versed in the Westerncivilization. Can you wonder that when the
dharma of the caste is thrown aside, the respect which was once shown to
the caste should also, at thesame time disappear. Can you wonder that
when a Brahmana has abandoned his duty, others should refuse to him the privileges

(02:11:09):
that he still claims. When youcannot distinguish him by his qualities from the
shitra, why should he be treatedwith respect by the shitra? Can you
wonder that the schidra should revolt againstthe superiority claimed but not manifested, against
the privilege extorted instead of being gladlygiven to well acknowledged merit. Where a

(02:11:31):
Brahmana is found who is as heought to be, learned, frugal,
wise, pure in heart, allmen are still willing to show him reverence,
to bow down to him, andrecognize him as a leader and teacher.
Men are not, as a rule, unwilling to recognize excellence. Men
are sometimes but too ready to beled, too glad to be guided.

(02:11:52):
The human heart is always seeking forsomeone to lead it, someone to teach
it, someone to guide it.And how exceedingly strong is this yearning in
humanity may be seen in the pitifulspectacle of crowds bowing down to sorry heroes
and heroines not worthy of their respectfor lack of true heroes of the right

(02:12:13):
kind. When we find in Indiansociety today continual complaints against bromanus, a
feeling of anger, a feeling ofjealousy, a feeling of envy, a
desire to throw all castes aside,we should see in that the result of
the fact that men are unreasonably demandingrespect where others are unwilling to yield.
It that men demand every privilege forgetfulof every duty, and that where privilege

(02:12:39):
is grudgingly yielded, resentment grows upin the place of reverence and love.
From time to time, it wasas though the gods themselves protested against the
growing degeneracy and falsehood of the system, by sending some of the noblest souls
to take birth in low caste bodies, or even in those out of caste
altogether less, several of the holiestand most revered saints in southern India wore

(02:13:01):
the bodies of parias. Let usalso remember, in connection with this the
distinction between the essential and the nonessential of which I spoke in the beginning.
The essential is the great fourfold division, because this is founded in nature.
The non essential is the innumerable artificialsubdivisions, chiefly founded on vanity and

(02:13:22):
on the spirit of exclusiveness. Letus then separate in our thought the fourfold
system of caste from the hundreds ofsubcasts that we see around us on all
sides, and let us lay down, as one possible line of improving the
present system, the recognition of thefourfold division only and the gradual ignoring of
those hundreds of subdivisions that have arisen. Now on this point, an authority

(02:13:46):
worthy of all respect in the orthodoxHindu community has spoken clearly and distinctly.
In Southern India, there is atthe head of one of the great maths,
one who holds the honored name ofSri Shankritaria Aim, which has come
down as that of the head ofthat bath from the time of the great
Teacher of Advita, who is recognizedas the man who stands as the head

(02:14:07):
of the whole religious community, andwhose words are listened to with reverence by
the whole body of the Southern Hindus. Only a few years ago, speaking
with all the weight of that authority, he declared that the Hindus should drop
this modern system of subcasts, andthat within the limit of each cast.
There should be intermarriage and interdining.All Bramanas should be willing to intermarry with

(02:14:31):
all Bramanas, and to interdine withall Bramanas, and so with the other
three casts. In recommending this change, I am therefore but repeating what has
been suggested by one of the recognizedOrthodox authorities. This change is in no
way detrimental to Hinduism, but isnecessary to meet the conditions of modern days.
It is not the four great divisionsthat raise so much antagonism, but

(02:14:54):
these lines of artificial subdivision that separateman from man and split the whole Indian
community into small fragments and associations.These subdivisions go against the possibility of national
spirit, against the growing up ofsocial unity. They make it almost impossible
to weld the people into one Forwhere community is divided into innumerable parts,

(02:15:18):
all possibility of national and social unitydisappears. And of Section six read by
Sandra Near, Montreal, twenty twentytwo. Section seven of Ancient Ideals in
Modern Life, four lectures. Thisis a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings

(02:15:43):
are in the public domain. Formore information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot Org. Ancient Ideals inModern Life. Four lectures by Annie Bezant
The Caste system, Part two.Supposing one of the possible reforms to be
that we put forward this idea ofpreserving the fourfold order but gradually abolishing the

(02:16:05):
numerous subdivisions. Might it not bepossible to win the educated opinion of India
to that idea, and so graduallyto restore some vitality to this system?
Might it not be possible that theseinnumerable subdivisions should be gradually abolished without shaking
the foundation of the fourfold order whichShri Krishna declared to be established by himself.

(02:16:28):
Then a question is continually raised,can there not be transition from caste
to caste? I cannot but askyou in answer, where would the authority
be found which would be capable ofguiding such a transition and would be recognized
by all as truly authoritative. Franklyspeaking, I do not believe that it
is practicable until a great authority,a true spiritual authority, is once more

(02:16:50):
manifested and recognized through India, whichwill speak with the divine voice and be
able to give the recognition which isbased on knowledge you may remember that in
the famous case a Vishvamitra before mentioned, it was not a recognition from those
around him that he sought, buta recognition from the gods themselves, and
from no lower authority. It wasonly when they proclaimed him of Bramarsh that

(02:17:15):
the transition was recognized, and onlytrue spiritual knowledge would be able to decide
on such a point. Rather,would I suggest the old and wise way
of looking at this matter, thatwhatever be the body one is born with,
one should cheerfully accepting the karma ofthat body, work in that body,
with all its advantages and disadvantages,whatever they may be. If a

(02:17:37):
bad body be what is obtained byone's karmath, then one should cheerfully pay
the karmic debt and hope for abetter body in the future. If the
soul has taken a lower body thanthat to which his qualities entitle him,
then it is proper to apply tosuch a case the theory that the soul
has made the sacrifice for the sakeof rendering some service to humanity, and

(02:17:58):
having made the sacrifice, why shouldhe grudge the payment of that sacrifice,
and why should he not accept thekarma of that body and willingly take upon
himself all the disadvantages that may entail. If we were more spiritual in our
vision, and not so limited bythe illusion of the body, we should
not lay so much stress on thesebodily distinctions, but should cheerfully accept the

(02:18:20):
working of the law and follow wherethe law may lead. Now we come
to another fundamental point, one ofthe most practical we can consider. In
the old days there was a definitediscipline in each cast How was that discipline
exercised? In the old days?Outcasting was the instrument of discipline. What
were the causes of which outcasting wasthe effect? This was necessary, as

(02:18:45):
we've seen, in order to maintainthe purity of the caste. Where the
qualities of the caste were not shown. There the man was outcast and was
not allowed to injure the family heredityby passing on the type of a body
polluted by his evil qualities. Stillthat old machinery, there is still that
old name of outcasting. But thequestion arises today, by whom is that

(02:19:07):
authority used? On whom is thatauthority exercised? Those who wield the authority
of caste are by no means inthe present day, for the most part,
the true leaders of the caste,in learning, in wisdom, in
purity, in the respect of theirfellows. I speak what many of you
know to be the fact that,over and over again, when decision is

(02:19:28):
given in one of these castes ubdivisions, that decision is brought about by those
who are, by no means theworthiest members of that caste. It is
largely a matter of intrigue and privateinterest, a matter of active exertion by
some who have personal motives behind thework that they are doing. This is
a well known fact, and toooften the decision of a caste is swayed

(02:19:50):
by men who, by outer formalityof religion, gain an outer respect not
warranted by purity of life, bylearning, by wisdom and nobility of character.
You know further as well as Ido, that when you come to
deal with outcasting is now practiced,it is not only that the people who
practically control the decision are those whoought not to do it, but also

(02:20:11):
that they exercise their authority over thoseover whom that authority should not be exercised.
You know perfectly well that within thelimits of a caste, a man
may outrage every principle of morality,and yet no man will think of out
casting him in life. He maypractically disregard all the caste principles, but

(02:20:31):
if he keeps an outward show,he's not outcasted. That man may go
to a hotel, may eat beef, may get drunk, but provided he
goes in by the back door andnot by the front door, his castmen
will shut their eyes to his errors. Whereas if a man travels out of
India, however well educated he maybe, however pure the life he may
lead, however useful he may beto his community, you will find that

(02:20:56):
in some subdivisions of a caste heis outcasted for the mere fact of traveling.
How can a system last where suchinjustice is done. If a young
man leaves his country and goes abroad, When he returns, it is a
mere question of chance whether he shouldbe outcasted or not. Some men,
when they have come back, haveagain been received by their caste men,
while others have not been. Ido not wish to mention any names,

(02:21:20):
but I could quote name after nameof men who have traveled abroad, and
are known to have so traveled,and who have been received by their own
caste, with welcome on their return. And I could also quote you a
long number of names of those whohave been treated in exactly the opposite way,
who've been outcasted on their return,although no challenge has been made against
their morality except that they have crossedthe black water. Sometimes of Iceia goes

(02:21:43):
abroad, comes back and is welcomedin his cast while in another case of
Iicia goes and is outcasted on hisreturn. Only the other day in Calcutta,
Ashata was performed in which five hundredOrthodox Brahmanas were present, and yet
it was the shrine of the fatherof a man who had taken a degree
in Europe, while there are manywho for the same reason have been outcasted

(02:22:05):
and shut away from all sacred rights. I know of two Brahmanas of southern
India, one of whom was takenback into caste and the other outcast it.
You must distinguish here between the questionof traveling and the question of the
result of European life on some ofthose who go, a result arising out
of the evil conditions under which theylive in Europe. That is quite a

(02:22:26):
different matter and should not be dealtwith under this head, I will speak
of that presently. Let me speakto you for a moment on this question
of traveling itself, which is movingyoung India more and more. You know
that in the army recruiting goes onlargely among Bramanas. Now every soldier has
to take the oath to serve abroadas well as here. But no one

(02:22:48):
dreams of outcasting soldiers when they returnfrom foreign service. Though the same Bramanas
would be outcasted if they traveled abroadas civilians. There is no rational basis,
no recognized standard, no real judgmentin such matters. Is it not
true that, according to the ignoranceof the subcast is the cruelty of its
outcasting. The less the subcast iseducated, the more bigoted is it with

(02:23:11):
regard to this particular question. Inthe old days, Indians were not tied
down within the limits of India.Indians went freely out from India and traveled
in the different countries of the world. You find stories of shipwreck curious incidents
in foreign lands, showing that inthose days Indians traveled freely in all directions,

(02:23:31):
and no men dreamed of making thefact of traveling an accusation against his
fellow Hindu. Not only was thatthe case in the past, it is
the case to a considerable extent evenin the present. In some subcasts,
a large number of Vicius are travelingthrough Persia following out their business on matters
of commerce. Large numbers of SouthernIndians of all castes are traveling to and

(02:23:54):
living in Burmat at the present time, and are forming there a definite Hindu
community where all ordinary Hindu customs areobserved and marriages are carried out. If
I'm both in the past and inthe present that Hindus traveled into foreign parts
and no man injured them because ofit, But this is not the only
thing to consider. I ask youwhether, in modern times, is it

(02:24:16):
not clearly a part of the advancingmarch of the world that nations should mingle
with nations and learn to know eachother better than they have done. Can
you not see on all sides thatnations are being drawn together, that walls
of separation are being broken down,that they are learning to know each other,
to understand each other, and sopreparing to live together more peacefully than

(02:24:37):
in the past. Over and overagain, war breaks out through misunderstanding.
Where nations are separated from nations,they suspect each other, They mistrust each
other, they hate each other untilsuch suspicion, mistrust, and hatred break
out into international conflict. When nationsknow each other better, they learn to
love and trust each other more.All the nations of the life world are

(02:25:00):
beginning to mingle with each other.Why should India alone be excluded from this
great family of nations and be shutup within her own limits, within her
own borders, instead of sharing withothers all the advantages that different nations possess.
This question of traveling is one ofgreater importance at the present time.
And perhaps you may think the mindis enlarged, the character grows wider and

(02:25:22):
nobler by travel. How can youknow the great forward movement of the world
if you're entirely shut out from it. The world is moving, whether you
move or not. Other nations aregrowing, whether you grow or not.
You may turn your back on them, but they will go on growing all
the same. And the danger isthat they are assimilating Indian thought, They
are assimilating Indian philosophy, and arebeginning to share something of the spirituality of

(02:25:46):
Indian religion. They're getting from youall they want, and you are getting
nothing in return because you shut yourselvesin. Do you know that your ideas
of the outer world are exceedingly erroneousand exceedingly mistaken. Over and over again,
Among educated and thoughtful men, Ifind most absurd ideas of foreign nations

(02:26:07):
and suspicions that have no basis inreality. We cannot have brotherhood until we
learn to know each other and learnto love each other. And shall India
be excluded from the human brotherhood andbe marked off by selfish isolation in the
centuries to come? No, Ido not believe that this is possible.
But a definite change in this respectshould be made by the thoughtful, and

(02:26:30):
this tyranny of outcasting for travel shouldbe thrown off. It is fair to
say that the prejudice against foreign travelhas a real foundation in the results that
it too often has upon those whogo under the present conditions. I admit,
as far as the most orthodox Hindoadmits that the effect of Western travel
and many young men is deplorable tothe very last extent. But that is

(02:26:52):
not because of the travel. It'sbecause of the conditions with which that travel.
Is surrounded when your young sons goabroad, when they are thrown into
foreign society, without any elders totake care of them, finding everything around
them different from what they left athome, having no public opinion to control
them, no family love to holdthem, thrown into utterly new conditions.

(02:27:13):
What wonder is it that they breakdown morally, that they become deteriorated and
pick up the worst and not thebest of European civilization. I know from
experience that these young men coming toLondon go into the very worst conditions that
London has to offer for young menof gentle birth, Crowded into lodging houses
kept by people who are fifth orsixth grade in society, of the status

(02:27:37):
of small shopkeepers, and nothing more. They find in them all that they
see of English society, in Englishsocial life. They do not mingle with
the cultivated classes. They do notmingle with the better type of englishmen and
English women. They go to Londonas strangers, with none to help and
guide them. They're not to beblamed, but rather they are to be
pitied that they often pick up Europeansvices and very rarely assimilate European virtues.

(02:28:03):
That they come back with the mannersof the stable and the kitchen. That
state of things is to be corrected. If residence in Europe is to be
made useful, they must not goas they go to day. They must
go into conditions carefully made for them, where the influence should be moral,
where the training should be religious,and where the atmosphere should be refined.
And then they will no longer comeback, as too often they come back

(02:28:26):
now having lost Hindu virtues and acquiredEuropean vices. On the contrary, they
will maintain their Hindu virtues and addto them useful European qualities. And thus
the prejudice against travel will disappear,and you will reap its useful characteristics instead
of the mischiefs that are found today. There is another point, then,
that I ask you carefully to consider. Will you introduce into the caste

(02:28:50):
system uniformity of practice. Will youintroduce the recognition of merits and demerits instead
of being swayed by prejudice and ignorance. Will you outcast for profligacy, for
dishonoring the dharma of the caste.If that were done, outcasting would still
have a useful part to play,whereas as used to day, it is

(02:29:11):
an instrument too often of social tyranny, of petty persecution, and not of
religion, and it does not reallyguard the purity of the castes. If
it is seen that this change shouldbe brought about, then practical steps should
be taken to bring it about.Thoughtful, educated and religious Hindus should mark
outlines of action, and then deliberatelywalk along them and stand by them,

(02:29:33):
whatever it may cost. They shouldtry to prevent outcasting for travel, and
if it be done, they shouldignore it and behave as if it had
not occurred. The men who areleaders in such changes must themselves be models,
spotless in life, and examples toothers, in order that they may
carry with them public opinion. Inorder that they may gradually restore all that

(02:29:54):
is good in the system, whileeliminating all that is evil. Hypocrisy at
present rampant must be destroyed. Thatwhich we so often find mere pretense of
penance, where no remorse is felt, must utterly be done away with.
A man should be looked upon asan outcast, not because he travels,
but because after he travels he performsa sham of a penance. Time after

(02:30:16):
time, as is too often doneat the present day, with no intention
in future to avoid the cause ofthe penance. I've heard a man boasts
that he travels backwards and forwards constantly, and pays five rupees on his return
to his priest and performs pray Eshitaand then is received without demur. Such
pray aeshitas are blasphemies and dishonor allwho take part in them. There's one

(02:30:39):
other point which I must touch uponbefore leaving the subject. Outside of all
castes, there are thousands and millionsof men and women born in India who
are utterly neglected and treated with callousindifference. I know that in these provinces
this question has not the same urgencyas in the South, but a common
interest should be felt in the questionsaffecting the soul of India by the people

(02:31:01):
of the North, as the Southernpeople should feel for the questions especially affecting
the North. The vast mass ofthe neglected Parias in the South are at
once a manacent a disgrace to Hinduismthroughout the whole country. It is among
them that the missionaries gain most oftheir converts, not from the standpoint of
religion, but from the standpoint ofsociety. For so short sighted are the

(02:31:22):
Hindus there that they will exclude fromtheir houses parias even of decent life.
But the same man who has thusbeen excluded will be received in their house
when he is a convert to Christianityor to Islam. What is the result
that Hinduism is becoming undermined and Mohammedansand Christians are increasing in the south.

(02:31:43):
In the South you find the Christianconverts are numbered by thousands and thousands,
And when you ask about them,you hear that they are drawn mostly from
the parias. When they are converted, they take a social step upwards.
And what wonder that they take thatstep when they find no other way of
inclusion in society open to them?Is it wise to undermine Hinduism in that

(02:32:03):
fashion? And as this pariah populationincreases and the relative proportion changes between it
and the casts, we shall findHinduism becoming weaker and weaker, and larger
and larger masses of people growing upoutside it instead of within it. Would
it not be wiser for the learnedamongst you to devise some way in which
it would be possible to reach thesepeople, to teach them, to give

(02:32:26):
them simple principles of religion and somemoral and religious training, and to treat
them with such respect as they canwin by their character. Would it not
be wiser to do this from withinHinduism, rather than multiply other religions which
are inimical to Hinduism, and whichundermine Hinduism and threaten its social stability.
Such, then, are some ofthe problems that lie before you. Problems

(02:32:50):
certainly not so deep as those withwhich before we've been dealing in previous conventions,
but problems that are being discussed morethan ever in India, and which
are dividing society into them, thosewho will have no change on one side,
and those who demand a total abolitionof caste on the other. Here
lies the peril of India, thisdivision of her people into two opposing camps,

(02:33:11):
this division into two parties, onewhich will not move at all,
the other which wants to move awayfrom all the old ideals, from all
that has made India distinctive among thenations of the world. I am trying
to win you to a medium course, to one which shall cling to the
old ideals, shall purify the modernactualities, shall re establish the ancient religion

(02:33:33):
and the ancient social system, insteadof the mere burlesques of them, which
is all we have in modern days. I know that these social changes are
perhaps the most difficult of all,because they are so mixed up with family
traditions, with social customs, withthe whole fabric of ordinary daily life.
Yet the question is one of lifeor death, one of progress or extinction.

(02:33:56):
It is because of that that Ihave used such plain words in speaking
to you of it, and thatI have described some of the scandals and
the evils that we see around us. You know well enough that all through
India I have spoken in favor ofthe ancient system, the essential system of
the four great castes. That Ihold the restoration of that system to be
vital to the welfare of India.That I believe it to be the best

(02:34:20):
system that was ever organized, thatthe evolution of the soul can go on
within it better than in any other. Just because I hold it so valuable,
just because I believe it to beso vital, I desire to preserve
it in India. But I tellyou it cannot be preserved much longer under
the present conditions. And that itis already tottering to its fall owing to

(02:34:41):
the justifiable attacks that are assailing itfrom all sides. Among the educated classes,
it is becoming more and more disapproved. Continually, among thoughtful men we
find a growing rebellion, a growingrevolt against that which cannot be justified,
either by religion or by reason.And just because it is valuable, let
us try to preserve it. Donot let abuses destroy it. Do not

(02:35:03):
let the most ignorant be the mostpowerful and rule the caste. Let the
educated take the question into their ownhands. Let the learned decide, and
not the ignorant multitude. It isfor the learned to lead, and it
is for the ignorant to follow.Wisdom is the only true basis of authority.
By right thinking and right reason,must the caste system be reformed,

(02:35:24):
if it is to be reformed atall. The educated and pure living members
of a caste are seriously in faultwhen they stand idly aside and allow the
authority of their cast to be wieldedunfairly, cruelly, and inappropriately. Here,
as in so many cases, thelethargy and want of public spirit of
the educated Indian are to blame inasmuchas it is interwoven with the very life

(02:35:46):
of India. Inasmuch as Hinduism withoutcaste is practically unthinkable. I ask you,
I plead with you, that youwill not let prejudice stand in the
way, nor let tradition blind youto the necessity of the time times.
Discuss the question earnestly, seriously,without passion, without antagonism, and in
your wisdom devise some remedy for theevils, so that we may again feel

(02:36:11):
with the great author of the systemthat it emanates from him. Then will
the system flourish as it was intendedto do, and again the fourfold order
may regenerate the future of India.End of section seven. Read by Sandra
Near, Montreal, twenty twenty two. Section eight of Ancient Ideals in Modern

(02:36:37):
Life, four lectures. This isa LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
in the public domain. For moreinformation or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
dot org. Ancient Ideals in ModernLife four lectures by Annie Bezant. Womanhood,
Part one, My Brothers. Ithas been said that the position of

(02:37:03):
woman in any civilization shows the stageof evolution at which that civilization has arrived,
And if that maxim be taken asaccurate, then there can be no
kind of doubt as to the heightof civilization attained in ancient India. When
we contemplate the position which there washeld by women, and study the types

(02:37:24):
that then were found in the land. You may search the history of the
world, you may turn over thepages of the world's literature. No where
will you find stronger, sweeter,and more beautiful types of womanhood than you
find in the ancient literature of India. It seems as if every ideal virtue,
as if every possible grace had beengathered together, had been welded into

(02:37:46):
human forms, and then those formsset on high to attract the admiration of
the world. The names of someof these great women are familiar as household
words both in the East and inthe West. Western writers, western thinkers,
western philosophers have not been slow torecognize their ideal beauty and to point

(02:38:09):
to them as showing out the perfectionof womanhood, as giving to the world
types which have never been excelled.I might quote to you passage after passage
from Western writers showing you the impressionmade upon the mind of the West by
these sublime types of womanhood. Iwant to lay stress upon them in the
beginning of this discourse, because here, as elsewhere, I look to ancient

(02:38:33):
India for the model and ideal inorder to give reason and inspiration why modern
India should change her ways in somevery definite respects. Only as we realize
the greatness of the past, onlyas we contrast it with the poverty of
the present, can we see clearlythe road along which we should direct our

(02:38:54):
steps if we desire to bring backin modern days the glory of those ancient
times. For as I told youin the beginning, in regard to these
important questions of the day, thereis a party that desires to change everything
and a party that desires to changenothing. And between these two unpractical schools,
the future destiny of India is swingingto day. How shall we know

(02:39:20):
what reforms to choose and what toreject unless we are familiar with the ancient
ideals, unless we are able,by studying them, to recognize the goal
to which our steps are to bedirected. Only as these inspire us can
change as be wisely chosen and steadilycarried out. Only as these draw our

(02:39:41):
hearts by their beauty, Shall webe able to raise our mother India to
the position that she should occupy amidthe nations of the world. In studying
ancient India, there are certain pointsabout the womanhood of that time that come
out very clearly and distinctly. Thetheory of womanhood, that which you may

(02:40:01):
call the philosophical view, the placethat woman occupies in nature, the functions
that are especially woman's, to discharge. The great division of sexes that we
find in humanity, nay, inall nature, a distinction, certainly not
without the profoundest meaning, certainly notwithout its great significance in evolution. Any

(02:40:24):
attempt to bridge over that difference,any attempt to turn a man into a
woman or a woman into a man, means the throwing back of humanity,
a check on its orderly on itsprogressive evolution. Certain distinct qualities are evolved
in each sex, Certain distinct powersare found assigned to the one sex or

(02:40:46):
to the other. To try tounseex either is to make a fundamental blunder.
And we need to have our theoryclear and distinct ere our practices can
be wisely and rightly directed. Whatthen, is the ancient Hindu theory as
regards the nature and function of womanhood. We are told at the very beginning

(02:41:07):
of creative work, when humanity wasto be produced, the Creator divided himself
into two halves, one half maleand the other female. This division of
the divine into two marks, asit were, the very basis of our
theory. Both sexes are equally divine, each is one half of God.

(02:41:28):
Both sexes have their part to playin human evolution and in the evolution of
the world as a whole. Thesex distinction is not simply found in humanity.
It goes through all the kingdoms ofnature, even though the name of
sex is not universally applied. Thetwo great sides of the manifested God in

(02:41:48):
nature are found in the sexes.On one side show that different attributes and
functions which in humanity are found inthe male, and on the other side,
the attributes and functions which in humanityare found in the female. So
also we know that in the wholetheory of the devas, you do not

(02:42:09):
find a Deva without a dev Thesetwo are inseparable, indivisible, the dual
manifestation of one life of one beingthe difference of the qualities evolved renders it
impossible to develop both sets simultaneously inthe same physical form. Hence two series
of forms in which the predominant physicalcharacteristics differ. In one of these series,

(02:42:35):
the intellectual qualities find their best expressionin the other, the emotional.
These forms are the male and female, and their value to evolution lies in
their difference. As evolution nears itsending, the differences become less marked until
the two are united the halves ofone body as at first half of the

(02:42:58):
divine nature. Then comes forth inwomanhood, that side of the divine nature,
which is connected with the making offorms, which gives the soil in
which forms are developed, which nourishesthem, guards them, protects them,
in a word, the mother's sideof nature. That is the fundamental distinction.
Then that we find in the ancientwritings that the woman represents the material

(02:43:22):
side of the manifested universe, whichis necessary for the manifestation of spirit.
The mother's side of nature, thatnutritive, protective side. This is the
fundamental type of womanhood and marks outwoman's functions in the universe. So as
we study further the ancient teachings,we notice that wherever divine power is to

(02:43:43):
be manifested, wherever there is aneed for the exertion of divine energy,
there the female divine manifestation is calledforth, appears and executes that which needs
to be done. If you turnto the well known stone of the coming
forth of Duaka, what do youfind? You find that the world was

(02:44:05):
terribly oppressed by the asuras, andthat the Davis did not know how to
protect themselves. You find them goingto the great gods for help, appealing
to those divine powers for protection.And then as the story unfolds, you
find that out of the gods themselves, there comes forth the mighty radiant form
of Durga. That in her thedivine forces were embodied. It was Dorga

(02:44:31):
who, by those forces and energies, delivered the world from the terror under
which it was panic stricken. Itwas that mighty Dorga who swept out of
the path of the gods the terribleantagonists who were then barring the way.
Thus is shown out the idea forall times that in the divine woman,

(02:44:52):
the goddess side of nature, allpower is manifested, all protection is to
be sought. There is the removerof obstin they are the one who lifts
us over dangers. The divine womanhoodis the refuge of the world, and
at the feet of the Goddess allthe world's find rest. Such is the
thought, then, which continually comesout in Hindu teachings as underlying the Hindu

(02:45:16):
idea of womanhood. When we passon still further to see how in the
human being this is manifested, wefind the ideal of marriage held up as
constituting the complete, true human being. Husband and wife are not thought of
as two, but their thought ofas one. Husband and wife are not
thought of as separate. They arethought of as united. Husband and wife

(02:45:41):
are not thought of as capable ofdivision. They are but two halves constituting
an entire, a single whole.Just as in the Deva and d v
One, divine life is manifested,so in the husband and wife the perfect
type of humanity is shown. Forth. There is no idea of possible antagonism.
There is no idea of possible rivalry. Man and woman. Husband and

(02:46:07):
wife are two halves of the completeman, of the complete human life.
That perfect union, that true unity, gave the Hindu ideal of marriage.
When we study the very form andphysical constitution of woman, we find that
this her function in nature, ismarked on her very body as well as
her inner nature. We find thatthe whole body of the ideal woman is

(02:46:31):
formed to typify, to express,to show forth all the grace and strength
of emotion, all the profundity andheight of love. The woman typifies in
the perfect human being the side ofemotion, just as the man typifies,
in that same human being the typeof intellect. Both are equally necessary,

(02:46:54):
Both form parts of the perfect whole, and both are constituted in their several
physical compasses for the showing forth ofthese two characteristic marks of humanity. When
the two are united, when theintellect gives the directing force and the emotion
gives the impulsive force, then onlyis right action possible. Then only can

(02:47:16):
humanity fulfill its function in the world. The two thus blended together, the
two thus working as a perfect whole, give us the ideal human type towards
which humanity is approaching. Anything thatdestroys that unity, anything that separates one
sex from the other in life orinterest, anything that tends to draw them

(02:47:37):
apart, to bring them into competition, to set them in rivalry, the
one against the other. Anything ofthat kind is fatal to the progress of
the race, and is turning evolutionalong the road that tends downwards and not
upwards. This fundamental, this truetheory, is one which has to be
grasped, which has to be clungto through the whole all of our study

(02:48:00):
of the subject. In woman youwill find the emotions most strongly shown,
most fully developed. She suffers morekeenly, she enjoys more keenly than man
either suffers or enjoys. Therefore,in dealing with her, when we come
to consider the question of education,we have to take care to the utmost

(02:48:22):
to draw out her especial capacity.But also, and this is vital,
to take care that it is notdeveloped without also developing in her the other,
though, the subordinate side of hernature, the intellectual. Just as
in man you have to prevent himfrom becoming hard and selfish by training and
developing his emotional and moral nature,so in woman it is also necessary to

(02:48:46):
train and develop the side of intelligence, else she will be unregulated and unbalanced.
For though in man the intellect shoulddominate emotion, yet both are necessary
for an all round character. Andthough in woman emotion should be more highly
developed than intellect, yet both shouldalso be found in her. Then when
man and woman thus developed are joinedtogether, there is a perfect marriage.

(02:49:11):
Both are able to work together andto understand each other, to be true
companions, friends, and helpmates alongthe path of life. Whereas the exaggerated
development of the specific side of eitherin the non development of the secondary side
makes a perfect union of lives impossible. They're too far apart, have too
little common ground, and there istherefore always the likelihood of jarring and disagreement,

(02:49:35):
making the marriage less perfect than itought to be, making the note
that is struck less rich and lessharmonious than it should be. When we
come to look at the ideal ofmarriage union as shown forth in Hindu literature,
what do we find? We findmost perfect, most unbounded love,

(02:49:56):
the deepest reverence as parts of thecharacter of the ideal. A fidelity that
knows no possibility of change. Acourage that can hold to the one against
every opposing circumstance. A love thatdoes not falter even under the uttermost strain.
A strength that never wavers, nomatter how great the difficulty, how

(02:50:18):
sore the trial. Then, Onthe side of the husband we find unfailing
tenderness, continual protection, power andwill to guide unfaltering love, so that
in this union all the noblest relationsof humanity are gathered up, and the
ideal Hindu husband and the ideal Hinduwife make the most perfect picture of the

(02:50:39):
marriage union that has ever served asideal of a nation that has ever inspire
practice in right living. And whenfrom that theory we turn to the practice
in ancient India, what there dowe find? The study of the ancient
books shows us that woman in ancientIndia shines out strongly in practice, shows

(02:51:00):
the characteristics of the ideal woman inall the functions, in all the duties
of life. The law is laiddown as to her position in the famous
shlocus of Manu, where it isdeclared that women are to be honored and
adored by fathers and brothers, byhusbands, as also by brothers in law
who desire much prosperity. Where womenare honored, there the God's rejoice.

(02:51:24):
But where they are not honored,there all rights are fruitless. Where women
grieve that family quickly perishes, butwhere they do not grieve, that family
ever prospers. Houses which women nothonored, curse those as if blighted by
magic, perish utterly. From Manuthree fifty five, fifty six, fifty

(02:51:48):
seven and fifty eight. Passing fromthese precepts which embody the theory to the
practice, whereof I spoke, Iwant to put before you certain definite facts
as regards the life of women inancient India. The first point is as
to the position of women in ancientIndia in the home and outside the home,

(02:52:09):
the latter a type of women whohave almost entirely disappeared from modern India.
You find in ancient India that thereexisted a class of women who did
not enter into the marriage relation.They were called by the specific name of
Brahma Vadinis teachers of the Veda.Their position was recognized clear and distinct.

(02:52:30):
They are spoken of in the ancientlaw books. The special privileges that they
enjoyed are clearly laid down. Inthe Shutras. We are told that women
were divided into two classes, BrahmaVadinis and the marriage. The first class
bore the sacred threat and the rightof kindling the sacrificial fire, studied and

(02:52:52):
taught the Vedas and lived unmarried intheir own houses. I am quoting as
regards their rights and privileges from thewriting Csone Harita, as translated other authorities
might be quoted on the same lines. There were female ascetics as well as
male ascetics. You will remember,for instance, the one who came into
the court of King Janaka carrying theDanda, wearing the ascetic robes, going

(02:53:18):
her way as a teacher, appearingin the very court of the king to
carry on discussion on subtle points ofreligion and philosophy. This class of women
in ancient India, these knowers ofthe Supreme show clearly and definitely that women
in those ancient days were not excludedfrom the knowledge of the Vedas, were
not excluded from taking part in thegreat discussions upon philosophy and religion, proving

(02:53:41):
that the precepts against a woman studyingor even hearing the Vedas must be interpolations
of a later date. They werelearned as men were learned, and they
even taught the Vedas as men wereteachers. Some of the mantras of the
Vedas, some of the hymns ofthe rig Veda, were originally given through
women through their mouths the sacred mattresswere spoken, which in these modern days

(02:54:07):
their daughters may not study nor repeat. Not only is it true that some
of the rig Verses were given bywomen, but we also find their names
in the list of spiritual teachers,in the list of great attaris who formed
the chain of spiritual teachers. Ineed hardly remind you that in the Apanishads
you read of such a knower ofBrahman as Guerti, who questioned Vignovakia in

(02:54:33):
the great Assembly of sages, beinggiven her place there to put questions as
she would, even without looking onthat special class, even without taking those
noble types of virgin womanhood. Wefind that the women of the household,
the wives and mothers, also enjoyeda large amount of liberty and took their
part in a number of public ceremonies. Some of the hymns of the rig

(02:54:54):
Veda, indeed just mentioned, werewritten by wives. We also find records
in the rig Veda itself of greatfestivals attended by women who were wives and
mothers. We find in the Ramayanathat Kaushalia, the mother of Ramachandra,
was actually the officiating priestess at agreat sacrifice at which were gathered vast crowds

(02:55:16):
of kings, of nobles, ofBrahmanas, and of the people at large.
She performed the act of sacrifice.Hers was the hand of the officiator.
We find they took part in thediscussions that occurred between their husbands and
sages. As in the cases ofDravati and Sity, we find them advising

(02:55:37):
and counseling their husbands in matters ofdifficulty. In matters concerning the outer world.
Both City and Drapati showed knowledge ofthe world, understood the ways in
which things went on in the externalworld, were able to give wise counsel
to their husbands, to estimate theforces of opposing opinions, and to exercise

(02:55:58):
judgment as to the power which itwas best to follow. You find a
woman called into a great assembly togive counsel. When Duryodhana had set himself
against Shri Krishna, and his father, his preceptor, and his elders had
all striven in vain to turn himfrom his purpose. As the last resort,
his mother Kandari was sent for.She came into that great assemblage and

(02:56:22):
there addressed her son in words ofremonstrance, reproof, and counsel, showing
how in those days women were reallywise and great, that their counsel was
highly valued, that their advice wasrespectfully listened to and followed, because knowledge
gave them the power to speak andlearning and wisdom gave them the authority to

(02:56:43):
pronounce their opinion. Studying these cases, which can be multiplied a hundredfold,
we come to a very definite opinionwith regard to the position of women in
ancient India. And we see thatthey enjoyed a wide and deep education and
a dignified liberty, while the marriagerelation was close and indivisible, while the
husband was regarded as the head,as the lord, and as the Guru

(02:57:07):
nay even as representing God himself.While there was that complete unity which we
find in India alone, and acomplete subordination of the wife to the husband,
yet this did not prevent woman fromexercising lofty functions, from playing her
part in the family and in theworld, and so in making up that

(02:57:28):
perfect human judgment and action which onlycome where both sexes are joined together,
and where the wisdom of each conducesto right judgment and to right activity.
That is but a poor, imperfectpicture of the part that women played in
those ancient days. Clearly, herewe have the signs of high intelligence.
Clearly, here we have the signsof deep and wide education of women in

(02:57:50):
ancient days. We have here noblydeveloped types of womanhood, women of heroic
stature, women of grand and inaspiring power. No wonder that Indian marriage
has won the admiration of the worldwhen such types of womanhood and wifehood are
found scattered throughout the records of ancientliterature, and when all this greatness and

(02:58:13):
nobility form an integral part of thewoman's life. End of section eight.
Read by Sandra twenty twenty two.Section nine of Ancient Ideals in Modern Life

(02:58:33):
four lectures. This is a LibriVoxrecording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information orto volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Ancient Ideals in Modern Life four Lecturesby Annie Besant, Lecture four Womanhood,
Part two. When we contrast withthis the position of women in modern

(02:58:56):
India, how great, how sadis the change. Woman still keeps her
exquisite spirituality, She still shows forthher strong and perfect devotion. Looking over
all the types of women that themodern world presents. Traveling as I have
done in country after country, andcoming into contact with all the different types

(02:59:18):
of womanhood evolved under different civilizations,I bear you witness that I've found nowhere
spirituality so pure and lofty, devotionso strong and tender, purity so unsullied
and spotless, patience so wise andbeautiful as are found even in the modern
women of India, undeveloped and restrictedas are now their lives. Yet they

(02:59:41):
present a most gracious type. Andwhen sometimes I have been thinking of one
or another whom I have met,sometimes when I've been studying the beauty of
character, of the type of theunique type of Indian womanhood, I have
thought what India might be if allthe possibilities in India's women had opportunity of
flowing out and actually coming into manifestation. When I have seen what they are

(03:00:05):
under circumstances so disadvantageous, when Ihave seen what still they are despite the
narrow environment into which there penned,I have thought that it may be that
India's redemption may still be brought aboutby India's women. For when once the
woman's heart is touched she is athousand times more devoted than our men.

(03:00:26):
She is willing to sacrifice herself asa man will never sacrifice himself. Through
thousands of years, through thousands ofgenerations, women have learned the lesson of
self sacrifice in the home with thehusband, with the child. And when
that spirit of self sacrifice, nowinstinctive, a part of her spiritual nature
is turned to the highest object,is directed to the noblest ends. There

(03:00:52):
is then a power for good thatnothing else can give to the world.
In the self sacrifice and devotion ofher women. It may be that India's
redemption will find its real instrument.But in order that it may be so,
some of the conditions under which womenare growing up must be changed.
And this change is necessitated largely bythe changes which are passing over the whole

(03:01:15):
of India at the present time,by the pressure of Western education on the
fathers and husbands, on the brothersand sons. These changes in the men
necessitate certain changes in the women.Also, else, too wide a gulf
is made between man and woman,their lives grow utterly apart, are carried
on along too much separated lines,the woman, not knowing of the larger

(03:01:37):
interests of the man's life is notcapable of the wise counsel that in older
days she was ever ready to giveto husband and son shut out as she
is today, but as she wasnot in the past. From the reasonable
enjoyment of and participation in the worldaround her, you find her growing narrower
in mind, whilst still she keepsher purity in heart. We have to

(03:02:01):
deal with that modern innovation in orderto prevent the evil results growing out therefrom
Now we all know that some ofthe conditions that are to be eliminated have
rather been imposed from without than evolvedfrom within. The conditions under which large
parts of the country have had tolive, the Mussulman invasion, the lack
of safety of life, and honordearer still than life. These are the

(03:02:26):
causes which have brought about the systemof seclusion, which is not Aryan.
The zanana is not a Hindu custom, but pre eminently a Mussulment custom.
The system of zanana does not belongto ancient India. All the literature of
ancient India gives proofs to the contraryon that point. It has grown out
of danger in times when it becameabsolutely necessary to put a wall of that

(03:02:50):
sort round womanhood in order to preserveher from perils which it would have been
impossible for her to face. Itis not a matter for blame. It's
only a matter for regret that thoseconditions became necessary in some parts of the
country. In parts of the countrywhere there has not been muscleman dominion,
the Hindu women have kept a largepart of the ancient self respect, dignity,

(03:03:13):
and liberty, but are not underthe very narrow seclusion system which is
the characteristic of those parts of thecountry where the musculman has ruled for long.
That is a point to bear inmind very clearly, for if it
were possible, however slowly, andhowever gradually, to enlarge these restrictive habits,
to gradually widen out the life ofthe women, you would not be

(03:03:35):
following the West, but following yourown ancestral custom. You would only be
giving back to the modern women whatthe ancient Indian women continually enjoyed. Of
course, the greatest difficulty of anychange in this respect will come from the
women themselves, and not from themen. I know that in many cases
husbands and fathers would be very gladto widen out the restrictions. If the

(03:04:00):
opposition comes from those who have grownup in them, who for generations have
been trained on these lines. Theonly way of bringing about a gradual change
which will not do more harm thangood, is to educate, educate,
educate, and so slowly and graduallyevolve the intelligence of women, bringing them
back to the high level which oncethey occupied. Here let me point out

(03:04:22):
to you that the present condition ofwomen in India as regards education, is
far worse than it was even twoor three generations ago. We know that
the elder women are better educated thanthe younger generation. The younger generation has
fallen, as it were, betweentwo stools. The old education is no
longer imparted. The modern education doesnot take its place. With regard to

(03:04:46):
that modern education, permit me tosay that you will be most unwise if
you adopt for the education of yourwomen a mere copy of the education given
to Western women. That is notthe kind of education that you need.
It would not build up women ofthe ancient Aryan type. Think for a
moment what female education is meant todo in the West. Owing to the

(03:05:07):
social conditions there, a very largenumber of women remain unmarried. There is
an enormous class of unmarried women therewho practically have no supporters. They are
not supported as to their ordinary livelihoodby fathers who pass away, by brothers
who have their own households to lookafter, and they are left to support
themselves and to gain their own livelihood. Now that gaining of their livelihood leads

(03:05:30):
them necessarily into competition with men,they enter the labor market, and they
have to follow the trading conditions inregard to the various means of gaining a
livelihood. Out of that competition,out of that struggle for existence, out
of the passing of women into thepublic arena of life's struggle, where they
have to gain their own livelihood andfight for their own hands against the competition

(03:05:52):
of men. Out of that hasarisen they demand for what is called the
higher education of women. The objectis that the women educated on the same
lines as men may be able tocompete with them in the various walks of
life and earn their own livelihood asmen earn theirs. That is the economic
reason underlying the demand for higher education. I presume that no Hindu, unless

(03:06:16):
he has lost the Hindu heart,desires to bring about that economic condition of
things. Here I presume that hedoes not desire to educate his daughters and
then to send them out into theworld to struggle with men for gaining a
livelihood, to compete with men inthe various learned professions, in the various
commercial undertakings. Truly, no Hinducan desire to bring about such a regrettable

(03:06:39):
stage of social evolution. But ifnot, why adopt a type of education
designed for such a stage. Itis undesirable that Indian girls should be trained
along those unsuitable lines. What youwant to do is to devise a system
of education which shall make them idealIndian women of ancient types, fitting them,

(03:07:00):
for the most part for the lifeof wives and mothers, and in
rare cases, for that knowledge ofbrahmin which may make them under these conditions,
as it did under the old conditions, the spiritual teachers and helpers of
humanity. But for that, whatought to be the education? First?
It is clear that the elements ofthe ordinary vernacular education must be given to

(03:07:22):
them, with the knowledge of Sanskritand its literature, so that they may
be able to read of the greatideals of womanhood and desire to reproduce those
in their own lives. This shouldbe the foundation of women's education, a
knowledge of the vernacular from the literarystandpoint, and a knowledge of the mother
language Sanskrit, in which is storedup the sacred literature of India. It

(03:07:45):
would be wise, though many ofyou will probably disagree with that as a
novel idea, if you introduced alsothe knowledge of the English tongue. By
doing that, you would bring theminto touch with the lines of thought along
which their husbands in their sons aretraveler, and would thus enable them to
appreciate the tendencies and influences which areplaying upon the men, and to neutralize
some of the evils which arise fromthose influences when left unchecked. At the

(03:08:11):
present time, men are too muchinclined to go along skeptical and materialistic lines
because of the education they receive.Women utterly shut out of all knowledge,
cannot mentally meet them anywhere and appealto them by that which has influence over
them. Shut up into a narrow, lonely, unthinking life, left often
superstitious rather than enlightened in their faith, they fail to influence men. For

(03:08:35):
the man puts aside the opinion ofwomen generally, thinking that it is not
worthy of consideration because of their lackof education. With extreme care, Then,
so that you may not enter thetype of womanhood as the type of
manhood has been injured, you mightintroduce the nobler, purer side of European
thought and bring that within the reachof the women of India. Then they

(03:08:56):
would know something of modern life,and they would be able to appreciate better
the conditions amidst which their husbands haveto live and work. They would again
become counselors at home, as theycannot be now that they are utterly excluded
from all knowledge of the outer world. Nowadays, from ignorance of outside conditions,
they continually press for things that areimpossible and often make difficulties where none

(03:09:20):
should exist. In regard to thetraining and instruction of the young, then
you should add to that education aneducation scientific in its character, along the
lines which should make the women moreuseful as the queens of the home.
She should be taught in modern Indiaas she was taught in ancient India,
the elements of hygiene, physiology andnutrition, so that she may guide the

(03:09:43):
household wisely and well, so thatyou may not have to call in a
doctor for every trivial ailment and difficulty. The older women still are wiser than
many of the younger generation, whoare ignorant and therefore useless in tracing out
educationtion for the women. This ancientelement ought again to be included, so

(03:10:03):
that you may build up a wise, patient, religious, clear judging woman
who shall be her husband's friend,counselor, and helper, as well as
the joy of his heart and thedelight of his life. It might be
well, in addition, if youadded to that literary, scientific, and
religious education some elements also of artistictraining. How much might be added to

(03:10:24):
the happiness and brightness of the homeif the girls of the home were trained
to some extent along artistic lines.I know how much prejudice there is in
India against artistic training, especially wheremusic is concerned, because of the shameful
associations that have grown up in connectionwith vocal and instrumental music. But those

(03:10:45):
do not belong to the art itself. They're part of the degradation of modern
India, of the degradation of Indianmen and women. Your sons, if
they would have music, must gointo bad and degraded conditions. If they
would have emotional delay light and allyoung men crave it, they cannot have
it at home, and so theygo for it amid the lowest of the
population and mix with the most shamefulof companions. Is that wise? Is

(03:11:11):
that right? So strongly is thisfelt that in some parts of India,
men of high and respectable families havestarted classes where girls of similar families may
be trained in instrumental and vocal music. Although at first the movement met with
very great opposition, Although at firstharsh and cruel things were said about those

(03:11:31):
who led it, yet gradually itis making its way, and girls thus
taught. I was told in Madrasby the very Brahmin who was instructing them,
those girls are most eagerly sought inmarriage because of this accomplishment, which
has made them a bright adornment ofthe home. More and more in Madras,
this kind of education is spreading andis breaking down prejudice, and is

(03:11:52):
making the homes brighter for the young, more attractive, especially to the western
educated boys. Along these lines,then I would suggest that education should go
and not along the lines along whichto a very small extent it is now
a days carried out in India.But I should not be dealing fairly with
you if I did not say thatthere is one tremendous obstacle in the way

(03:12:13):
of this an obstacle which I knownot if you will be strong enough and
wise enough to surmount. That isthat such an education cannot be given if
child motherhood is to remain a partof Indian life. If the girl child
is to be made a mother,then she can never grow to the real
height of motherhood. So that thereagain the question turns on this same pivot

(03:12:35):
of early marriage that I spoke ofin the first lecture, and will have
to be decided by your own thoughtfuland deliberate consideration. There are two ways
in which a woman may be treated, one the ancient way, one the
modern way. One I venture tosay, a natural and so a wise
way. The other an artificial andso a foolish way, one that makes

(03:12:58):
for construction, and the other thatmakes for gradual destruction. The ancient and
wise way was training, educating,raising the woman, putting her more and
more on a high level, andthen giving her a reasonable and dignified liberty.
The modern and foolish ways keeping herignorant and undeveloped, childish and irrational,
and then shutting her in within anarrow environment. There are few things

(03:13:20):
more beautiful in life than the wayin which the Indian son loves, reverences,
and obeys his mother. But ifthat most beautiful of relations is to
continue under the modern conditions for boysin India, you will have to meet
their needs by educating the women whoare their mothers. You all know the
obedience that the Indian son shows tothe mother, how he treats her practically

(03:13:43):
as a goddess whose words must notbe challenged, whose lightest wish must be
utterly and completely obeyed. If thatexquisite relation is to preserve its life under
the changed conditions, you will haveto get rid of the narrowness that too
often marks the woman's opinion at present, because of her utter shutting out from
the external world, her shutting intothe indoor life. If you would preserve

(03:14:07):
that and to lose it would bethe saddest of losses, one that India
could scarcely survive. You must graduallyraise the womanhood of India so that the
mother's words may be wise as wellas loving may be broad. Instead of
narrow, may meet the conditions ofthe day, instead of entirely ignoring them,
may not make unreasonable demands, demandswhich are sometimes felt to be unreasonable,

(03:14:31):
even while the man yields himself tothem from the instinct of love and
obedience. This is a necessary conditionfor preserving that exquisite relationship, one that
the men must take into their handsfor all the powers lodged in their hands.
While a woman is very, veryyoung, and very fair, unreasonableness
may seem almost an added charm.In the eyes of some. The petulance

(03:14:54):
of a graceful child is felt asamusing and pretty. But when the child
has grown to a woman of matureyears, that lack of judging impartially and
reasonably is felt as a difficulty,is felt as a hindrance, is felt
as a disadvantage and annoyance. Inorder that the woman's influence may be preserved,
in order that she may not loseher hold over the respect as well

(03:15:16):
as the hearts of her husband andher sons, in order that she may
really be one half of humanity asshe ought to be, In order that
she may play her part well inthe home, may train up her sons
as they ought to be trained,in order that she may exercise an elevating
power over the children round her knees, may prove a worthy mother to worthy
sons. His question must be consideredand dealt with by the wise among you.

(03:15:39):
Else the gulf between western trained menand uneducated women will widen, despite
all love, despite all tenderness,despite all longing to remain together, For
the influences are mighty, which aretending to divide, and unless those influences
are checked, that all great idealof marriage will disappear and be seen no
more. This, then, isthe line of thought that I would suggest

(03:16:03):
to you, with regard to thewomanhood of India, that you should study
and realize the old ideal. Thatyou should then see how it may be
reintroduced. That you should educate womeneverywhere and choose wisely the kind of education
that you give. That you shouldkeep in mind the capacities that they have,
that you should evolve those to theutmost of your ability, so that

(03:16:24):
in the future, as in thepast, there may be great, heroic,
strong, pure and devoted women inIndia. For sooner or later,
weakness means degradation. Sooner or later, the lack of strength leads to lack
of love and lack of fidelity.My brothers, I have gone over in
these lectures many difficult problems, manythorny questions, on which inevitably much difference

(03:16:46):
of opinion must arise. The slowdeterioration of centuries, of thousands of years
cannot be undone in a moment,cannot be changed by a single effort.
Nay, the very need of changingis not seen by very many of you.
So thoroughly are you the men ofyour own times. The result of
this long course of change. Themore the ancient ideals can be studied,

(03:17:09):
the more will these modern spectacles dropfrom your eyes, and you will see
the need for change. You willsee the necessity for exertion. It is
to the elders I appeal for.In your hands is the power, and
in your hands ought to be thepower, and in the hands of none
other. On this point I donot appeal to the young. To the

(03:17:30):
growing lads, it is not forthem to deal with these questions. It
is not for them to initiate reforms. If you leave it to them,
the reforms will be hasty, illconsidered, headlong, with all the natural
impulsive, hasty judgment of youth.It is to you, the fathers,
mature men, men of middle age, It is for you to consider these

(03:17:50):
questions and to look into the immediatefuture. You are responsible for sending your
boys to an education which is changingtheir views of life. You are responsible
for sending them to missionary schools orto government schools and colleges, where their
faith is undermined, where the oldideals are destroyed, where the new thoughts
are poured into them without any restrictionor limitation. Then looking at the results,

(03:18:15):
you are inclined to complain. Largenumbers of them are thoroughly westernized.
Large numbers care nothing for the oldideals. Large numbers are bent upon reproducing
the social and economic conditions of theWest, of which they know so little,
of which they dream and imagine somuch. What will be the result.
You are going to pass away fromIndia and are leaving the future in

(03:18:37):
these young hands. You cannot longstand where you are standing to day.
You cannot stand there forever. Youwill have to leave your places for that
where the fire will receive you,and whence your ashes will be cast into
Ganghi. Then these young men willmake the India of the future, and
mold that India as they will.Therefore it is to you I plead if

(03:19:00):
you will deal with them aright,if you will put before them in your
own lives the old ideals, thatthey may imitate them, if at all
times you will recognize that there isof justice in their longings and feel sympathy
with their aspirations, if you willnot turn a deaf ear to everything that
they say, If when they wantto go forward, you will share to
some extent in their hopes and guidethem, and not turn a deaf ear

(03:19:24):
to all they plead for. Thenyou may direct and mold them, and
so turn the future of India intothe right path. If you will not,
then your digging the grave of India, and she will go down into
that grave after you have passed away. It is all very well to say
that all social reform is bad.I grant that much of the spirit in

(03:19:45):
which it is now carried on isbad and mischievous. It is foolish that
the old ideals should be utterly disregarded. And it is true that the acceptance
of many of these reforms in thespirit in which they are made, would
be the ruin of India as apeople, and would be the destruction of
her religion as a living force.I grant all that, but I tell

(03:20:07):
you that there is equal danger onthe other side, dogged conservatism, fossilized
orthodoxy, which will not move menwho will only stand fixed in their conceit
where they are, while all aroundthem is moving, Men who will not
consider the moving wheels of time.Those men are as dangerous to India's religious
future as those who will utterly westernizeher and so wipe her out from among

(03:20:31):
the nations. It is because ofthat that I have spoken upon these subjects
today in what is the most conservativecity in the whole of India. It
is because of this danger to Indiathat lies in the future is growing up
of the young generation under the glamourof Western civilization, western thought, apart
from all Hindu traditions that I havespoken today. Unless you can win it

(03:20:56):
to the old ideals and penetrate itwith the spirit of the ancient faith,
there is no hope for the futureof India. There is what you really
need. There is the path.There is the path that wisdom points out
for your treading. Be willing toget rid of your bias. Be willing
to introduce reforms and change the customswhich are harmful and mischievous. Do not

(03:21:18):
be frightened away from change by thered rag of social reform. Do not
be deceived into the idea that becauseone kind is bad, therefore all change
is dangerous. You must admit thatIndia is not what she ought to be.
You must admit that there are abuseson every side. You must know
that a distinctly large number of educatedyouths are becoming more and more alienated from

(03:21:43):
the ancient modes of life. Itis no good to blame them. It's
no good to denounce them. Youshould try to win them, Try to
induce them to follow the wiser path, show sympathy and not antagonism, and
so you gain influence over their heartsand their lives. Is Indiana to be
split up into two parts, onewhich will change nothing and the other which

(03:22:03):
will change all. If that bethe future that you deliberately choose, then
indeed the destiny of India is fixedand will not alter. Then her place
will go to another nation, herfunction of teaching will pass to another people.
Stones that will not move are leftbehind by the current and if the
current be not wisely directed, buta dam be built across it, then

(03:22:26):
after a while, when the currentgets enough strength, the dam is swept
away and the waters flood the countryand destroy instead of fertilizing. It is
that great danger which the educational movementstarted by us in this central Hindu college
is intended to ward off. Itis intended to weld together the old ideals
and the modern spirit. That iswhat we are doing in this place.

(03:22:48):
It is that road along which liesIndia's salvation. While we are dealing with
the young, it would not bewise to leave out of account the mature.
While we are trying to educate thefuture. The present should be modified
as the field wherein that future mustexpress itself. My last words to you,
my brothers, are words of appeal. Not to let prejudice blind you,

(03:23:11):
not to let custom be an obstaclein the way. Let not the
conservative instinct of the ancient civilization makeyou utterly close your eyes to the needs
of the present, to the demandsof the future. I make my appeal
to you because I love ancient Indiaso well, because I still nurse within
my heart the hope of India's resurrectionas she is lying to day. She's

(03:23:33):
prone on the ground, helpless,degraded, without power, with only the
forms the shells of the ancient,the mighty religion that was once her glory.
Nothing, scarcely of its power andlittle of its knowledge remain strangled in
the fetters of customs that have grownround her limbs through centuries, in millenniums,

(03:23:54):
bound by these iron fetters, sothat she can scarcely move either hands
or feet. Is she to liethere till her swoon passes into death,
so that the only light that Indiashall again give to the world shall be
the light of her funeral pyre,the flames in which is perishing a dead
civilization. Some say that is inevitable. Some declare that there is no hope

(03:24:15):
of her resurrection, that the lifehas gone from her and will pass into
one or other of the nations ofthe world. I cannot believe it.
I will not accept it until allforces to rouse her have proved fruitless,
until all struggles cease and no signof life is seen. If there be
but a hundred hearts among India's childrenwho love their country better than they love

(03:24:37):
themselves, If there be here andthere hearts that can be set on fire
with enthusiasm, with devotion, cleanand strong hearts that can place themselves on
the altar as an offering to thehigh gods, that India may live,
although some of her sons may perish. If India has still in her something
of her ancient spirit of love,of patriotism, and of devotion, then

(03:25:00):
it is possible that the change welong for may come, and India,
reborn into the modern world, maybe greater than ever she was in her
glorious past. I believe that stillthe choice lies before her. Still there
are two paths before her, oneleading upwards and the other downwards, one
rising gradually up till she shall standagain on the pinnacle of the spiritual teacher

(03:25:22):
of mankind, the other sinking slowlydownwards through the throes of dying agony,
to the place where she shall perish, and only her ashes shall remain.
Truse you, the choice is yoursand not mine. One human tongue can
do but little. One human hearthas but little force in it. It
may break, but it cannot makea nation. If the nation will not

(03:25:45):
make itself, I can but speakto you. I cannot do your work.
I can bring to you the messageof truth. I cannot make you
accept it. Yours is the responsibility, not mine, Yours the choice not
mine. I have done my dutywhen I have spoken and pointed out to
you the path which will lead tothe redemption of India. If you see

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that path to be right, butshrink from taking it because of the difficulties
and the oppositions that cumber it.And indeed you are not worthy to tread
it, for it is a pathfor heroes and not for feeble souls.
Choose you your answer, for itis an answer alike to Karma, to
the world, and to the gods. And take the responsibility which is on

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you, and act as you will. For me, so long as breath
remains in me, I shall striveto help this land, the greatest of
all lands in the past, thegreatest of all lands in the future.
If you will those who will work, let them come and work. Those
who will sleep, let them sleepuntil their country dies. Then in far

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other births and other lands, youmay look backwards with sorrow and regret to
what India once was, But whatagain she shall never be. For the
choice that the gods give is achoice that once made, is endless in
its results. Choose you then whatyou will, and may the high Gods
inspire you to choose a right afterward. The suggestions but forward in these lectures

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are meant to be lived, notmerely read, and that by men who
love Hinduism, who are religious aswell as moral. They may be summed
up under the following heads. Oneare resolved not to marry their sons before
eighteen, nor to allow the marriageto be consummated before twenty the first marriage
betrothal of their daughters to be thrownas late as possible from eleven to fourteen,

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and the second consummation from fourteen tosixteen. Two to promote the maintenance
of case relations with those who havetraveled abroad, providing they conform to Hindu
ways of living. Three to promoteintermarriage and interdining between the divisions of the
four castes. Four not to employin any ceremony where choice is possible,

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an illiterate or immoral Brahmana. Fiveto educate their daughters and to promote the
education of the women of their families. Six not to demand any money consideration
for the marriage of their children.If pious men in all parts of India
carried out these reforms individually, avast change would be made without disturbance or

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excitement. But they would need tobe men of clear heads and strong hearts
to meet and conquer the inevitable oppositionfrom the ignorant and the bigoted. The
worst customs that prevail are comparatively modern, but they are regarded as marks of
orthodoxy, and so are difficult toput aside. I need scarcely add that
I should be very happy to hearfrom any reader who agrees with some are

(03:28:46):
all the suggestions made, or whohas thoughtful criticism to offer. For only
by the efforts of brave and truemen can the great work outlined be accomplished.
Peace to all beings and Tion nineread by Sandra Near Montreal, twenty
twenty two, and of Ancient Idealsin Modern Life by Annie Byzant