THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL

ORGANISATION
 WORKS BY BHAGAVAN DAS

Krishna. A Study in the Theory of Avataras.

The Essential Unity of All Religions.

Mystic Experiences or Tales from Yoga

Vasishta.

The Science of the I motions.

The Science of Peace or Adhyatma-Vidya.

The Science of Religion. (Sanatana Vaidika

.. DharmaJ ...

The Science of;the Sacred Word or Pranava Vada.

r '

The Science of Social Organization or Laws of

Manu in the Light of Atma-Vidya.
 THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL
ORGANISATION
OB

THE LAWS OF MANU

IN THE

LIGHT OF 5.TMA-YIDYS.

BY
BHAGAVAN DAS
(Hon. D.L., Benares University

Second Edition

(Revised and Enlarge^

Volume I

THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE

ADYAR, MADRAS, INDIA
1932
Printed by A. K. Sitarama Shastri, at the Vasanta Press,
Adyar, Madras.
 ADDENDUM
ON page 274, after line 13, add :

This Comparative Religion would embody and

express that aspect of Metaphysio which would
reconcile all particular religions by showing that
there was Unity among them all as regards
essentials, due to the Unity (Skt. fika-ta, P.-A.
Wahdat) of the Self from which they all issue,,
while the Difference was to be found only in the
superficial non-essential details, varying with the
variations of time-place-circumstance, due to the
Manyness (Skt. An-ekata, P.-A. Easrat) of the
Not-Self.
Or, in accordance with the sub-division into-

three, of the sciences subserving the first threefold

end of life, Moksha-Shastra may be sub-divided
into (a) Parshana-Shasfcra, Brahma-vi4ya, tha
Science of the Infinite, including Acjhyatma-
Shasfra or Psychology, Nyaya-Shasfcra or Logic,
Mlmamsa or Pharma-Karma-Shastra or Ethics,
(6)Yoga-Shastra, Applied Psychology, the Psychical
Science ani Art of Superphysical Powers and of
active identification of iniividual with Universal
Consciousness, and (c] Bhakti-Shas^ra, the Science
and Art of Devotion, of purify in? the heart and

spiritualising the emotions by the cultivation of

the Love Divine (P,-A. Ishq*i-haqlql).
 CORRIGENDA
Page Line For Head
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

A SERIES of four lectures was delivered by me on

The Laws of Manu as embodying the principles of
The Science of Social Organisation, in the last week
of December, 1909, at the Thirty-fourth Annual
Convention of the Theosophical Society, in Benares.
The lectures had been prepared at the wish of
my loved and honored friend and spiritual elder,
Dr. Annie Besant, President of that Society, who,
after Madame
Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, has done
most to turn the mind of modern India, educated
in western ways of thinking, towards what is of
lasting value in the ancient lore of India, and to
develope national self-respect therein, by her forty
years' whole-hearted self-sacrifice and unremitting
labors for the uplifting of the Indian People.
These lectures, after revision and expansion,
were published in book-form by The Theosophical
Publishing Society (now the T. P. House) in 1910.
The book, despite many and grave defects, was
' '
well received by very diverse schools of Hindu
thought in India, and seems to have secured
1
some favorable notice outside also. The rather
1
Vide, e.g., Urwiok, The Message of Plato (pub. 1920) ;

L. Adam* Beck (E. Harrington); The Story of Oriental

Philosophy (1928) ; Prof. J. 3. Mackenzie, Fundamental Prob-
l*m* of Life
Yiii THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION

large first edition ran out in less than ten years*

I was asked by the T. P. House, so long ago as
1918 or 1919, for consent to reprint. A number
of notes had gathered, on the margins and on
pasted-in slips, in my copy of the book. I wished
to incorporate them in a new edition. I replied
that I would like to revise. They gave me time.
But I was lacking in foresight when I asked to be
allowed to revise.
The work of revision could not begin till some
ten years later. Other literary work, some of
which was perhaps less called for, and many
private and public worries and engagements, some
independent of, and many consequent on, the vast
political turmoil in the country which began in
1919, (and have referred to more fully
which I
in the Preface to the third edition of The Science
of the Emotions) took up all my diminishing
energies and shrinking hours of daily work.
At last, after repeated reminders from the T. P.
House, I desperately sat down to the work of
revision, a week or two after my elder son went
into jail, in April, 1930, in connection with the
Civil Disobedience movement directed by Mahatma
Gandhi. But in all these years, more notes had
kept gathering. India, with the rest of the human
world, had been passing through amazing experi-
encesand very distressful too for India, and some
other countries, if not for all ; all sorts of ideas
and feelings (not exactly quite new but garbed in
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION iz

new and strong forms) connected with the Re*

construction of Society with regard to all the main
concerns of life. Education, Domesticity, Economics,
Politics, Religion, were clashing in the intellectual
and emotional atmosphere, with inevitable action
and reaction on the physical life. I tried anxiously
to find out if Manu had any reconciling sugges-
tions to give to us, and to embody them in the new
edition. But this was a task far beyond my poor
capacities to cope with satisfactorily. And the
distractions and interruptions continued almost
worse than ever before.
The compilation of a paper (recently published
" "
as a book) on The Unity of Asiatic Thought or
The Essential Unity of All Religions, for the All-Asia
Educational Conference, held in Benares, on 26th
made a great interruption
to 30th December, 1930,
in the work on Manu. Then, as if in cruel and
contemptuous mockery and challenge of the efforts
of those who were trying to bring about peace
between the creeds, came a terrible outbreak
of engineered communal riots in Benares, on llth
February, 1931, which lasted for about a week.
This was followed by a far worse outbreak*
resulting in much greater destruction of life and
property, in Gawnpore, on 24th March, which also
lasted for about a week. The Indian National
Karachi in that same week,
Congress, sitting at
appointed a Committee, putting me on it as
Chairman, to enquire into and report on the
X TEX SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION

Cawnpore and on the causes of, and the

riots,
remedies for, such happenings. I could not make
up my mind to disobey the Congress. But the
work of the Committee made a complete and very
long break in the work on Manu.
Before I could settle down to it again, the
truce arrived between Mahatma Gandhi as
at
representative of the Congress and Lord Irwin
as head of the Government of India on 4th
March, 1931, was broken by the imprisonment
of Mahatma Gandhi on 4th January, 1932, almost
immediately after his return from the second
Indian Bound Table Conference in London, and
the consequent resumption of Civil Disobedience
by the country. My elder son again went into
jail, and my private and public worries began
afresh.
At last, seeing there was no hope of completing
the revision of Manu within any reasonably short
period, the T. P. House suggested that the bulk of
the portion that had been printed off should be
published as a first volume. I agreed. The
volume now presented to the public is the result.
I fervently hope the second and completing volume
will be out before the close of 1933.
The old form of lectures has been abandoned.
The book has been recast to some extent, and a
great many additions made, to the text as well as
the footnotes. Dr. Annie Besant had said once, in
the course of a conversation cm the subject, during
 PREFACE TO THE SECO1TD EDITION ri

one of her latterly very rare visits to Benares,

some time before I began revision, that the book
required to be thought out anew. But almost all
the matter of the first edition has been preserved,
as it had elicited kind letters of appreciation from
distant quarters of India and some other countries
also.
I am
painfully conscious of the very serious
shortcomings of the work. The ideas are scattered
about, in more or less scrappy fashion, and look
like a collection of separate notes just tied to*
gether they are partly expounded in one place
;

and partly in another, with repetitions, and not

properly arranged and systematically developed.
These great faults are due, primarily, to my very
poor fitness for the task undertaken, and, second-
arily, to the conditions in which it has been carried
out conditions entirely antagonistic to sound and
accurate scholarship and well and fully thought
out and balanced conclusions, all which requires
close, prolonged, undisturbed and unbroken study
and reflection. The book is more like a collection
of shanties roughly put up in intervals of hurried
leisure amidst unavoidable other work, than like a
well-constructed house. My only consolation is

that the materials of which the sheds are here

constructed, are good because they are ancient,
and not mine at all and can be re-arranged into
a fine building by more competent hands. I hope
that learned readers, who may happen to believe
Xii THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
with me that the New India of the future can be
born painlessly and grow and shape herself into
health and strength and beauty, only if there is no
complete break made between the past and the
future, only if the essence of the traditions, the
genius, the individuality, the Soul of the Old India,
is carried over and reborn in the fresh body of

New India, only if the form

constructed newly
is

while the spirit remains the old, only if the nourish-

ment provided by the past is duly taken by the
future I hope that such patriotic, and at the same
time humanist, sons and daughters of the Mother-
land, the builders of the home of New India, may
here gathered, serviceable for
find the materials,
their work, and may utilise it with all necessary
corrections and improvements.
In conclusion, I request of all dear friends in the
spirit, if not in the body, who may happen to look
into this book, thatany words which give the
impression that I am over-enthusiastic and wish
to support anything and everything that is con-
tained in the current rescension of Manu-Smtfi,
may be replaced by more sober and restrained
language. I do not, by any means, regard every
verse of it as gospel. I believe, in deference to the
views of scholars who have studied it from the
standpoint of historical criticism, that the bulk
of it was put into its present form about two
thousand years ago, as part of the Vaicjika revival,
some centuries after the Buddha, like many other
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xiii

Samskft works, as a new edition of one or

more much older works that a good many ;

spurious interpolations have been made since,

and given currency, by interested transcribers ;

and that the directions contained in many other

verses, probably genuine, regarding details of
ceremonial observances, or punishments of crime
and expiations of sin (distinction between which
was not made so sharply in the earlier periods of
human history as it is to-day) are certainly obsolete

now, though I will not presume to say that they

never served a useful purpose. Particularly do I
' '
hold that the verses which seem to base caste ex-
* '

clusively on birth (janma) should not be accepted

blindly, or taken too literally and unreservedly as
without reference to and qualification
self -complete,

by other verses, and that those which seem to give

* '
due weight to temperamental aptitude (guva) and
* f '
occupation or means of livelihood followed
f

' '

(Karma) as factors decisive of caste should be

assigned their full value.
Briefly, T have studied the Smrti, with the eye,
not of historical criticism, but of philosophical and
psychological searching, and I have come to the
conclusion that the main principles underlying the
social polityexpounded in it are psychologically
scientificand therefore of permanent value to
mankind, throughout many changes of temporary
forms, and I have endeavoured to expound these
principles in modern more familiar terms, to the best
Xiv THE SCIENCE OP SOCIAL ORGANISATION
of my very poor ability, in the hope that what is

really precious in the ancient heritage of India may

not be swept away, by the flood of new notions,
themselves not all wholesome by any means,
together with the unwholesome rubbish that has
undoubtedly come to overlay it in the course -of
ages, by the action of the ever-changing outer
circumstances of the never-changing Inner Nature
of the Universal Life.

Benares BHAGAVAN DAS

17th November, 1932
 NOTE
I MUST record my sincere apologies to the T. P. !L
and the Vasanta Press for having caused them
very great inconvenience in connection with this-
book, and my gratitude to them for having borne
with me so patiently; also my gratitude to
Mr. C. Subbarayudu who has kindly helped in the
work of scrutinising proofs at Adyar, as a
labor of love.

BHAGAVAN DAS
 CONTENTS
PAGE

INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
.....
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

......
vii

xx?ii
xxxiii

CHAPTER I

THE FOUNDATION OF MANU'S CODE

OF LIFE

A (J hly a t m a-V i 4 y a, the Science of the Self.

The individualised self becomes able to grasp it

only at the human stage in evolution.-*Ali other

sciences and arts dependent upon it. The need
of all Kings to know that Kingly Science, if they
would rule well. Manu, the Great Progenitor of
the Human Race, the Prototype of all suoh
Kings. His Omniscience, by experience of
previous world-cycles. His As8istante.-**Tbe
evil effects of the blind rule of those who knew
not the Science of the Self, and its explanation of
the source and the purpose of life . 1*15
b
xviii THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
PAGE
The Ancient Theory of Life. The way to
f '
understand it. The reason why the modern
*
finds it hard to understand the ancient '.The
difference of standpoint and temperament between
East and West, old and young. Hopes of mutual
approximations and better understanding. The

should he gathered
The main outlines of the
....
Scriptures out of which the Theory of Life

Theory of Life. The

15-31

rhythmic swing of the Spirit's Entrance into

matter and Retirement out of it. Recognised in
all systems of thought and religion. The modern
scientific ideas of evolution and involution. The
ancient -names-, Pravr^ti and N i v r 1 1 i,
Pursuit and Renunciation, of these two halves of
life. The cause of the rhythmic swing. The
Interplay of the Self and the Not-Self. The
three ends of the first half of life. (i) pharma
which means, ethically, Duty; intellectually,
attribute or property or character ; and practi-

cally, *'.*., in terms of action, active function ;

(ii) Arfha, 'that which is desired,' wealth,

possessions ; and (iii) Kfiraa, sense-enjoyments,,

pleasures* Why K&ma alone not declared the

sole end of the first half of life. The interdepen-
dence of the three ends. The modern notion of
the Debt of the individual to Society. The
ancient fulness of thought on the subject. The
three Debts of the individual. How he contracts
them by birth and the pursuit of the three ends
of the worldly life* How
he begins to repay
them. The Three Appetites. The passing on to
 CONTENTS
PAGE
the second half of The three ends thereof
life. :

b h a k $ i, yog a-a ishvarya, and m o k h a.

Why only m o k s h a mentioned mostly as the
sole end of this half. Explanation of paradoxes
of the spiritual and superphysical life and teach-
ings. The predominance of the impersonal over
the personal on the Path of Renunciation.
Repayment of Debts, of the physical as well as
the superphysical planes, by the bearing of the
burdens of office, a <J h i k a r a, on smaller and
larger scales. B h a k t i, Devotion to the
Universal as well as to the next higher
Self,
Personal Ideal which embodies that Self for the
aspirant, as the sole means ofYoga S i <J <J h i s
and all powers. Illustration from the physical
plane. -Spiritual Hierarchies. Correspondences
between various triplets. Summary ; the Wheel
of Life and Law the two Paths and their Ends;
;

the four Stages of Life; The four Vocational

Classes ; the Fulfilment . . . . 32-8$

CHAPTER II

THE WORLD-PROCESS AND THE

PROBLEMS OF LIFE
Resume. The interdependence of laws and
cyclical conditions and consequent relativity and
variability of Dharma -Duty. Neglect of this
principle in later India and consequent degenera-
tion. Brief survey of the principal changes of
conditions undergone by the Human Race since
:*X THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
PAQS
itsadvent on this globe, as the necessary basis of
interpretation of the laws of Manu. Rounds,
.globes, races, continents, sub-races and coun-
tries.- The first or sexless stage and Root-Race
of the Human Race, and the homogeneous,
unorganised shape of the human individual.
The second or bi- sexual stage and Root-Race.
The third, fourth and fifth Root- Races, and the
stage of sex-difference and differentiation of

-organs in the body of the individual, of in-

equalities between individuals, and therefore of

laws and conventions. The nature of the
Purlliias from which the bird's-eye view of
Human History is taken. Forecast of future
stages and Races; the sixth as double-sexed
again, and the seventh as a sexual. Comments
on certain points arising out of the bird's-eye
view. (a) Support given by the Law of Ana-

logy. (b) Reason for prominence given to sex-

difference. (c) Relation of cause and effect
between psychical and physical phenomena the ;

whole truth of the matter the partial truth a

; ;

question of standpoint the ancient standpoint

;

consciousness first; support offered by modern

^economics. (d) The various marvellous s i <J <J h i s
or powers. (e) The descent of the lower king-
doms from the human, in this round. Reconcilia-
tion between ancient scripture and modern
science as regards spontaneous generation and
gradual evolution ; (i) fixed species, (ii) muta-
tion, and gradual derivation of species, higher
from lower, and (tii) of lower from higher again,
 '

CONTENTS XXi

PAGE.
all reconciled by the presence of infinite possibili-
ties within the living atom. Living beings as
moods of the Creator's consciousness. Various
ways of observing and counting cycles. Older
v a s giving birth to vehicles for younger and
j i

then acting as their guardian-a <J h i k a r i s. The

eternal wheel of Brahman . . . 84-125
Laws, in the modern sense, not required for
the first two stages of the Human Race. But
necessary in the third, the stage of abolition of
physical equality, fraternity, liberty. The
Decent of Laws and Sciences with Divine Kings
and Rshis, to guide the third and future Races.
The advent on this earth of new j I v a s from
other planets, as colonising immigrants. Manu's
Laws the archetype of all possible and actual
societies, all religious and legal polities, within
the epoch of sex -difference. . . . 126-13$
The problems of life and social organisation
and administration to be dealt with. Their
comparatively small number. The spirit in
which they are dealt with usually at the present
time. Of discordant struggle instead of har-
mony. The compensation, viz., more rapid
growth of mind. List of the problems,
roughly classified. (i) Economical (ii) Domestic,
and those relating to population. (iii)

Sanitary. (iv) Educational. (v) Administrative.

( vi) Individualist

Humanist .....
N ationali st Socialist

Sudden changes and new experiments, and

.138-144

their dangers. The proper way to change, by

 THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
PAGE
gradual and wide-spread soul -education.
Current ways of temporising with difficulties
and hand-to-mouth legislation 145-148
. . .

Manu's treatment of the problems. Different

standpoint and different grouping. (i) Child-
hood and youth. (ii) Pater-familias. (id) 'Re-
* *
cluse, i.e., retired from competitive business '.

(iv)Wandering Ascetic. (i) Brahmacharya,

Brahma^a, and educational problems. (ii)

Householder, Vaishya, and domestic, sanitary,

populational and economical problems. (iii)
Forest-dweller or 'Retired* public worker,
Kfhaftriya, and administrative problems. (iv)

problems. ......
The Thrice-born, the Ascetic, and spiritual

The four castes and four orders all arising

149-156

from the order of the household. The over-

lapping of castes and orders. Correspondences
between the two. And the ends of Life. . 157-164

The socialist spirit of the Vargas hrama

P h a r m a in the highest sense . . . 165
Remarks as to some technical words. Wider
and narrower significance of Qharma. The
sources of I? h a r m a (i) Direct knowledge, (ii)
:

Memory and custom, (iii) Example, (iv)

v

Cbhscience. The promised fruits of Q h a r m a :

Good name he're'and happiness hereafter. Con-

nexion between the two. Real significance of
Ve<Ja and Smrti. J?harma must be rational.
The way to interpret the words of Manu.
Objections and answers. Distinction of Reli-
gious and Secular, 'of modern growth. Reason
 CONTENTS
PAQE
thereof. The Var$ashrama pharma inclusive of
all men and all religions. The secret meaning
of the Ve<Ja. Misuse of the secret knowledge.
Periodic restorations of balance. Knowledge
must combine with virtue. Fresh beginnings.
Old ideas and new words. . . . 166-206

CHAPTER III

THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION

Place of Education the first in the Scheme of

Life ; why. The main Problems of Education,
(i) What is education, (ii) Why educate, (iii)
What should be taught, (iv) Whom to, (v) When,
(vi) Where, (vii) How, (viii) Who should
educate. A Philosophy of Life needed to solve
them. 207-219
(i) What is Education ?( a) In the larger
sense, (b) in the narrower sense. Unchanging
principles and changing details. Need to visualise
ideals, values, ends. Education as reconciler of
egoism and altruism ; as maker of the gentleman ;
as teaching, disciplining, training. Shik
A<Jhyayana ;Upanayan a- V r a t
Brahmacharya.
(ii) What is the Purpose
(iii) What is the Scope of Edu
The faculties which should be
The tendencies which should
(B) The Sciences and Arts wl
taught. Classification of them.
 THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
PAGE
(iv) Whom to Educate ? Different types of
the
instruction
(v)
Educable,

When
......
to
requiring

Educate ?
different

Age- limits,
courses

in
of

the
274-279

different types of the Educable, of elasticity of

brain, for development of introspective

power
by introspective prayer. Chief Difficulty of
modern Educationists. Ascertainment of Voca-
tional Aptitude, predetermination of Vocation,
and corresponding Education, in the old Scheme.
The Full Period of Education. The Non-
educable 280-301
(vi) Where to Educate ? The ancient ideal
and practice. A living example. What is prac-
ticable under modern conditions . . . 302-309
(vii) How to Educate? The multifarious
problems of detail The methods, manners, and
heart-relationships. Tri -unity of Education.
Four Primary Items of Education. (a) Hygiene
and sanitation cleanliness, purity of diet, con*
;

tinence. (b) Good Manners and Morals code of ;

manners seniors, equals, juniors titles to res-

; ;

pect; school and home; reverence for elders;

nchftra, good conduct. The AchtLrya, who
'
teaches by his conduct/ by good example.
Physical Education continence of body and also
;

of mind ; its high physical and superphysical

results; the infinite potencies of the germinal
cell; life-long virgins; games and sports and
physical exercises breath -regulation and breath-
;

ing-exercises ; their supreme value, physical

'
and superphysicah (c) Tending the Fires,*
 CONTENTS XXV
PAGE:
culinary and sacrificial, physical and su pel-physi-
cal. (c) Religious Education SanihyH- prayer
;

and invocation of the Sun, our Visible God, the

Ruler of our World -system, and Representative
to us of the Impersonal Supreme ;
the proper
hours for the daily devotions Sanihyn the first
;

step in Yoga. The far reach of these first Four

Items of Education 310-394
 INTRODUCTION

(to the First Edition, by Dr. Annie Besant)

IT is with very great pleasure that I introduce

this book, for I believe that it deserves the thought-
ful attention of the Indianand English public, and
contains ideas and suggestions of the greatest value
for all who are interested in the vexed questions
of the day. Society, at the present time, is at a
deadlock, unable to go forward into the future
without finding solutions for the problems of our
time, and yet impelled forward by the imperious
law of evolution, which demands progress or
sentences to death. It stands at the edge of a

precipice, and sees no way to safety. Over the

edge it must go as previous civilisations have
gone, carrying their treasures of refinement and
culture with them unless it can find some Ark of
safety to carry it from the old to the new.
Such an Ark may be found in the Wisdom of our
great Progenitor Manu, the Father of the whole
iryan Race. His precepts cannot be followed
blindly in an age so far removed from that in
Xiviii THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
which He spoke; but His ideas contain all the
needed solutions, and to apply the essential ideas
to modern conditions is the work which needs ta
be done and which will receive His blessing in the
doing. The present volume is an attempt to
suggest a few adaptations by one who is full of
reverence for the ancient Ideals of his people, and
who believes that these are living powers, not dead
shells, full of reforming and reshaping strength.
The book has far outgrown the original lectures,,
but has in it, I think, nothing superfluous or irrele-
vant. For the sake of the learned, both Asiatic
and European, the authorities have been quoted
in their original Samsktf for the sake of the un-
;

learned, these quotations have all been thrown into

foot-notes, so that the English may run smoothly
and unbrokenly. Technical terms have been
translated, but the originals have been added
within brackets.
One explanatory statement should be made as
to the method of conveying to the modern reader
the thought of the ancient writer. The European
Orientalist, with admirable scrupulosity and tire-
less patience, works away laboriously with dic-
"
tionary and grammar to give an accurate and
"
scholarly translation of the foreign language
which he is striving to interpret. What else can
he do? But the result, as compared with the
original, is like thedead pressed "specimen* of
the botanist beside the breathing living flower of
 INTRODUCTION

the garden. Even I, with my

poor knowledge of
Samskrt. know the joy of contacting the pulsing
virile Scriptures in their own tongue, and the

inexpressible dulness and dreariness of their

scholarly renderings into English. lec- But our
turer is a Hindu, who from childhood upwards has
lived in the atmosphere of the elder days he heard ;

the old stories before he could read, sung by grand-

mother, aunt, and pandit when he is tired now,
;

he finds his recreation inchanting over the well-

loved stanzas of an Ancient (PurBija), crooning
them softly as a lullaby to a wearied mind to him ;

the 'well-constructed language* (Samskyt) is the

mother-tongue, not a foreign language ; he knows
its shades of meaning, wide connotations, its
its

traditional glosses clustering round words and

sentences, its content as drawn out by great
commentators. Hence when he wishes to share its
treasures with those whose birthright they are not,
he pours out these meanings in their richness of
content, gives them as they speak to the heart of
the Hindu, not to the brain of the European. His
close and accurate knowledge of Samskft would
"
make it child's play for him to give an accurate
"
and scholarly translation of every quotation he ;

has preferred to give the living flowers rather the

dried specimens. Orientalists, in the pride of their
* '

mastery of a dead language, will very likely

scoff at the rendering of one to whom it is a
living and familiar tongue, who has not mastered
XXX THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION

Samsktf as a man but has lived in it from an

infant. For these, the or.ginals are given. But
for those who want to touch ihe throbbing body
rather than learn the names of the bones of the
skeleton of India's Ancient Wisdom, for those
these free and full renierings are given. And I
believe that they will be welcomed and enjoyed.

ANNIE BESANT
 TO THE PURE OF SOUL

O PURE of Soul The angels raise their song,

!

And Truth's light blazeth over East and West !

Alas the heedless world lies fast asleep,

!

And the Dawn's glory wasteth in the skies 1

O Pure of Soul do Ye awake, arise,

1

And open wide the windows of your hearts,

And fill them with the shining of Day's Star,
And with the heavenly music of that song,
So,when the laggards wake, they may not lack
Some message from Ye for the next morn's hope,
Some sign and token that their kith have seen
And stood before the Glory face to face,
And that they also may if they but will.
Be this your Sun-dawn work, Ye Pure of Soul I
 FORE^Qlfl)

(to the First Edition)

SOMEWHERE in the published writings of H. B.

Blavatsky it is said that all earnest Theosophists
should be advised to study Manu. I had therefore
been looking from time to time into the scripture
which goes by the name of Manu-Smrti or Manu-
SamhUft. Coming to know of this, our beloved
President desired me to lay before our brothers and
sisters, on the present occasion, in a brief form, in
modern ways of thinking and of speaking, as far as
possible, the ideas I might have gathered from the
reading of that ancient ordinance. I should say at
the outset, that the study indeed it should be
called only reading has been very cursory, and
the student has been lacking in almost every needed
qualification. But if faith abundant be a qualifica-
tion, then has not been lacking. I have
that
read, not in the spirit of the critical and learned
scholar and antiquarian, superior to his subject,
but with the reverence of the humble learner who
XXXIV THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
wishes to understand, for practical instruction and
for guidance, so far as may be, in present day life,
ever mindful of his own inability, and ever holding
his judgment in suspense where he cannot
understand.
"
Read the thingsof the flesh with the eyes of
the not the things of the spirit with the eyes
spirit,
"
of the flesh said a Master. To interpret the
words of Manu, as of all the real scriptures of all
the nations, mere dictionary, however
grammar and
laboriously used, are not enough unless perhaps
they be Samskrt grammar and dictionary. But
Samskrt ShabcJa-Shastra is not mere grammar and
dictionary, but the whole Science of Language,
which is inseparable from the Science of Thought
and of Exegesis, Nyaya and Mlmamsa.
This is said, to obviate hasty objections that the
renderings of the Samskrt texts, in the following
lectures, put new ideas into the old words. In the
matter of subjective knowledge, there are not
all

new ideas enough, yet, to exhaust the richness of

* '
content of the old words of the well-constructed
and
*
consecrated
1
language. Those who have done
the work of translation with open mind, and with,
what is even more needed, open heart as ready, at
least, to see the good points of the work under
translation as the weak ones they know that the
many shades of meaning, which have become
attached by varied and long continued associations
to the important words of any language, cannot be
 FOREWORD XXXV

adequately rendered by single words from another

language. Every race, inspired by its own distinc*
* '
tive ruling passion constructs its own language,
as all its other appliances of life, in order to suit the
particular aspect of divine manifestation which it
represents. Therefore exact equivalents in any two
languages are very difficult to find. Hence, the
frequent need to express the many shades of
meaning of an older and a fuller word by many
words of a newer language, not yet so full in
subjective knowledge. Those who are best circum-
stanced to live in, and to live themselves into, the
modern as well as the ancient types and phases of
civilisation,may be most safely trusted to interpret
truly the latter to the former.
With this brief foreword I proceed to my duty.
BHAGAVAN DAS
First Edition, 1910
 CHAPTER I

THE FOUNDATION OF MANU'S CODE

OF LIFE

Muridaka Upanisha^ I, i, 1.

Manu, vi, 82.

3T?*. W??!!^^ I

GlW, x, 32.

Brahma declared unto His eldest son, Atharva, the

Science of Brahma, which verily is the foundation
of all other sciences.

All this whatsoever, that is designated by the word

'
This,' all this is made of the substance of and is held
together by thought, by ideation, and by that alone. He
1
Shankara's Bhashya on Gaudapada's Mandukya-karika,
30, reads this line as,

j Wlfa ^r^f: (I

That he who does not know the Science of the Infinite

is,

Self, cannot know the heart of the Veda, i.e., of any Science
of the Finite, superphysical or physical.
2 MAN'S DISTINCTIVE MARK [MANU
who knoweth not the subjective science, the Science of
the Self, he can make no action truly fruitful, can guide
no course of action purposefully to beneficent issues.

Of all the sciences, I am the Science of the Self, and

of all speech, I am the mutual converse of those who
seek the Infinite and Eternal Truth of the Self in
Whom all things live and move and have their being.

THE CHARACTERISTIC QUALITY OF MAN

THE forest-chants of the Scripture sing how

minerals exist, plants feel, and animals know, but
know not that they exist and feel and know while ;

man exists, feels, knows, and also knows that he

1

exists, feels, knows. Because of this appearance

1
Rg-Veda, Aitareya Araiujaka* II, iii, 2. Sayana's com-
ment on this says,

"
In other words, All things whatsoever are but means of
manifestation of the Supreme Self's limitless powers that ;

which is seemingly unmoving, manifests His attribute of Exist-

ence (sat, I am) most the vegetable kingdom, that of Feeling
;

(rasa, ananda, Bliss) ; the animals, Intelligence (chit, chitta),

Consciousness ; man, Self -consciousness (vijftana, prajnana)"
"
Western writers have said, Minerals grow ; plants grow and
k '
live animals grow, live, and feel," or, better,
; God sleeps in
the mineral, dreams in the vegetable, wakes in the animal,
MANU] SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS 3

of self-consciousness in him for the first time in the

course of evolution of our world-system, is it possi-
ble for him to know the Great Self and understand
the method and the reason of the World-process.
Because of this and this alone, is he truly the man,
the thinker, son of Manu, the all-thinker. The
others cannot think thus comprehensively, with
this self-reference of all that before and after,
is

distinguishing between the Self and what is not the

Self, and so grasping the whole essence of the
World-process. In them all the manifestation of
the Self is but partial, though in ever- increasing
degree first of only the existence (sat) aspect of
:

the Supreme, then of that and some dim feeling

< ananda then of these and a little of intelligent
) ,

consciousness (chit). In man the manifestation

1

finds comparative completeness, and he therefore

looks before and after and thinks and knows himself in man ".
The fictitious line between the living and the supposed non-
living is being obliterated rapidly in western science also.
'*
1

Bergson pats forward the opinion that :

Vegetable
torpor, instinct, and intelligence these are the elements that
coincided in the vital impulsion common to plants and animals,
and which, in the course of a development in which they were
made manifest in the most unforeseen forms, have been
dissociated by the very fact of their growth. The cardinal
error, which, from Aristotle downwards, has vitiated most of
the philosophies of Nature, is to see, in vegetable, instinctive,
and rational life, three successive degrees of the development
of one and the same tendency, whereas they are three diver-
gent directions of an activity that has split up as it grew ".
" "
Bergson's three elements seem to correspond respectively
with t a m
a s, rajas, and sattva, orananda,sat, and
chit." (For explanation of changes of order see The Science
of Peace and The Pranava-Vada, by the present writer.)
4 '
AND POSSIBILITY [MANU
fulfils the purpose, and
the turning-point, of the is

world-system. At the
stage of man alone the
separated self, termed the j I v a becomes capable ,

of najat, deliverance, liberation, and fana-

f - i 1 1 a h, annihilation into God, i s a 1 union w ,

with God, in the language of Musalman Sufis ;

of salvation, and beatitude, in the words of
Christian seers and mystics ; of nirvana
and the extinction of the sense of separate

There is an element of truth in what he says also an ;

element of error in the shape ot its unqualified extremeness.

It may be true, as seems to be now held generally, that the
* '

evolution of the kingdoms of nature, and even the genera

and species, is along the branches of a tree, as it were,
and not a continuous upward line or even spiral. A s fa-
vat t ha, Sthanu, Yggdrasil, the World-tree, are
well-known symbols with others, of
also, side by side
the Universe, in various mythologies. But what may be
true of the physique need not be true of the psyche
quite. And 'symbiosis,' co-operation between all the kingdoms
of Nature, the circulation of a common vitality through all
its limbs or branches, is also recognised as a fact. Anyway,
4 '
the three elements are always inseparable attributes of one
' '

and the same Living Substance the divergence spoken of ;

by Bergson is a matter only of predominance and not of

exclusiveness ; and that too in the physical forms only souls ;

pass from lower forms of body to higher, flying from lower

branch to higher branch/ we may say. Reconciliation of
* ' '

the various divergent views ( and all catch aspects of the

truth, and are reconcilable, if not put extremely ) is to be

found in the expositions given in theosophical literature, of

"
the nature of karma, re-incarnation, and evolution. It is
remarkable that through paleontological research the original
* '
Latin word evolution becomes inadequate and the old
Samskrt word (vi) kar (a) [creative evolution or unfolding]
reasserts itself": Encyclopaedia Britannica, 13th edition,
vol. 29, art. Evolution. The word exfoliation seems to have a
similar significance.
MANU] OF FREEDOM 5

individuality, for the followers of the Buddha and

of the Jina of
;
mo k s h a and freedom from the
bonds of doubt and error and matter, for the
student of Vedanta of k a i v a ly a
; m
realisation ,

of Oneness, the Unity of the Universal and the

On(e)ly Consciousness, in the phrase of the Yoga.
In man, that principle which is variously called
the mind ( m
a n a s ) the means and instrument
,

of thinking, or the inner organ (antah-karaijia),

or the conscious individual atom ( c hnu )
i i 1-
a- a ,

attains that degree of development whereby it can

reflect the image of the Infinite fully, and so
become the bridge between the finite and the Infi-
nite,between the endless past and future on the one
hand and the eternal present on the other whereby ;

it can become the means of a conscious individual

immortality, such as is referred to in the ancient

books, which tell us that consciousness extending
over the whole of any given world-system and cycle,
lasting and persisting unbroken from the birth to
the reabsorption of that system in the primal
cosmic elements that this known
technically as
is
1

immortality of the individual consciousness.

MAN, THE CROWN OF CREATIONHOW ?

This potentiality of the human stage of evolution

is the element of truth in the otherwise boastful

Vayu Purana.
6 HENCE MAN THE CROWN OF CREATION [MANU
belief that man is the crown of creation, whom all
things else therein subserve. Because of this
potentiality of salvation (m o ksh a) and all that it

signifies, even the lower nature-spirits (d e v a s) crave

instinctively for birth amongst the sons of Manu,
and all the denizens of allthe lower kingdoms strive
incessantly in their sub-conscious being to reach
his high estate. In no other way can they attain
1

to that self-consciousness whereby and wherein

alone Emancipation from the bonds of matter may
be won, the long and weary exile cease, and the
joyous homeward return begin towards that Self of

etc.

3: II Bhagavata, XI, ix, 28.

That is to say,

House after house did God make for Himself,

Mineral and plant, insect, fish, reptile, bird,
And mammal too but yet was He not pleased.
;

At last He made Himself the shape of Man,

Wherein He knew Himself the Boundless Self.
And then the Lord of All was satisfied.
This is what modern western philosophers like Hegel also
seem to mean when they say that the Absolute attains full
"
self-consciousness, or absolute knowledge, the spirit knowing
itself as spirit," in man. And probably the Bible means the
"
same thing when it says God created man in His own
image ". For Sufi verses to the same effect, see the present
writer's Krshjia, p. 234.
MANU] THE SCIENCE OF THE SELF 7

Bliss, whence all this show of passing pain and

fleeting pleasure mixed in ceaseless toil and turmoil
has issued, in order that the glory of that lasting
bliss may shine the brighter for the contrast.

THE SCIENCE OF -THE SELF

The Science ever-living Self, Self-con-

of this

sciousness, deep-seated in the heart of every living

being, is that Science (Adhyatma-Vidya) of which
said :

I am
beginning, the middle, and the end of all the
t-he
nianifest and of all the ways of mutual converse
;

amongst men, I am that guiding clue, which ever seeks

and ever points to the One Trath of all the sciences, I
;

am the Science of the Self.

1

The other sciences and arts and learnings all

exist, and also and partly know the objects

feel
that they deal with. But they do not know them-
selves. And, knowing not themselves, they do not
know the relationships existing betwixt themselves,
of each one to the others, and betwixt the various

objects that they deal with respectively. And, thus,

they do not know even their special objects wholly.
Because all sciences and arts and crafts exist but
for the sake of the Self, for the use and service of
life, therefore the Science of the Self alone, knowing
itself, knows also all the others in their very essence,

, x, 32.
8 THE ORGANISER OF ALL SCIENCES [MANU
and can set to each its due proportion to the rest,
and so make all harmonious and fruitful. It is now
being recognised, even quite generally, that the
roots of all the most concretely physical sciences
are lost in metaphysic, and to be found only by
diligent searching there. The force of the physicist,
the atom of the
chemist, the vital functioning
of the biologist, the tendencies to multiplication
and heredity and spontaneous variation and natural
and sexual selection of the evolutionist, even the
impossible point and line and surface and one and
two and zero, etc., of the mathematician, are all
meaningless until translated into terms of meta-
1
physic, the Science of the Self. Hence is this
Science verily the King of Sciences, to which all
others minister and owe allegiance, and which pro-
tects and nourishes all others lovingly, justly, and
righteously :

It is the royal science, the royal secret, sacred sur-

passingly. It supplies the only sanction and support to
righteousness, and its benefits may be seen thus even
with the eyes of flesh as bringing peace and permanence
of happiness to men. Every ruler of men should study it
diligently, so he may be, not a ruler but, a true minister
or servant for it discloses the essential nature of pain
;

and pleasure, joy and sorrow, and enables him to triumph

over all elations and depressions, achieve the steadfast
mind, and do his duty righteously, serenely, faithfully ;

it is the lamp which lights up all the other lights, which

illuminates the final darkness left by all the other lesser

1
See, Thomson, Introduction to Science (H. U. L.
e.g.,
Series), 167
pp. 166, and The Metaphysic and Psychology of
;

Theosophy (Adyar Pamphlets Series) by the present writer for

a fuller working out of this idea.
MANU] ALL RULERS SHOULD STUDY IT 9

sciences ; it shows the righteous way of all good and great

1
deeds ; it is the one rock on which all law rests securely.

THE HIERARCHY or THE WISE LAW-GIVERS

Because it is the King of Sciences, the Holy

Science, therefore all true kings should know it, all

men ruling the affairs of other men should learn

it assiduously, if they would govern well and win
the love of men and gods, here and hereafter, and
happiness on earth and in high heaven for them-
selves and for their peoples. Manu says :

Only he who knows the science of the true and all-

embracing knowledge, only he deserves to be the leader
of armies, the wielder of the rod of justice, the king of
men. the suzerain and overlord of kings. 2
The first Manu of the Human Race is the great
prototype of all such patriarchal kings. Thinking

11 Gitn, ix, 2.

Shukra, Mil, i, 152-158; Kautalya, Artha-Shastra, I, i, 2;

Vatsyayana, NyUya-BhUshya, I, i, 1.
2
WR<^ ^ ^4 ^ Gp^qF&l ^ I

II Manu, xii, 100.

10 SPIRITUAL WISDOM [MANU
(mananam), looking before and after, joining
cause and effect deliberately in memory and
expectation the pre-eminent and specific character
of man is perfectly embodied in the Manu's mind,

omniscient of whole past ages ( ka1pa s ) ,

world-
cycles of activity and
sleep, that only serve as
ever-repeated, ever-passing, illustrations of the
truths and principles of the Science of the Self.
Because he has this vast experience, extending
breaklessly over whole aeons, of all possible situa-
tions in all possible kinds of life, in lowest and in
highest kingdoms ; and because his omniscience
of infinite details is pervaded by the principles
of Self-knowledge, therefore is he fit to guide
new hosts of selves ( j I v a s ) , in new cycles, from
their birth in the atoms of those primal substances
and times, ever so long ago, of which at present
we can call up but the faintest memories or
conceptions, up remergence in the Common
to their
Self, at the nirvaria of the system; therefore is
he fit make laws for guiding them from age
to
to age, laws varying in details with the variations
of the circumstances of life, but as unvarying in
essential principles as the basic facts and laws of
man's psycho-physical nature with which those
principles are fundamentally connected and from
which they are directly derived. And in this work
of guiding human evolution and making laws for it,

the Manu helped by Sages ( Rs h is ), who also

is

have remained over with him from previous ages

MANU] OF THE INNER HIERARCHY 11

( k a 1p as ) ,
and therefore are called shishtas,
the Elect and Select, literally 'remains,' remnants
or residua.
The verb-root s h i s h means to remain behind, and to
be distinguished from others, (and the root s h a s means to
instruct and be instructed) and all these senses are in-
;

cluded in the word s h i s h t a The knowers and doers of

.

4 ha r ma,
1
well- instructed and distinguished beyond
others, who remained behind at the end of previous ages
(manvantaras),- and now stay on throughout this
world-cycle in order to maintain unbroken the chain of
worlds and kingdoms and races, and to preserve the
ancient <J harm a from falling into decay and ruin, by
constantly instructing the new j I v a s in their duties
these are the Maim and the seven R s h i s Out of his .

memory of the past age our Manu declared the (J har-

rn a s suited for the present cycle, and therefore is that
d h a r m a known as remembered (S'
r t i or S
'
m
rt a ) . m
And because it is observed and practised by those that
4 '
remained behind, and will be established again and again
in succeeding cycles, after the expiration of this, and has
been taught by the Elders and their Elders always (with
the needed modifications from time to time), therefore is
it known as S h i s h t - a c h & r a i.e., the conduct, precept
,

and example, of" the well-instructed remnant of high

teachers worthy of all reverence/'

1
A well nigh untranslatable word, including religion, rites,
piety, specific property, function, law, etc., but, above all, the
Duty incumbent on a man at the stage of evolution he has
reached and in the situation he may be in. More will be said
on it later on.
' *
-
Rounds in theosophical parlance.
12 HE ONLY FIT TO RULE [MANU
l
The Markaqdeya Puraqa tells the story of the
next or eighth Manu, Savarjd by name, who began
his preparation for his future work so long ago as
the second Round (named in the Pura^as as the
Svarochisha Manvantara). when he was born as
the kshattriya (warrior) king Suratha, and had
for companion in his austerity the v a i s h y a
(merchant) Samadhi, both receiving instruction
from the sage Medhas. The Manu, Vaivasvta, now
reigning, is the seventh.

WHO is FIT TO RULE?

None indeed who does not possess this compre-

hensive wisdom is fit to rule in the fullest sense of
that high word. But, even on a smaller scale, he
who does not know the essentials, the broad outlines
and general principles of the Science of the Self,
S.tma-vidya, Theosophy proper, Brahma-vidya,
God-Wisdom ; who does not know the source, the

II

Matsya Purana, ch. 145.

1
In the chapters which form the Durga-sapta-sha^i. Every
religion has traditions of the Spiritual Hierarchy which guides
the evolution of the Human Race, and the traditions have very
much in common, to the eye which is not intensely desirous of
seeing only differences. But faith in the existence of such a
hierarchy is by no means indispensable for the pursuit of the
main theme of this book.
MANU] WHO HAS THE NEEDED WISDOM 13

means, the ends of life ; has not studied the work-

ings of the mind, nor learnt how to create good-will
in his own heart and in the hearts of others round
him does not know, in brief, what are the origin,
;

what the end and purpose, what the way of ruling,

of his own life how shall he fitly rule the lives of
others, be it in a household, or be it in a kingdom ?

How can he be and indubitable help and

of real
service to his fellow-men ? How will he enable
them to bring together means and end ? By what
ways may he lead them on to the great goal not
knowing what the goal is, and unaware of any
ways but those revealed to him by the chance of
the physical senses, themselves the products of
l
causes to him wholly unknown ?
1
Edmond Holmes, The Secret of Happiness (pub. 1919),
in
"
says, in When 1 had served as a School
the Introduction :

Inspector for more than thirty years, it suddenly dawned upon

me that a man's theory of education ought to be governed by
'"
his theory of life." Tolstoy says No human activity can be
:

fully understood or rightly appreciated until the central pur-

pose of life is perceived. You cannot piece together a puzzle-
map so long as you keep one bit in a wrong place but when ;

the pieces all fit together, then you have a demonstration that
they are all in their right places ... So it is with the problem
of Art. Wrongly understood, it will tend to confuse and
perplex your whole comprehension of life.
*
But given the clue
supplied by true religious perception,' and you can place Art
so that it shall fit in with a right understanding of politics,
economics, sex-relationships, science, and all other phases of
human activity. Religion, Government, Property,
. . .

Sex, War, and all the relations in which man stands to man,
and to his own consciousness, and to the Ultimate Source
(which we call God) from whence that consciousness proceeds,"
(Aylmer Maude's Introduction to Tolstoy's What is Art?,
p. xiii) these are all at once illumined when the Nature of that
 14 BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND [MANU
Of the rule of such un-knowing men, in the
smaller household of the family and the larger
household of the nation, was the Upanishat verse
spoken by the Seer in sadness and in sorrow :

Sunkin the depths of ignorance and error, wise in

their conceit, great in their own imagination, they
own
go on, the unhappy ones, stumbling at every step upon
1
the path, blind leaders of the blind.

Ultimate Source is understood. This is good comment, though

unconsciously made, on Manu's verse (vi-82) quoted at the
beginning of this chapter. Not only pedagogics, not only
aesthetics, but also domestics, socionomics, economics, politics,
civics, ethics, and all possible other departments and activities
of human life, and all the sciences subserving them, can be
*' "
fully understood, rightly appreciated and wisely guided to
beneficent issues, only by Atma-vidya, the complete Philosophy
of Life. Another quotation from a modern western writer* of
still another school of thought, to make the same ancient
<k
thought clearer to the modern mind :It is the great structure
of our government here that is so weak. The mind of India is
chaos. No people can be governed, or govern themselves,
except upon the social axioms of a culture and a civilisation.
'

These conditions do not exist here, and I do not find that the
man on the spot sees that as he should. We are patching
'

without plan, yielding without forethought, changing without

insight/* So wrote Mr. Ramsay McDonald (to-day, in A.C. 1930,
Laborite Prime Minister of England) on Nov. 23, 1913, to The
Leicester Pioneer of Dec. 19, 1913, from Delhi, where he had
" " **
come as a member of a royal commission on the public
" *'
services of India ". Substitute the civilised world of to-day
'*
for India "; and "the principles of a social organisation
scientifically based on psychology and philosophy (A.tma-
" " *"
vidya) for social axioms . . civilisations"; and
.
any-
"
where for here " and the passage becomes true.
"

Mundaka, I, ii, 8.
MANU] PRESENT WAE OF VIEWS 15

PRESENT CONFLICT AND CONFUSION

And such verily is the condition of mankind at

large to-day. Sovereign and subject, statesman and
private man, scientist and priest, theocrat and
aristocrat, bureaucrat and plutocrat and democrat,
capitalist and and hand-
laborer, brain-worker
worker, rich and poor, conservative and liberal,
individualist and socialist, communist and anarch-
ist all having, as a rule, no knowledge and no
' '

thought of the why of life and but a very partial

'
one of the how '; busying themselves more or less
frenziedly with the immediate gain to the senses ;
thinking only of staving off the trouble of the
moment ; condemning, as beyond the pale of
4 '

practical politics, all attempts to formulate and

teach and reach high ideals in the administration of
affairs, even when acknowledging, with the lips,
that conduct is instinctively governed by the ideal,
practice by theory, that there a philosophy
is

behind every great public movement, that ideas

are the forces which move nations how shall such
guide the human race to happiness ?

THE THEORY BEHIND THE MANU'S WAY

The Maim and his assistants and subordinates
are not so near-sighted. They look very far, before
* '
and after. To them, practical politics does not
mean taking account of only the evil side of human
16 MANU'S THEORY OF LIFE [MANU
nature, wholly disbelieving and ignoring the better
side, and circumventing one's neighbours by any
and all means. Their practical politics are always
dominated and governed by high ideals, by a com-
plete theory of life, its origin, its
end, its purpose.
To their view, all activity not organically and
consistently related to the well-ascertained and

clearly-defined objects of life is not practical but

supremely unpractical.
In order, therefore, to understand and appreciate,
at their true value, the rules that they have laid
down for the guiding of human affairs, it is indis-
pensable that the view of the World-process, on
which the rules are based, should be clearly under-
stood. Whether we agree in it and accept it, or
not, is another matter. But to understand the
practice we must understand the theory, we must
put ourselves at the point of view of those who
framed and followed the practice.

ANCIENT EAST AND MODERN WEST

Many modern students, especially of the West,

say that the ancient East is unintelligible to them ;
that they cannot understand the Hindu's introduc-
' '
tion ofwhat they call religion into the most
commonplace affairs of life his constant reference
;

to heaven and to liberation, even in the text-books

of grammar and mathematics. They fail to under-
stand Hindu life, because they look only at the
MANU] EAST AND WEST 17

surface ; and because, they, in their own life, occupy

a standpoint and follow an ideal very different from

that of those who profess to be guided by the
Institutes of the Manu . It is a frequent statement
in the ancient books, that the child cannot under-
stand and sympathise with the conjugal feelings
and passions, the romances and the sentiments, the
elations and the depressions, of the young man.
No more can the young man, with his turbulent
egoism, restless ambitions, outrushing energies and
ever-renewed hopes and enthusiasms, understand
the graver demeanor and the sobering cares and
anxieties of the middle-aged, who have to bear the
burdens of the family and the manifold pressure of
the social organisation in which they live. No
more, again, can the middle-aged, engaged in the
strenuous struggles of life, wholly understand the
craving for peace and quietness of the aged, and
from the competitive struggle. But
their retirement
the older can generally understand the younger, by
means of memory. Now, as the difference is
between two individuals at two different stages of
life, such is the difference between two peoples and

two forms of civilisation,

occupying different stages
of evolution. An older race, even though feebler,
can generally understand the younger and more
vigorous, though the latter does not understand the
former. There are few complaints that the East
cannot understand the West many that the West
;

cannot understand the East. There is no difficulty

 18 ANCIENT AND MODERN [MANTJ

for the old man in understanding that the younger

one should be energetic, pushful, aggressive, eager
to make his way in the world and secure its good

things for his own use. He has himself passed

through that experience, and retains the memory of
it, unless indeed he has become too far removed in

age. But it is difficult for the average young man,

every fibre of whose organism is impelling him
towards pursuit of the outer world's experiences, to
understand what quiet reflection over these or
voluntary abandonment of them can be, and how
1
it is possible.
He who has not passed through the psychical
crisis of dispassion ( v a i-r a g y a ), surfeit with and

disgust for the things of the world and the sordid

struggle over them, and the consequent lasting
sense of detachment, which is a constituent factor
of wisdom as distinguished from intelligence and
cleverness, can never understand and sympathise
with the mood and conduct of one who has. This
is the essential difference between the psychology

The case of the inner psychological " conversion "-strug-

1

gle, which comes to most persons during adolescence, intensely

and with noble permanent results to the more advanced and
exceptionally sensitive and thoughtful j I v a s, sub-consciously
or semi-consciously, confusedly, and passingly to the majority,
does not interfere with the general truth of the observations
in the text. That the whole tree is present already in the
seed is a fact, yet it does not conflict with the successiveness,
equally a fact, of the several stages of exfoliation ; and
"
exceptions prove the rule ", See the present writer's The
Fundamental Idea of Theosophy, and The Science of the
Emotions. 3rd edition, pp. 56, 213, 298-9.
MANU] YOUNG AND OLD 19

of the West and of the East, modern and ancient,

1
young and old.

MANU'S COMPREHENSIVENESS VERSUS

MODERN DEVICES

Manu's scheme of life, individual and social,

contains provision for not only both the younger
and the older, but also for all the different tempera-
mental psycho-physical types and classes at all
stages of evolution those who have passed through
;

dispassion and been born a second time thereby,

and those who have not, and those who are in inter-
mediate conditions. 2
Modern schemes, ranging
through a score or more of isms, (Individualism to
Communism and Fascism to Bolshevism) make, it
seems, provision only for one type and stage, assumed
to include all the members of the race, or to be forced

upon them all, and failing, therefore, to meet all

requirements, constantly breaking down in

are
practice, and need continual revision. The whole 1 *

1
P u r v a and Pashchima; purva means both east and
earlier or older and before, and pashchima, west and later
or younger and behind. When you stand before " the rising tl

" "
sun, that quarter is the purva; to the right is
"' "
dakshina; behind is pashchima; to the left is
u11ara .The general plan of history seems for civilisation
to travel from the East towards the West, round and round,
with the sun.
- "
See, on this, Prof. James* interesting chapter on the twice-
born," in his Varieties of Religious Experience.
:i
As witness the changes of policy of Bolshevism in Russia,
since its coming into power in 1917-18, and the continual
20 THE NEW DEVICES [MANU
course of nature ordains that the older, who know
more, shall make provision for the bringing up of
the younger, who know less. Where, for any
special cause, this ordinance of nature is violated,
catastrophe must result before very long. And
there is much reason to fear that the new systems
of administering human society will prove a com-
mentary on and a justification of Manu's ideas by con-
trast. They are the product of minds which are con-

fined as yet to the Path of Pursuit (the Pra-vftti-

m a r g a), and know little or nothing of, and care less
for, the other half of life, the Path of Renunciation

(the Ni-vftti-marga); without knowledge of

which, the fundamental facts of the universe, the
foundations of all existence, remain unknown. As
Krshija says :

The men who are still on the Path of Pursuit, pursuit

of the pleasures of the senses, they know not the difference

ferment since the Great War, or rather since the beginning of

the twentieth Christian century, in almost all the 'civilised*
countries of the earth.

: II

^ II Manu, xii, 95-6.

"
The views and the schemes and devices that are not found-
ed on the Science of the Self, bat are rooted wholly in erro-
neous sensualism they shall always be barren of happiness.
They shall springup and die down like ephemeral mushrooms
unwholesome, unable to stand the test of time and
in the rains,
bear the heavy weight of ages."
MANU] YOUNG WILL BECOME OLD 21

between that Path and the Path of Renunciation, renun-

ciation of the things of physical sense and striving after
the superphysical and spiritual life. And because they
know not these two in their contradistinction, the two
which make up the whole of life, therefore the whole of
the Truth abides not with them, nor real inner purity
from selfish desire, nor the conduct of reason-governed
self-sacrifice. 1

WEST AND EAST AS ONLY YOUTH AND AGE

Such is all the supposed, and much spoken of,

and much exaggerated, difference between ancient
and modern, East and West. There is indeed no
other deeper-seated, inherent, insuperable and in-
eradicable difference. They are both Spirit of the
same and flesh of the same flesh all most
Spirit
truly Manu's children. The ancient has been
modern in its day. The modern will be ancient in
its time. Indeed, the modern, in the sense of the
fifth sub-race, in theosophical language, is fast
aging now, maturing psychically and passing
through experience at a more rapid rate than the
ancient, in the sense of the Indian first sub-race,

Bhagavad-GltO, xvt, 7.

In modern terms, the a s u r a and the d a i v a types of the

Git a may be said broadly to correspond respectively to the
"
and the tender-minded " of William James,
" "
tough-minded
" "
the extrovert and tho introvert " of the psycho-analyst, the
4t

aggressive Nietschzian blonde savage on the one hand and the

refined gentle-man on the other ; in Greek, titan and god.
22 ANCIENT FORMS AND REMNANTS [MANU
1
seems to have done. And all attempts at inter-
pretation of the ancient to the modern, for the
passing on to the younger and more energetic

generation of whatever special knowledge the older

and now feebler generation may have gathered, in
order that the younger may mount to a higher height
of experience such attempts are but parts of the
all

natural ways and means of the younger's matura-

tion.
It should be remembered that, strictly speaking,
what we call the ancient should be called only the
remnants of the ancient for the bulk of ; it, so far as
the actual living present-day population of India is

concerned, is in reality very modern and young.

For it is made up and is roughly
of younger souls,
classed with the ancient only because upgrown on
' '
the soil of the ancient, where the forms of the
older type of civilisation still persist where also
;

are older souls, here and there, to keep the old

ideals alive, till the truly modern of both East and
West shall take them up, to carry them to a fuller
realisation in the future. So, on the other hand,
many older and more advanced souls are being born
now in the bodies of the new races, of the west, to

provide the necessary leaven of the older knowledge

1
In the twenty years that have elapsed since the first edition
of work, the European world has been turned all upside
this
down by the Great War of 1914-18 and has lived enormously
fast ; while India too has lived two hundred years in those
twenty, in the political and economic departments of her
national life, as also in respect of socio-religious reform.
MANU] AMBIVALENCE OF NATURE 23

for them and direct their attention towards super-

physical sciences. As cells and tissues, embodying

germs of nascent faculties are in the individual, so
are individuals and families, embodying special
knowledge and in the
body of the nation.
ideals,
The bringing together of eastern and western
nations in bonds of political, economical, and edu-
cational interdependence is an act of Providence
also tending, it would seem, towards the same end.
If we seek for a reason why younger and less
advanced souls ( j I v a s ) should be born into the
weakening physical moulds left by the more advanc-
ed (in India), we may perhaps find that this is only
in accordance with the laws of economy of force,
which run through and counter-balance the lavish
extravagance, in details, of ever-paradoxical Nature,
the Everlasting Duality (Pvamdvam, Ambiva-
lence, Polarity) perpetually playing within the heart
of the Eternal One. Aging grand-father and budding
infant fit in with each other appropriately ; the
knee of the former the natural play -ground of the
is

latter; his perfected wisdom (sattva) of soul

and decaying activity (rajas) and
growing
inertia ( t a mas
body help on to their natural
) of

development the imperfect intelligence and growing

activity and lessening inertia of the body of the child.

MANU-SM$TI AND COGNATE WORKS

What then is Theory of Life which is the
this
foundation of Manu's Laws, one portion of which,
24 THE ANCIENT BOOKS [MANU
suited for one epoch, has come down to us, with
modifications made, from time to time, by various
Sages and minor Manus, in order to suit the needs
of sub-cycles within the largerepoch ? With regard
to these modificationsand explanations, we have to
remember that in trying to present to our minds the
outlines of Manu's views intelligibly, it is not
possible to confine ourselves to the words of the
work known as the Manu-Samhitn or Manu-Smtfi.
In order to understand that work, cognate literature
* '
in the shape of the histories of world-evolution
(Itihasas and Pura^as), and especially those parts
of them which describe past Indian life as governed
by the laws of Manu, is indispensable. Manu-
Samhita is said to be the quintessence of the Vedas ;
the study of it is compulsory on the twice-born on
'

pain of losing status, as education' in the general

sense is necessary to entitle a modern western man
to be called a gentleman ; and like the Vedas,
it should be interpreted with the help of the
*
histories'.

Whatever hath been declared by Manu to be the duty

of any one, that is supported by, and is declared in
entirety and detail in, the Ve<Ja for Manu knoweth all,
;

and the Vetja contains all knowledge. And the Ve^la

should be expanded and expounded with the help of the
Puranas and the Itihasas, the Ancient Histories of World-
Evolution generally, and of the Human Race specially.
For indeed the Ve<Ja f eareth him whose knowledge is not
"
very wide, who has not heard much Such a one will
:

misinterpret me, and will defraud me of my true

MANU] SPIRIT VERSUS LETTER 25

and value," so thinketh the Ve<Ja of the

significance
1
narrow-minded and the ill-informed.

SPIRIT VERSUS LETTER

This method, it is true, does not recommend

itself to He expresses his
the modern orientalist.
'

opinion of it in the single word uncritical '. To

him, the date of the work ; the exact and particular
name of the authorthe details of his biography
;

the various readings of a particular piece of text

although the sense of all be the same ; and such
other matters are of exceeding importance. And

S*i1sfa%ft ft ^flTSWRV fl S: II Manu, ii, 7.

*TWf Sfflficarfcl II Mbh. Adi -parva,

t i, 293-4 ,

The Indian (Hindu) is debited, and not groundlessly, by the

"
orientalist, with complete lack of the historical sense ".
Practically, no new historical works have been written in India,
(by Hindus, though some have been, a very few, by Jainas, and
by Musalmans) for hundreds of years now not counting those
written during the last seventy years. But the anoient
Indian's appreciation of the value of History was so great that
he regarded it as a fifth Veda (vide Chhandogya Upaniqhat,
VII, i, 2). And the two verses, quoted above, expressly say
that Veda, i.e.. the essential Science and Philosophy, is impos-
sible to understand correctly except in the light of "Universal
History. In other places, Itihasa-Purana are said to be
more useful and valuable (as obviously for popular education)
than even the Vedas. Indeed, a complete history of world-evolu-
tion would obviously be a complete encyclopaedia of all know-
ledge, all philosophy, and all possible sciences. See the present
writer's Krfhna, 3rd edition, p. 9.
26 UNIVERSAL TRUTH [MANU
from a certain standpoint he is perfectly right.
Where the subject-matter of the work is, not
general laws and principles and also facts more or
less certain, but the changing and passing products
of such laws and principles (like minor poems,
plays, lyrics, essays, controversies, articles of
virtu, curious inventions, pastimes, dress-fashions,
peculiar ornaments, machines, games, etc.), there
the personality of the author and the conditions
under which his work was created become useful
objects of study, as also helping to illustrate the
same general laws and principles, or at least as
affording interesting pastime. But otherwise, they
are not useful to study. Even in modern days,
people do not spend very much time and energy on
finding out particulars about the discoverers of
geometry or arithmetic or algebra, or about the
editors of successive text-books of these. The dis-
coverers of real indubitable truths are generally
only re-discoverers. Therefore no particular inter-
est attaches to their personalities, except as part of

general history. The inventors of passing things

'
are far more interesting,' naturally, and great
* '
discussions arise as to how much credit should
or should not be given to them. Truth is common
property and cannot be copyrighted. Individual
peculiarities not to call them aberrations are
special property, and therefore fit for copyrighting.
Truth is simple, single, universal, belongs to all ;

difficult to understand only because, and when.

MANU] AND COPYRIGHTED ERROR 27

uninteresting, so that people will not look at it.

Error manifold, complicated, entangled, belongs

is
" " " "
separately to each separate individual. The
straight line is one. The crooked lines are count-
less. Every deviation from the straight line is an
error, a straying and there is no limit to the-
;

number of possible errings. The Supreme Self is

One and Universal. The separate individual selves,
made by A - v rf y u Nescience, Error are infinitely
i ,

numerous. The Scriptures of all the nations are

nameless. Such other works as, by their surpassing
excellence, approach the Scriptures in helpful
instructiveness, are nearly nameless, too the great
epics of many nations, for instance. By their
perfect descriptions of human nature, true in all
times, they have risen above the level of passing
lists of passing facts, and have become text-books

of the science of psychology, sociology, history, all

in one. The Elders of the Race wrote and wrought
out of compassion for mankind, not for name or
fame or feel of pride or vanity or copyrighted money.

SEPARATISM VERSUS BROTHERLINESS

Manu, Samhita known by the

in reference to the

name, is thus but a representative name, repre-

sentative of the Great Being who, according to the
Puragas, is the real, primal Progenitor and Chief
of the Human Race and also of minor Manus and

IJshis and the subordinate hierarchs who help in

28 BROTHERLINESS [MANU
the work of carrying out his scheme, and who put
forth,from time to time, as need arises, the minor
laws which are all already contained potentially in
the Great Law. And therefore the free use of the
Itih&sas and Pura$as and other traditions is helpful
in understanding the general scheme. This is so,

to the older
temperament of theis mind which
inspired more by the sense of non-separateness
(abheda-buddhi); which tends physically as
well as mentally to long-sightedness, tolerance,
sufferance, compromise, reconciliation of all ; which
likes better to attend to the common elements in the
various views of truth ; which is inclined to look at
thoughts behind and through the words, even at
the risk of being somewhat slovenly in the use of
language ; which believes that the World-process
manifests from within without, and that forms
develop out of the life, and not in the reverse way ;
which looks at history as the concrete illustration
of the abstract principles of philosophy, as the

working out of an ideal plan, and not at philosophy

as the bye-product of basketfuls of casual events
called history ; which believes that ideas and ideals,
discoveries of science and unfoldings of knowledge,
are all themselves the result of a great world-plan
of human evolution, and make epochs, and not the
reverse. To the other, the younger temperament,
of the mind which is moved more by the sense of
separateness (bheda-buddhi), with eyes keen
for the sharp edges of all outlines, and impatient of
MANU] AND SEPARATION 29

all compromise which delights to emphasise differ-

;

ences which revels in drawing distinctions dwells

; ;

lovingly and lingeringly on the apparent inconsist-

encies of others thinks that life develops out of
;

form and functions out of organs, instead of the

opposite ; which declares that history is made by
chance trifles, by the accidental speakings, doings,

intriguings of men and women often hidden in the

background, or by only the accidents of environ-
ment and the chances of climate which is not ;

willing to see that such speakings and doings and

environments and climatic conditions are themselves
the results of wide-reaching and deep-lying causes
and can occur and be of effect only in the setting
of the general plan ; which attaches more import-
ance to minute details than to general principles,
and to physical facts than to psychical to such a
' '

temperament, method of uncritical

this study
does not recommend itself. Perfection lies, of

course, in the combination of both principles and

details, of the two extremes in the golden mean.
But such perfectly balanced combination is seldom
found ; perhaps precluded by the very condition
is

of all manifestation, viz., inequilibrium, the succes-

sive exaggeration of each part over the others, all
1
which parts in their totality make up the whole.

^fe, says the Sankhya ; i.e.. homo-

geneity, perfect balance, complete equilibrium, is the profound
slumber and rest of chaos, while manifest cosmos means
differentiation, heterogeneity, inequilibrium, constant motion
30 PERSISTENCE OF TRADITION [MANTJ

PERSISTENCE OF TRADITION

Hence the one view predominates at one time

and place, and the other at another. To the tem-
perament of the first, or Indian, sub-race, the view
which looks more to principles than to details
on the whole, seems to have been more attractive.
Therefore the different Puraijas and Smrtis are
accepted without much critical enquiry, somewhat
in the same fashion as successive editions of a
work on mathematics may be, to-day, in the West ;

and whatever additions and alterations appear from

time to time, in work after work, are taken as but
developments of potentialities already contained in
1
the fundamental rules and outlines.

and change. So say Herbert Spencer and the modern evolu-

tionists also. Living Protoplasm is in a state of perpetually
unstable equilibrium, says the modern biologist. See GllU,
xiv, 10.
1
Many of the Puranas begin with the statement that it (the
Purana) was delivered by Suta to the Rshis for the good of
the people, at one of the twelve-yearly meetings of the ^tshis.
Out of these conferences perhaps, the modern Kumbha-fair has
fcrown. The twelve -year period makes a minor cycle ( y u g a )
in Hindu astronomy, and is said to be, roughly, the time taken
by one complete circulation of the solar vital fluid. Some
^commentators explain the expression, sattre dvadasha-
"
varshike, as meaning
"
at the ritualistic sacrifice" extend-
ing over twelve years ". Sacrificial ceremonies extending
" "
over a thousand years are also spoken of. But every
twelve years," seems to give a more easy and practically useful
meaning. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica
came out in A.C. 1768, the fourteenth in 1929, giving an
average interval of just about twelve years. The Purana
served the purpose of an encyclopaedia in India.
MANU] NEED OF RE-INTERPRETATION 31

It is extraordinary how the successive genera-

tions of the Indian people have, by a sort of here-
ditary instinct, implanted by the guiding Hierarchy
of Rshis in them for the special purpose of preserv-

ing the old tradition for the later use of all man-
kind, clung on to their reverence for these Vedas
and Pura^as, despite the most adverse circum-
stances. No longer able to understand them in the
latter days of degeneration unable to defend them
;

from attacks levelled against the surface-meaning

of many parts often most cruelly and heartlessly
;

deceived and sacrificed to pries tcrafty self-interest,

with false and too literal interpretations, by
ignorant and vicious custodians ; through internal
dissensions and foreign invasions, when there was
much worldly good to gain and almost nothing to
lose by giving them up ; they have yet clung on to
their belief in the preciousness of these Scriptures.
And itseems as if the purpose of Providence were
now likely to be fulfilled and the preservative labor
of the Indian instinct rewarded. For the lost com-
mentaries, which would have made the unintellig-
ible clear, made the absurd-seeming appear rational,
and the impossible allegorically significant these
commentaries are now in course of restoration,
though somewhat indirectly, by modern science
itself, which not many years ago was the most

energetic of iconoclasts, but is now beginning to

turn its attention to superphysics and meta-
physics.
32 CYCLICITY OF THE WORLD-PROCESS [MANU

THE THEORY OF CYCLIC LIFE

Manu's Theory of Life, as it may be gathered

from the Laws which bear His name, and from
these Purartas, may be summed up in a score or so
of words. Two of these have been already mentioned
incidentally, viz., Pursuit (Pra-vrttO and Retire-
ment (Ni-vrtti)- And
these are, in a sense, the
most important. The others depend on these. The
variants of this pair are many ; the underlying idea
in all is the same. The Smrtis, the Bhagavad-Glta,
the Puraijas, speak of pursuit and retirement
(pra-vrtti and ni-vrtt-i); or selfishness and
unselfishness, desirefulness and desirelessness,
(sa-kamya and naish-kamya, sa-ragya
and vai-ragya); or attach ment and detach-
ment ( s ak
t i and a ak\i) The Philosophic
- s .

Schools (Darshanas) speak of them also ; the

Nyaya and Vaisheshika Schools as emanation and
reabsorption (sargaand apa-varga), or pain
and highest bliss ( d u h k h a and nis-shreyas);
the Mimamsa School as the action that binds and
the action that looses (karma and n a i s h -

karmya ) ; the Sankhy a and Yoga Schools as

appearance and disappearance (avir-bhava and
tiro-bhava) or as endeavour and resignation,
seizing and abandoning, striving and letting go ( 1 h a
and upa-rama), or as uprising and restraint,
ex-pression and re-pression, ex-hibition and in-hibi-
tion (vy-ut-th&na and ni-ro<Jha). The
MANU] AND ITS POLARITY 33

names Vedanta School are the most familiar,

of the

bondage and liberation ( b a n d h a and m o k s h a ) .

The Jainas speak of moving forth and moving

back, action and reaction (saii-chara and
pra^i-san-chara); the Buddhists, of the thirst
for the individualised separate life and the extinc-
tion of that thirst (trshna and nir-vana);
the Christians, of sin and salvation. And finally,
modern science accepts the same idea and calls it
action and reaction (in physics), composition and
decomposition (in chemistry), life and death, ana-
bolism and katabolism (in biology), waking and
sleeping (in psycho-physiology), or, more generally,
evolution and involution, integration and disintegra-
tion, formation and dissolution of worlds and world-
systems.
1
Each phrase, old or new, expresses a

1
J a g a r a and s w a p a waking and sleeping (of Brahma,
,

Universal Mind) a r o h a and av-aroha, ascent and des-

;

cent u n - n a t i and a v a - n a t , uprising and down-falling

;
i
;

v rddh and h r a s a , growth and decay ut-sarpinl and

i ;

ava-sarpinl, upsliding and downsliding ut-karsha ;

and apa-karsha, up-lifting and down -dragging u p a - ;

chaya and apa-chaya, integration and disintegration,

gathering and dispersal; ni-chayaand kshaya, nourish-
ment or storing and consumption s r s h t i and 1 a y a
; ,

emergence and remergence v - k a s a and san-kocha,

; i

unfolding and infolding, exfoliation and infoliation (seeding) ;

u n m e s h a and n - m e s h a
i
opening (of the eye) and
,

closing ; abhi-vyakti and a - v y a k t i de-fini-tion and ,

obliteration, reminiscence and oblivisoence p r a - s a v a and

; ,

prati-prasava, coming forth and in -drawing are other

pairs of words, to be met with in the Puranas, and works on
philosophy and medicine, and Bauddha and Jain a books, all
expressing various shades and aspects of the same idea of
dual movement, i.e., of the penultimate Duality, in terms of
3
34 BASIS OF THE CODE [MANU
more or less different aspect of one and the same

fact each corresponds with a different standpoint

;

of observation. Thus, current science has looked

at the external, objective, or material aspect
of things predominantly, and so spoken of the
integration and dissolution of forms. The philo-
sophic systems have looked more at the internal,
subjective, or spiritual side, and have therefore used
terms indicative of the moods of the inner force
guiding that integration and disintegration of
material particles. And amongst the latter, again,
those which deal more prominently with the active
element in the inspiring consciousness, e.g^ the
Mimamsa, have employed words significant of
action and reaction; while those which look
more to the motive, have used terms of desire.
The common fact, running through all these pairs
of names, is the fact of the rhythmic swing of the

World-process, the diastole and systole of the Uni-

versal Heart, the inspiration and expiration of the
Universal Breath, on all scales, in all departments
of Nature, mental as well as material. And on and
around this fact, the Great Law-Giver and his
followers have built their whole Code of Life, life
in the physical as well as the superphysical worlds.
If we seek deeper for the cause of this pulsing, we
must come to the penultimate pair of facts, Self and

movement. For proof of the same Duality, in terms of

cognition and desire, the reader may cast a glance at a work
like Roget's Thesaurus of Words and Phrases.
MANU] THE TWO ARCS 35

Not-Self, variously called5. t m a and A n a t m a t

Purusha and P r a k r t i the One and the

,

Many, Subject and Object, Spirit and Matter.

THE Two ARCS OF THE CYCLE

These are recognised in some shape, under some

name, in all systems of thought. Whatever their
exact nature may be, they are recognised as facts.
And when they have been named, and the Interplay
between them mentioned, the whole content of
thought and of the universe has been completely
exhausted. Nothing more remains outside of these.
It is just this Interplay between the Two which

appears as the rhythmic swing spoken of under

many names. The putting on by the Spirit of a
body of matter, small as atoms and microbes or
vast as suns and sidereal systems ; subtle as the
most inconceivably tenuous ethers, or gross and
hard as rocks and minerals this is the coming out-
;

wards of the Spirit (pra-vrttO* The putting off

of that body is its return within Itself ( n i - v ? t f i )
This process is taking place endlessly, everywhere
and always, on all possible scales of time and space
and motion, in every possible degree of simplicity
and complexity. And each complete life, small or
great, with its two halves of birth into and growth
in matter, and decay and death out of it, may
be regarded as a complete cycle. It is true
that, as nothing in the endless World-process
36 CYCLES WITHIN CYCLES [MANU
is and wholly disconnected with any-
really
thing and everything else, so no such life-cycle is

wholly, truly, and finally, complete and independ-

ent. And it is therefore true that all life-cycles,
i.e., small and great, are graded on to one
all lives,

another and form parts within parts, smaller wheels

within larger wheels, epicycles within cycles, all
in an endless and ever incomplete and ever-length-
" "
ening and ever more inveterately convolved
1
chain. But, at the same time there is an appear-
ance of completed cycles. And one-half of each
such cycle comparatively, the arc of the descent
is,

of Spirit into Matter, and the other half is the arc

of its re-ascent out of that Matter. And, according
as we please, we may call the one half, evolution,
and the other, involution or, we might reverse the
;

names. Usage is not quite settled on this point-

We may speak of Spirit becoming involved in
Matter, in sheaths, bodies, vehicles, tenements,
abodes, masks or receivers (upadhis), and then
becoming evolved out of it. Or, we may speak of
Matter, i.e., material sheathing, being evolved out
of the Spirit and then becoming involved or merged
back into it again. The naming is a question of
convenience for the purpose in hand. The general
idea seems to be fairly unmistakeable. It should be
observed however that the notion of growth and
improvement and refinement, progress of all kinds
1
For fuller exposition of these ideas, see The Science of
Peace, by the present writer.
MANU] LIFE AND FORM 37

in short, has become associated with the word

Evolution. The reason is that the modern scientists
who have rediscovered for the world one portion of
the great law, have, naturally, observed only the
outer forms. And, in the course of their researches,
they have found that as the former grew finer and
more completely differentiated and delicately
organised, the richer in variety of experience grew
the manifestation of life in it. And because the
existing ways of human life, accompanying the
present complex organisation of the human body,
appeared to them the best of that they could
all

observe, therefore they have identified evolution of

complexity of form with progress and superiority
of all kinds in life generally. If there should come
a time when it is found that what is then
regarded as a more glorious manifestation of life
is compatible with a greater simplicity and
homogeneity of form and materialas is suggested
by passages here and there in the old books then
this notion would have to be somewhat revised and
modified. In the meanwhile, greater and greater
fullness, richness, and refinement in life being
regarded as the invariable concomitant of increase
in the complexity of form, and in the long-circuit-

ing of the vital current through a myriad kinds of

tissues, circulating fluids, and hormones, the
4 '

progress of both is commonly spoken of as evolu-

tion ; and the word involution does not appear
often in scientific literature, yet, in contrast with
38 EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION [MANU
evolution and this for the reason mentioned before,
;

namely, that modern western science has not been

able to study, as yet, the processes of the dissolution
of a world, and the modern phase of civilisation
' '
does not definitely recognise retirement and the
stages that have to be passed through by the soul
on the Path of Renunciation.

EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION

This current notion of evolution is amply recog-

nised in Samskft writings. text of the Aijareya The

Aranyaka has been already referred to, which says
that the Self manifests least in minerals, more in
vegetables, more in animals, more in men, and so
on. And some verses occur in the Brhad-Vishnu-
1
Purana which give a few more details :

(Out of the eight million and four hundred thousand

types or forms through which the soul has to pass) two
millions belong to the immovable, or minerals and vege-
tables nine hundred thousand to aquatic varieties of
;

animals as many to the reptilia or turtles and the worms

;

and insects one million to birds; three millions to ;

quadrupeds and four hundred thousand to the anthropoid

;

Quoted in the Shabda-kalpa-druma under ^H':. The

classification in these verses is from the standpoint of external
form and habitat. From the deeper standpoint of method of
reproduction, the classification is fourfold, SfgSf, S%^5T, SJ^Sf,

rfe*I. From the still deeper one, of vital currents and psychic
tendencies and g u n a s , it is threefold :

. And so on. But the idea of successive evolution

runs through all.
MANU] GRADATION OF FORMS 39

apes. After passing through these the soul arrives

at the human form (which takes up the remainder of the
total number, or two hundred thousand). In the human
stage, the soul perfects itself by deeds of merit, gradually
develops thereby the inward consciousness which marks
the twice -born, and finally attains the birth wherein
realisation of Brahma becomes possible. 1

But what is recognised in the Purarjas in addition

to this evolution of material form, and is not yet
recognised in modern science, is that, side by side
' '
with this, there is an involution of the Spirit in
these forms ; and, further, that when a certain limit

: II

tS^FUcj; II

For comment on these verses, see, f.i,., Geddes and Thomson.

Evolution, p. 99, and Keith, The Human Body, ch. vii,
(H.U.L. Series). To the above list, the following verses add
certain superhuman orders or kingdoms, as successively
higher and higher, viz., pramathas, gandharvas, siddhas,
"
devas, and the sons of Brahma ".

Bhagavata.
Manu, xii, 38-50, gives more
details, and classifies the
several tribes and species under the three gunas, as
s a 1 1 v i k a , rajasa, and t a m
asa .
40 THE TURNING POINT [MANU
has been reached, the process is reversed and the
form tends to become ever simpler and simpler
again, without the gathered experience being lost,
till, at the end of the appointed cycle, the individual
merges into the Universal.

THE HUMAN STAGE FIT FOR LIBERATION

OF SPIRIT AND SELF-DEPENDENCE

These two halves of evolution and involution,

then, constitute the rhythmic pulse, the very heart-
beat of all life. And in accordance with the law
thereof, our selves, or souls,having successively
with and separated themselves
identified themselves
from mineral, vegetable, and animal forms in the
course of long ages, have now arrived at the human
stage, and become capable of retrospect and pros-
pect. For it would seem that in our particular
cycle and system, in the terrene chain, the man of
this globe, the earth, stands at the turning-point,
the junction between the two paths. And only he
who comes to such midway-point becomes able to
look before and after fully. He only can
both
take himself in hand, grasp his whole personality,
and ask and answer what he should do with it and
why and how he should do it.
THE ENDS OF LIFE
What then should he place before himself as the
aim of life,and how should he conduct himself, so
MANU] THE ENDS OF LIFE 41

as to secure it in the fullest degree ? Taking the

two halves together, Self-expression, Self-realisa-
whichever we please to
L
tion, or God-realisation,
call it, becomes the sammum honum, the beginning
and the end, the motive and the goal, of all this
World-process. But taking them separately, it is
obvious that the object of each half should be
different from that of the other.

THE THREE ENDS OF THE PURSUANT HALF

OF LIFE

According to Manu, the object of the Pursuit-half

of life, Self-expression in and through a mate-
rial body, is threefold :
Duty, Profit, Pleasure,
Dharma, Art ha Kama. ,

Some say that the performance of duty and the

' '

gathering of riches are the good some say wealth and ;

sense-enjoyments; some duty only; some riches only.

LT 1 a , Play,is the word most often iiseJ, in the works

of Vedanta. Manu's word is krida, which also means
' f

play .

3*T: 3*f: II Manu, i, 80.

11
Times out of number does the Universal Mind make and
unmake over and over again these countless worlds with
countless lives upon them all as if in Play." How otherwise
than in play does a playwright write his plays? And is not
the World-process an Infinite Drama, and must not its author
be the Supreme Dramatist, Artist, and Player ?
42 OF THE PURSUANT HALF [MANU
But the well-established truth is that the three together
make the end of the life of Pursuit. l

K A M A-PLEASUBE

It might indeed be said that sense-pleasure

alone, Kama, is minimum bonum for the arc
the
of descent. The word means the enjoyments of the
senses and the wish for those enjoyments. 2 These
motivate and accompany the ever-deeper merging
of the Spirit in the sheaths of matter, its ever-
nearer identification with the clothes of flesh.
Does not Manu himself recognise that.
The man without K i m a -desire is the man without
j
.

action. Whatever a man does is the doing of KLma.

The Vecjas are studied because of K m a. L, Their injunc-
tions are followed because of i, K m a. ? :<

Why then does he hedge it in with two others

which are not at all so obviously connected with the
Path of Pursuit ? Indeed he lays far more stress on
Dharma than on the two others. Nay, more, he
deprecates from time to time the yearning after

5TT steftl flprf 5% 3 ferffl: II Mann, ii, 224.

2
See The Science of the Emotions, by the present writer,
pp. 283-286, and 397-399 for fuller statement of the meaning
of Kama-Eros.

ftfei ^^i 33T*rer %fem ii

: II Manu, ii, 2-4.

MANU] K A M A-ENJOYMBNT 43
1
sense-pleasures. Why does he do so ? Because of
this, Pleasure, sense-gratification, needs
apparently :

no recommendation to the human being at the stage

to which the current portion of his laws applies.
At an earlier day of creation, it may have needed
recommendation. We read that Paksha, son of
Brahma the Creator, ordered by his Father to go
forth and multiply, created with much penance and
asceticism and gathering of needed power, a band
of ten thousand sons called Hary-ashvas, and passed
on to them the divine command.And they went
forth, obedient, but not knowing, nor very willing.
Narada, taking pity on their innocence, wishing to
save them from the dreadful turmoil of the life of

matter, taught them the way of the Spirit, and

Daksha lost the whole band. He then created
another band of five thousand sons called Shabal-
ashvas. They also were led astray by Narada in
the same way. Then Paksha reproved Narada
for his unwisdom and premature haste :

The soul realiseth not without direct experience, the

sharpness of the objects of the senses, the sharpness of
the pleasures that come from them at the first, and of
the pains that follow afterwards without fail. And it is
necessary for the soul's perfection and satisfaction that
it should pass through both experiences. None should
therefore prematurely break the growth of another's

SRIF3T, ff tSTC^TOir I ii, 2.

"
Though there is no absence of desire anywhere in this

world, yet is it not right to yield one's soul up wholly to

.desire."
44 BEST IS SWEETER AFTER PLAY [MANU
which grows only by exercise amidst sense -
intelligence,
objects, but should enable him to find dispassion and
renunciation for and by himself, through first-hand
1

knowledge.
And Daksha laid a doom on Narada that he
should never cease from wandering through the
worlds, taking births in even monkey-bodies him-
self the meaning of which has been explained in
The Secret Doctrine, that the physical bodies were
defiled in the earlier races by the sin of the mind-
2
less, and so anthropoid forms were created, and
those who had disobeyed the commands of the Lord
of Progeny in the beginning were compelled to take
birth in these degraded bodies, the most developed
descendant? of which helped King Rama of the

: ll Bhagavata, VI, v, 41.

"
Before you can attain knowledge, you must have passed
through all places, foul and clean alike" Light on the Path.
;
" "
The soul has to taste all things and hold fast by the good ;
"
Bible. Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved
"
at all," Better to lose and then regain, than never to have
5 " '*
felt a pain,' Rest is sweeter after work," Sleep is sounder
"
after tire/' The prodigal returned is dearer than the home-
"
keeping son," The wisdom of the second childhood is better
"
than the innocence of the first/' Humility is the crowning
virtue, because repentant sin means richer content of con-
sciousness and greater reliability of the determination to virtue,
than ignorant untried innocence," " The chase of Truth is
sometimes more pleasant than the finding of it, and, any way,
the finding of it is more satisfyiug after long and strong pur-
"
suit all such thoughts ring changes on the same idea.

-
This, incidentally, solves some doubts of Keith, The
Human Body, p. 95.
MANU] APT HA -WEALTH 45

Sryan Race in his war with Rava$a, Ruler of the

Atlantean Rakshasas.
At that early stage, then, desire for sense-pleasure
had to be nursed and fostered and stimulated, as a
sleepy child in the morning requires to be aroused
again and again. To-day, it has run to overgrowth.
So far indeed is it from needing recommendation,
that, instead, it needs constant restriction. One in
a million human beings perhaps does not suffer
from the tyranny of the senses. All our mind, all
our body, instinctively runs in the direction of
sense-objects. If, then, desire had been enunciated

by the Manu as a thing to be honored and pursued

as the prime object of life by his progeny, then
indeed that object would have defeated itself and
perished in a riot of excess. Hence the mention of
desire for pleasure, but with warnings.

A P T H A -WEALTH

The due realisation of sensuous happiness by a

human being, of the epoch for which the laws are
intended, is possible only in and by means of
organised society. For the sense-pleasure of the
human being is not like that of the animal, a simple
and direct satisfaction of the physical appetites,
but exceedingly complex. While the basis
is no is

doubt the material vehicle with its sensor and

motor organs, the form has become intermixed and
refined with infinite mental moods, thoughts and
46 P AR MA -DUTY [MANU
emotions, and also the influence of the nearing cur-
' '
rent of retirement (ni-vyttO and the gradual
dawning of the Universal Self within the individual.
The result of these conditions and influences is that
sense-pleasure has taken on the form of a craving,
not to be gainsaid, for the life of the family, the
community, the nation, the race, all meaning
fellow-feeling,sympathy, love, ever more and
more extensively inclusive ; and of a desire for
the fine arts, capable of development only in a
condition of social organisation which makes such
a just division of labor that sufficient leisure and
means to each, according to the full of his capa-

cities, become
possible. Without such leisure to
each individual and without wealth in the race,
accumulated primarily in national possessions and
secondarily in private homes, the refinements of
sense-pleasure music, poetry, painting, sculpture,
parks and gardens, architectural monuments,
aesthetic dresses and conveyances, beautiful domes-
tic animals, and all the other countless decora-
tions of refined and polished life- all these
would be impossible. Hence the stress laid on
profit, riches, Art ha, worldly means and
possessions.

D # A R M A -VIRTUE

But yet again, the storing up of personal and

communal possessions, nay, the very forming and
MANU] RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH 47

holding together of a social organisation at all,.

would be wholly impossible, if the inherent selfish-
ness of the individual were not restricted and res-
trained by Dharma , were not controlled
if rights
by Duty, if the production and distribution of wealth
were not governed by Law, and the liberty of each
1

modified by the need? of all. This lesson of the

Padma Purana, VI (Uttara-khanda), ch. 248, v, 12.

: \

Mbh.< ShOnti-parva, chs. 12S, 166

"
As fruit and flower are better than leaf and woody branch
and stem and root, so is kama better than artha and
d harm a. But as fruit and flower cannot be had without
carefully tending and fostering root and trunk and branch, so
cannot kama be had without the others. D h a r m a yieldeth
artha; that subserveth kama, that bringeth joy ; all are
' *
rooted in s a m-k a 1 p a
, primal ideation of objects of con-
w '
sciousness beginning with sensation ; all objects are as
"

means of food to the ensouled-body. This hunger-thirst \

this trshna, this ashanaya-pipasa, is the root of
the tri-varga, the triple-end of the first half ot life
48 ROOT AND FRUIT [MANU
law of give-and-take, humanity in general has not
learnt at all well, even yet, though the epoch of the
highest development of sensuous selfishness and
enjoyment passed away, it is said, with the Atlan-
tean Race. The Law-giver, as law-giver, therefore
confidently leaves sense-pleasure to take care of
itself, knowing well that it will do so even more
than is necessary, only prescribing such rules for

hygiene and sanitation as will maintain and en-

hance the efficacy of the physical body and its
organs for subservience to the higher kinds of sense-
pleasure. To wealth he gives more attention, lay-
ing down rules for the division of the social labor,
and for the gathering of wealth in the hands of a
typical class, under conditions which would secure
the benefits of it to all the people according to their

respective needs. To Pharma he addresses him-

self with all his might, interweaving it at every step
^with the other two,and insisting on it with detail
of penal consequences for breach of each and any
duty by each and any one concerned.
Pharma isthat which uplifts to heights of honor
and greatness. Dharma is that scheme, that network, of
the duty of each, which holds together all the children of
Manu in organic cohesion, and prevents them from falling
apart in pieces, in ruin and destruction. pharma,Art,ha,
and Kama, this trinity is the sweet fruit of the tree of
life. It is the fulfilment of the object of the soul's taking
birth in flesh. Without Duty, the other two, Profit and

After that, moksha becomes the end; it is gained by

giving up, through tap as, self-denial, the 'triplet' rooted
in k a m
a ."
MANU] DUTY AND JOY 49

Pleasure, are verily impossible. Barren rock shall sooner

yield rich harvest than lack of righteousness yield riches
and their joys. From righteousness and steady observance
of each one's duty, both arise unfailingly ; from discharge
of Duty is born happiness here and hereafter. 1

Matsya P. cxlv, 27.

: II M-bh. Karna P. ciix, 59.

*TT II Matsya P. ccxli, 3, 4.

Something might be added here to what has been said in the

note at p. 7, supra. P h r the root ot d h a r m a means to
, ,

hold, to hold together, to bind together, to support, to maintain.

It also means to owe, to hold as debt, as something due to
another, or as a trust or deposit ; rnamornikshepam
dharay ati .

The words religion, law, legal, ob-lig-ation, are derived

from Latin roots having allied meanings, ligare, legere, lex, legis.
That which holds a thing together, makes it what it is, prevents
it from breaking up and changing it into something else, its

characteristic function, its peculiar property, its fundamental

attribute, its essential nature, is its d h a r in a the law of its
,

being, primarily. That which makes the World-process what

it is, and holds all its parts together as One Whole, in a break-

less all-binding chain of causes-and-effects, is the Law (or

totality of laws) of Nature or Nature's God, dh a rm a in the
largest sense, the world-order (cf. the word dharma-
megha in Yoga and Buddhist philosophy). That scheme or
code of laws which binds together human beings in the bonds
of mutual rights -and -duties, of causes-and-consequences of
actions, arising out of their temperamental characters, in
relation to each other, and thus maintains society, is human
"
law, Manava dharma. Yet again, The code of life,
based on Veda (all-science of the laws of Nature in all her
 50 UNDUTEOUSNE8S AND MISERY [MANU
On the eve of the Maha-bharata war, the Rshi
Vyasa cried, and cried in vain :

I cry with arm uplifted, yet none heedeth. From

Bighteousness flow forth abundantly both Pleasure and
Profit, Why then do ye not follow Righteousness ? '

But they heeded not the cry, and the result was
that that which they fought for, the pleasure and
the profit of all the combatants, were drowned in a
sea of blood. A terrible lesson for all the ages that
2
may follow. The glories of science and art and

departments), the due observance of which leads to happiness

here and also hereafter, is d h a r a ." m
^R: I Vaisheshika-sutrm.

Briefly d h a r m
a is characteristic property, scientifically ;
duty, morally and legally ; religion with all its proper impli
-

cations, psycho -physically and spiritually ; and righteousness

and law generally but Duty above all.
;

n
4t
Compare the Biblical declaration :
Righteousness ex-
alteth a nation."
~
And yet, as Hegel the only lesson of history is that
said,
men never learn from Since the above was written
history.
in 1909-10, a far greater war than even the Mahabharata has
taken place, in 1914-'! 8, in Europe principally, and Asia Minor,
North Africa and on all the seas subsidiarily, involving almost
all the countries and the races of the earth directly or indirectly
all because of greed and grab and pride and hate and
jealousy all, in ultimate tracing, the infernal brood of exces-
sive k a m a-lust and a r t h a-greed unrestrained by d h a r a- m
righteousness, spawning excessive and un-sane population, which
always upsets the most careful economic and political calcula-
tions. And the greed has been suicidal. Each belligerent had
MANU] THE PROGENY OF SIN 51

military trappings and bravery and all the splendors

of the finest civilisation are mere dust, nay, more,

they are so much explosive powder, so much the

stronger agents for destruction, if the civilisation
is not based on D h a r a m
In minute detail also
.

we find that every administrative problem whatso-

ever, in the ultimate analysis, always traces
down to character and ethics and desires and
passions.

" " *'

hoped to beggar my neighbour and enrich myself at his

expense". But with the possible and doubtful exceptions of
the U.S.A., Japan, and England, none, even of the victors, seems
to be better off than before. Creditor nations have become
debtors, debtors worse indebted. Even the exceptions do not
seem to be positively any richer. Unemployment is almost
worse there. Thirteen millions, of the best out of each nation,
including at least half a million from India, have been
'

slaughtered outright, and forty billion pounds worth of pro-

perty/ produce of human labour, exploded into air to say
nothing of the ruin and death, by starvation and disease, of
millions upon millions of non-combatants, in most, especially
in the poor, countries. (See Beard, Whither Mankind, pub-
"
lished 1928, the chapter on War and Peace," by Emil
"
Ludwig.) Thus, from the beginning of the War until peace
was finally established, it is estimated that 14,300,000 people,
4,000,000 of whom were women, perished in Russia from war,
epidemic and hunger. . . Mothers crazed by hunger,
.

exchanging their own children's bodies and eating them ;

people killing each other for food. Another year and another
without bread. . ." (Jessica Smith, Womenin Soviet Russia,
.

pp. 8, 9). In India, in little more than four months of the

winter of 1918-19, six millions of human beings (by the official
statistics, twice as many by popular estimate) were carried off
"
by the epidemic of influenza known as the War-fever," due
principally to the lack of food and clothing, caused by the vast
drain of enslaved India's resources by the British for the
purposes of their War, in a population already permanently
living on the very brink of starvation.
52 THE ENDS [MANU
Hence then we have three ends ordained for the

worldly half of life : virtue or duty, profit, and

pleasure. Virtue, for thence only stable profit ;
profit, for thence only the higher pleasure.
Pleasure, for without it profit is a load and a
burden, intolerable ; profit, for without it piety is

meaningless.
Cast out the profit and the pleasure which are
opposed to duty. And cast out that duty also, regard it
not as duty, which is opposed to and hurts the feeling of
the general public, and leads not to any joy, even in the
distance. !

THE END OF THE RENUNCIANT HALF OF

LIFE M O K S H A-LIBERATION
Having exhausted these three objects of the first

half of life in due proportion and subservience to

one another, the embodied self enters upon the
second half of life. The object of this second
half is stated by the Manu to be Liberation,
Moksha, Self-expression and Self-realisation of
It-Self, in all the World-process as Its Play, with
negation of limitation to any one particular body,
with extinction of all separatist selfishness.

Having paid off the three debts, the human being

should direct the mind to Liberation. Not without dis-
charging them in full may he desire Liberation. If he

Wffi
^ II Manu, iv, 176.
MANU] OF THE RENUNCIANT HALF 53

does so aspire upwards before due time, he will fall the

deeper into matter.
1

None may hope to go to the holy Sages, who

breaks his human ties
recklessly. The bailiffs
of the law shall pursue him and drag him back, if
he tries to run away with debts unpaid.

THE INTERDEPENDENCE or ALL THE ENDS

As the three ends of the Path of Pursuit are

interdependent, so also all these, taken together, on
the one side, and the end of the Path of Renuncia-
on the other, are interdependent also. As the
tion,
two halves of the circle of life have no meaning
without each other, so, naturally, their respective
ends have none except in contrast with each other.
To seek the one without having passed through the
other ; to pass through the other without looking
forward to the one are equally vain. Only after
pursuit is renunciation possible. Only after renun-
ciation of the lower is pursuit of the higher possible.

THE THREE SOCIAL DEBTS

The three debts mentioned in the verse of Manu

are the concomitants of the three ends of the Path
of Pursuit ; and, together with those ends, arise out

: II Manu, vi, 35.

54 THE THREE CONGENITAL DEBTS [MANU
of the threefold desire which leads the embodied
self on that Path.
The modern world has come to recognise what is

called the social debt ; the debt of each individual,

for whatsoever he is and has, to the society in the
midst of which he has been given birth and helped
to grow. The ancients have recognised a greater
extent and significance and detail in this con-
genital indebtedness of each individual. They
have classified three parts ; the debt to
it into
the Gods (deva-yria); the debt to the Ances-
tors (pitr-r$ a )'> the debt to the Teachers
(yshi-^ija). The Gods ( d e v a s the spirits ) ,

or (individualised, personalised) forces of nature,

provide the individual soul with the natural

environments, the substance and surface of the
earth, the waters, the air, heat and light, and
all the wealth of material objects, which make it

possible for him to gain experience of the sharpness

of sense-objects for pleasure and for pain. The
Ancestors pit s)
( the most distant as well as
j- ,

the nearest, taken collectively, provide him with

the germinal cell carrying the experiences of the
millions of ancestors, which cell develops into his
body, holding infinite potencies and faculties, and
being his sole means of contact with the outer world.
Lastly, the Teachers ( y s h i s ), the guides of human
evolution, the custodians of all knowledge, provide
him with the intelligence, the mind, the knowledge,
which makes the contact between his body and hi?
MANU] THE THREE PRIMAL APPETITES 55

surroundings fruitful and significant ; which holds

together the experiences gathered, and becomes the
substratum of what we know as individual immor-
tality. Receiving these three gifts, the embodied
self contracts a separate debt for each.

THE THREE PRIMAL APPETITES

The desire that impels him to accept the gifts and

incur the debts appears as threefold also in conse-
1

quence, though in reality it is but one. It appears

as the desire for the possessions of the world, as the
means to sense-enjoyments (vitt-aisha^a); as
the desire for power and pleasures and sex-joys and
self-enhancement in the body and self-multiplication
and perpetuation in the progeny (putr-aisha-
"
$ a ) ; and as the desire for the world, for a local
habitation and a name," for honor and credit, for
"
name and fame," ( 1 o k - a i s h a 9 2, 2 ), as the basis
of the other two. These three obviously corres-
pond to wealth, sense-pleasure, and duty, art h a ,
k a m a and d h a r m a or, in terms of conscious-
, ,

3
ness, to action, desire and cognition.

Brhadd.ranyaka, iii, v. 1.

2
C'haraka significantly substitutes pran-aishana.
*
Forfuller discussion of the subject, see the present writer's
"
The Science of the Emotions, 3rd Edn., chapter on The Nature
of Desire," pp. 35-45. Modern western writers on psychology call
-
these elemental es hana s variously as instincts, impulses,
56 REPAYMENT OF DEBTS [MA NTT
REPAYMENT OF DEBTS BY LAWFUL
SATISFACTION OF APPETITES

The means
of paying off these debts are parts of

Pharma and go side by side with the righteous

,

fulfilment of the three objects of the Path of Pursuit,

interests (e.g., to name one of the latest, Herzberg, The Psy-

chology of Philosophers, pp. 24, 92 pub. 1929), or self-feelings
:

(e.g., to name one of the most brilliant, William James. Prin.

of Psychology, I, x) or appetites, or even sentiments. They
;

do not seem to have yet recognised that there are three main
branchings from the root-trunk of Primal Libido, ( T r s h n a .

T a n h a V a s a n a Maha-kama, A \ d y a elan vital,

, ,
T
i ,

horme, will-to-live, urge of life) while the Libido itself is

,

the one fundamental Desire for L 1 1 a R r T d a Play, Self-, ,

expression in infinite ways ; and that all the other instincts, etc.,
(McDougall, in his Outline of Psychology, pub. 1923, lists four-
teen as primary and irreducible) are sub-divisional further
branchings from thn three. The Buddhist names for the three
are bhava-trshna ( 1 o k a - ) vibhava-trshna ,

( vi 11 a - ) , kama-tfshna (dara-sutu-
or putra-
a i s hanaIn terms (very unsettled yet) of modern psycho-
) .

analysis, now much in vogue, we may say that the three corres
pond respectively to the ego-complex, a h a
-
1 a (the same in m
essence, as the herd -complex, though apparently different), the
property-complex, mama-ta (not yet clearly recognised),
and the sex-complex, vayam-ta. In terms of the body, the
"appetites" are (1) hunger-thirst (the will-to-6f, syarn.
continuously, by absorbing food, etheric. gaseous, luminous,
liquid, solid, as a separate embodied individual among
others, in a world, and recognised by others as such which
shows how ego-complex and herd-complex are obverse and
reverse of the same coin) ; (2) acquisitiveness (the will-to-te-
much, bahu sy am, by owning abode and implements, etc.) ;
(3)sex (the will-to ~be-many, b a h u - d h a s y a by procreat- m ,

ing and bringing others into subjection and ruling over "
them).
"
In terms of the mind, the corresponding ambitions are (1)
for honor, (2) for power over others, (3) for wealth more
than others. Play, amusement, rjns through all.
MANU] BY LAWFUL APPETITION 57

whereby the three ambitions are also satisfied.

They are three also :
y a j n a and d a n a , sacrifices,
chiefly in the form of high emotions, hymns and
bloodless rites of special superphysical efficacy
at the proper seasons, and gifts, charities, and help
and service to other men } : s a n t a n a , rearing
up of noble progeny and taking as much trouble for
them as the ancestors have done for the debtor ;

and adhyapana, passing on to others, enhanced

as far as possible, of the store of science received
from past teachers by himself, and so keeping
the torch of knowledge ever burning 2 These .

will be dealt with further, later on. Here they are

referred to as connected with the ends of the Path
of Pursuit, as preliminary to the entrance on the
Path of Renunciation, and as intermediate prepara-
tion for Liberation, the goal of that Path.

THE TRIAD OF M o K s H A-FREEDOM

How that while three objects are described for
is it

the Path of Pursuit, there is only one mentioned for

the Path of Renunciation ? We have seen that, in
strictness, there only one object on the first path
is

also, viz.t enjoyment, and that the two others

are mentioned for special reasons. On the second
path, one object, similarly, is the principal one, viz.,

1
See Gltd, iv, 23-33, for many kinds of sacrifices, all place-
able under the three ways and means of repayment of debts.
58 MOKSHA-PEACE [MANU
Liberation or Salvation. But Liberation does not
on any other object in the
depend for its realisation
same way that refined sense-pleasure does on duty
and wealth. It would seem, rather, that such other
subsidiary objects as may be connected with the
Path of Renunciation depend for their realisation
on the one-pointed and whole-hearted striving after
Liberation, freedom from the bonds of matter and
of sense-enjoyments. These subsidiary objects are
superphysical powers (yoga-siddhi) and devo-
tion (bhakti). These three are no doubt as
inseparably interdependent as the other three. But
the distinction is that, in the one triplet, Duty, in
reality the most subsidiary, is made most promi-
while, in the other,
nent, for practical purposes ;

for thesame reasons, the main end is made the

most prominent. The opposition in the nature of
' '
the two paths leads to this inversion by reflexion
in the degrees of importance of the respective
objects.

MEANING OF WISH FOR MoKsHA

The d h a r m a -law of the Path of Renunciation
is the longing and striving after Liberation, not
only for oneself but for all others who are similarly
in bondage, is dispassion in ever-increasing degree,
and, at the same time, an ever-growing passion of
self-sacrifice, because of ever greater compassion
for all "younger' souls, in devoted co-operation
MANU] NOT FOR ONESELF BUT FOR ALL 59-

with all 'older' and more advanced souls. This

itself, in its culmination and climax becomes the
highest knowledge and the final peace, which, in
turn, gives rise to yet more perfect compassion, in
an ever-virtuous circle, witness the Enlightened
Buddhas and Christs of perfect Wisdom and
'

perfect Love and perfect Self-Sacrifice.

There are two states of dispassion one, the prelimi-
nary and inchoate, with which the Path opens, and the
other, the final and perfected, with which it ends. The
final dispassion is world-compassion, and is but the blos-
soming of knowledge, the highest realisation of the Truth
of Oneness and surrender to the Ishwara -Creator of the
world-system, and service of all beings in accordance
with His will and with the realisation of the Unity of
all Life.-

AISHVARYA -SUPERPHYSICAL POWERS

The Artha-wealth of that- Path is the

wealth of super-physical powers. 3

See the present writer's Krqhna ; a Study in the Theory of

1

"
Avat&ras (section on The Practical Devotional ism of the
Glta "), pp. 197-239, for expansion of this idea.

2
fl^gpf
35T8T 5kM* I Yoga-Bhaahya, i, 16.

" " *'

Love is the completion of knowledge ; Love is the
fulfilling of the law."

'
Yoga -
v bhu ti
i , aishvarya, siddhi, s hak t i,

as it is variously named.
60 SHAKTI-POWER [MANU
About these poweiS and lordlinesses we read the
paradoxes :

They are the epiphenomena, the bye-products, of the

after s a m a <J h i -trance, and are so many '

striving
hindrances in way
complete realisation of
the of
samf.<Jhi. When the embodied self re-awakens and
comes out of s a m a <J h i then they manifest in him
,

as powers, accomplishments, perfections.-'

Again we read :

When the aspirant is established and confirmed in

the virtue of probity, of utter absence of desire to mis-
appropriate, then all bidden gems and jewels and ricbes
of nature become available to him.

Also :

When he becomes perfected in the virtue of (physical)

continence, then irresistible (psychical) creative energy
accrues to him.

And many other similar paradoxes. Also in the

Light on the Path, after a series of apparent incon-
sistencies, we are told similar things :

Enquire of the earth, the air and the water, of the

secrets they hold for you. Enquire of the Holy
. . .

Ones of the earth, of the secrets they hold for you. The
conquering of the desires of the outer senses will sive
you the right to do this.

A state of consciousness reached in prolound meditation, in

which the body is completely entranced, and the consciousness
fully active in a higher world. Trance, ecstasy, ex-tasis, rapt-
ure. raptness, rapport, etc., express shades of the idea.

2
: \\
Yoga-sutra, iii, 37.

8
3TC%*refcrerai ^HlMR-^Ri: u ibid., , 37,

4
ri^WSf^Plt cNteTSl: \\ Ibid., ii, 38.
MANU] THEY WHO WAMT NOT SHALL RECEIVE 61

We wonder why the gain of gems and jewels when

we are not towant them why the accumulation
;

of resistless power when it is not to be exercised ;

why the enquiry after secrets when we must not
profit by them why any kind of lordly sovereignties,
;

when our main work is the perfecting of dispassion,

renunciation, desirelessness, actionlessness !

The answer to the paradox is simple. We have

only to add two more words to the last. We have
to say that the walker on the Path of Renunciation
avoids desire and action and pursuit of any object
for himxelf, for his own
personal pleasure and profit.
When such avoidance has become habitual to his
mind, then the Lords of Nature, the Sages, the
Administrators of the world, the members of the
Spiritual Hierarchy, the D e v a s endeavor to enlist
,

such an embodied self in their service, in the

service of their and his world, and entrust him
with powers which he receives and exercises, like
all lower powers, for the good of others as public

trusts, for his own enjoyment as private

not
Moreover, these become as much the
1

property.
normal organs of his consciousness as the physical
senses. Liberation from selfish desire is Liberation.

1
Even in ordinary human affairs, we see that the person
believed to be tho most honest is made the chief treasurer of
the state ;the most impartial and just-minded, with judicial
power of life and death over the people ; the most capable and
wishful of protecting and defending them from misfortunes and
attacks, with the whole military force of the state.
62 THE SWORD'S EDGE PATH [MANU

Prahrada, tempted with many boons by Nf-simha,

declined, but was compelled to take charge of the
Daityas, and become their sovereign, for the period
of the Round. He pleaded :

Do not tempt me with

these boons, my Lord From !

very birth have I been ever afraid of falling into their

toils. I come to Thee for Liberation, not for boons.

But the answer was :

It is true that they who have placed their hearts in

Me, as thou hast done, want nothing else. Yet still, for
the period of this Manu -cycle, thou shalt be the Overlord
of all the Titan kings. Then, having exhausted all thy
merit by enjoyments, thy sin by new good deeds, and
the vitality of the sheath by the lapse of time and ;

having left behind for the instruction of the world the

example of a noble name which shall be sung in heaven
thou shalt then come to Me for the Great Peace. 1

Those only in whom the Impersonal predominates

over the personal, the Universal over the indivi-
dual, the higher Self over the lower self, selflessness
over selfishness, compassion over passion, are
qualified to walk upon that razor-edged path on
which power has to be held, but must not be tasted.
Those who rule themselves with rods of iron, they

1
?TT *Tt

Vishnu Bhagavata, VII, x, 2, 11, 13.

MANU] OF THE OFFICE-BEARERS 63

only are fit to guide others with the fingers of gentle-

ness. Such become office-bearers (adhi-karis),
of high and low degree, in the Spiritual Hierarchy,
according to the perfection of their dispassion and
compassion and their superphysical development.
It is true that from the standpoint of Pursuit, he
4
who work, who is eager
'
takes an interest in the
and anxious to
acquire office and exercise its
powers, who
takes keen pleasure in such exercise
he is supposed to be the proper person to be put
into that office though even a distinguished
;

western thinker like Plato, sufficiently honored in

the west to have considerably influenced subsequent
thought there, makes statements strongly and
repeatedly to the effect that the man reluctant to
rule makes the best ruler, that those governments
are best which govern least, that
"
the ruler who is good for anything ought not to beg
"
his subjects to be ruled by him/' and that if in the
countless ages of the past, or at the present time, in some
foreign clime which is far away and beyond our ken, the
perfected philosopher is or has been or hereafter shall be
compelled by a superior power to have charge of the
state. . .
(there) this our constitution has been,
.

and is, and will be ".'

1
Republic, translated by Jowett, pp. 186, 198.,
The last quotation indicates that Plato had heard
rumours, or had more positive knowledge, of Manu's Scheme ;
for there was communication between Greece and India in
those days, through Persia, and there were even pre-existing
v

Greek colonies in the borderland between Persia and Gandhara

(modern Afghanistan) which Alexander came across during
his megalo-maniacal and battle-hungry raid on the Panjab.
64 TEMPTATIONS
But from the standpoint of Renunciation, he who is
unwilling to receive power lest he should be tempted
to abuse it and grow his egoism ( a h am-ka ra )
again, who is always full of the sense of responsi-
*

bility and duty, who is anxious to be relieved of

office as soon as may be in accordance with the
will of the higher he only is the proper person to
be entrusted with office, in the certainty that he
will never misuse
authority, will ever exercise
power for the good of others and never for his own
2
aggrandisement.

E. J. Urwick, in the Preface to his, The Message of Plato,

"
referring to the present work (1st edn,) as used extensively
by him in the introductory chapters," indicates as much.

1
The case Jaya and Vijaya, ialling from their great onices
of
on the Vishnu, and incarnating as Ravana and
staff of
Kumbha -karna, is classical in the Furanas asofAzaziel, ;

chief of the archangels, tailing from his high estate into the
form of Satan, m Christian Mythology. The self-seeking
corruptness of officials and of state-oral t or king-craft, in all
departments of mundane governments, has been but too
common down the course of human history but too res-
all ,

ponsible the bulk of human misery, taken together with

for
priest-craft, and is so at the present day. Ethical fitness is
far more necessary tor public office of trust and responsibility
and power and authority than intellectual or physical fitness.
Reluctance to accept office means deep sense of responsibility ;
eagerness for it, the reverse. For instinctive appreciation of
this fact, read the description of the comedy enacted at the
election of the Speaker of the British Parliament, and the
show of reluctance made by him, in MacDonagh's The
Pageant of Parliament.
2 "
Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as
"
he that putteth it off" The Bible, I Kings, xx, 11.
; Consi-
" 4<
der the end All's well that ends well."
;
MANU] AND GREAT FALLS 65

Every embodied self must pass through this

condition of office-bearer, in a general sense, on the
super-physical planes, sooner or later, even as he
has to, to some extent, on the physical.
In the
physical life, the
grows up man
under the triple
debt mentioned before, and repays them too by
rearing up and educating a family and serving his
fellow-men and the d e v a s of Nature, even as he
has been reared, educated, helped. In making such
repayment, every head of a house becomes an
office-bearer and exercises powers of some sort.
The same process repeated on a larger scale on
is

the subtler planes with superphysical powers.

And Manu's verse then acquires a larger signi-
ficance. After having served his term of duty and
of office in the honest ministration of his trust, as
a term of burden-bearing imprisonment, in awe and
"
trembling for even great ones fall back, even
from the threshold, unable to sustain the weight
l
of their responsibility, unable to pass on," and
so lose long ages of time after such service is
he allowed to retire and enter the Abode of Peace.
"
Then only can he deposit his mind in Rest," as
Manu says and as Shankara declares, commenting
;

on the aphorism of Vyasa :

Together with Brahma (Individualised Cosmic Idea-

tor, the Poet- Author of the Drama of a world), the great
Sages beholding the term expire of rulership and of the
wielding of the powers appurtenant to it, and beholding
"boo the time of rest and retirement arrive at the closing

1
Light on the Path.
5
 66 B H A K T I-BLISS [MANtf

manifestationwithdraw their minds from

of the cycle of
work and enter into the High Abode of Oneness, where
the Supreme Self -Consciousness reigns eternally, and all
1
sense of separateness is lost.

B H A K T I-BLISS

Such humble dutiful lordliness, then, is the

wealth ( Art ha ) of this Path. Its sense-pleasure

( Kama ) is the bliss of love divine, love universal

( B h a k t i ) , the opposite of personal human likes
and lusts . It is the constant feeliuy of the Universal
superphysical powers and office-
Self, as exercise of

bearing are the functioning of that Self in action.

This devotion, directed towards the highest Deity
and Ideal that any particular embodied self's mind
can rise to, becomes gradually inclusive of all the
embodied selves that are looked upon as the pro-
geny, indeed as veritable parts and pieces and
sparks, of that Deity, and, ultimately, of the Uni-
versal Self.
The wise ones embrace all within their love, and
devote themselves to the good of all equally, for they
know well that the Lord is in, and indeed is, all beings.-

5
Shariraka Bhashya, III, iii, 32.

II

Vishnu Purana, I, xix, 9.

MANU] TWO TRIADS OF ENDS 67

THE Two TRIADS OF ENDS

We saw that on the first path, Duty ( D h a r m a )

leads to Profit ( Artha) and Profit to Pleasure

,

(Kama). On the second and final path we may

say, similarly, that Love Universal (Bhakti), in
the sense of yearning after the final goal for all
selves equally, leads to the Power ( S h a k t i ) to see
the great Vision of the Unity of all Life, and that in
turn to Liberation ( M
u k t i ) from doubts and sor-
rows, all born from the great error of the sense of
separateness. And, the virtuous circle turning round,
we may say that out of Liberation comes super-
physical Power to help, and thence greater oppor-
tunity for Loving Compassion towards juniors, on
the one hand, and Devotion towards seniors, on the
other. Kyshija says to Uddhava :

The aspirant who has conquered his senses, his

respirations and his pri. nas (vital forces, nerve -forces),

Mbh., Shanti parva, ch. 58, v, 31, says,

41
The triad of mok ha is different, viz., s a 11 va ,

rajas, tamas." But this requires special interpretation,

sattva, etc., is all-pervasive. JfSana,
for the triplet of
vi-raga, bhakti; mukti, shakti, bhakti; knowledge
of the Self, active compassion and service of others or
altruism, universal love; Vedanta (the science of peace),
Yoga (the science of power, esoteric science, occult science).
Bhakti-agama or Bhakti-shastra (the science of divine love) ;
such triads may be said to correspond to that of d h a r a m ,

a r t h a and k a ra a Sea the present writer's Krshna, 3rd

.

edition, pp. 136, 220-223.

68 THE SOURCE OF POWER [MANU
which go one with another in restlessness, by the con-
quest of his mind and who fixes that mind on Me
;
1
on
him the divine glories wait attendant. For he has
identified himself, by love, with Me who am the Guide
and the Lord of all. And therefore his command is as
compelling as mine. He whose intelligence has been
consecrated and made stainless by devotion unto Me, and
who knows the art of concentration his vision extends
into all three reaches of time, beyond and including many
births and deaths. I am the Lord and the source of all
perfections, and I am the fount of the d harm as
taught by the Yoga, the Snhkhya, and the declarers of
Brahma.-

The drawing of iresb energy out oT rest and sloop, oi'

inspiration out of devotional and intellectual 'blank' medita-
tion, are instances of the same law.

^ftf^f: \

Viqhnu Bhagavafai XI, xv.

Of course, the full metaphysical significance is that all is

ever contained in the I, and the more the small self identifies
itself with the Great Self, the more of Its infinite glories it
realises. But the Great Self is reflected specially, in endless
shades and degrees, in the Rulers of the world-systems, who
"
are only highly advanced and perfected small selves," j I v a s ,

or rather jlvan-muktas. And whosoever puts himself in

harmony with any such Ruler, by faith and devotion and
philanthropic service, shares his power, in greater or lesser
degree. Mundane, governmental, official hierarchies are
MANU] THE ELDEST 69

ISHVARA THE MOST ANCIENT IN A

WORLD-SYSTEM

Even on the physical plane, the sovereign of any

people is the embodiment of all the might of that

people, and any authority, any powers, any posses-

sions, held by any individuals amongst that people,
are derived from that sovereign, either directly by
appointment to an office on proof of special merit in
definitely prescribed ways, or, indirectly, by suffer-
ance and tacit permission through legal support
in variouskinds of activities, on their satisfying
conditions of merit of other kinds in other ways.
Much more perfectly is this the case when the
organisation of a world-system in all its parts is

concerned, where all creatures are literally

pieces and sparks of the Central Sun, and live
and move and have their being in Him who is
to them the nearest and the highest representative
of the Common Self and where the adminis-
,

tration is carried on by Spiritual Hierarchies,

manned by selves occupying different grades on the
Path of Renunciation, from the highest to the

analogous only they are mostly very corrupt and oppressive

;

instead of philanthropic still, as justly observed, some govern-

;

ment, even bad, is better than no government and anarchy,

with human beings so full of evil passions. As has been said :

"
Thoughts can, by a passive harmonious spirit, be oompre:
hended and immediately answered. This can never be
accomplished without harmony, for the same channels must be
used in which Deity views instantly His whole creation."
70 PARTICIPATION BY DEVOTION [MANU
lowest, all inspired by the Principle, the Con-
sciousness, of Unity and of Good (i.e. % unselfishness
and love), which ever prevails over separateness
and evil (i.e, selfishness and hate), at the end of

every cycle, for the clear reason that separativeness

is weak with its own inherent internecine war.

We thus see that devotion is a means to lord-

liness, and that lordliness approximation to the
is

state of the object of devotion, />/?., the systemic

Lord, I s h v a r a Even those

. on the Path of Pursuit
always obtain whatever of power they acquire by
means such devotion, for the time being, and
of
whether be conscious or unconscious. For con-
it

tinuous craving after something, and constant

meditation as to how to secure it, and refraining
from all ways and deeds which prevent its
acquisition, are essentially such devotion. It may
not be directed consciously to an individual deity ;
but willing is also unconscious praying: it is
the unconscious prayer for help, of the part to the
Whole, of the individual to the Universal store-
house, the Fount of knowledge and power and
all :

such unconscious prayer to the Impersonal is al-

ways answered by Him in whom the Impersonal
predominates the most over the Personal, in any
system.The Vish-QU-Bhugarata tells how in the
Tamasa Manvantara, (a long past epoch so named
in the Pura^as, because the Manu presiding over it

was named Tamasa) two high beings, because of

the seeds of selfishness and strife in them, fell,
MANU] MASTODON AND DRAGON 71

along the arc of descent, into the gigantic bodies of

primeval mastodon and dragon of the deep,
and warred against each other in age-long struggle,
working out the seeds of evil, till the mastodon,
weakening, sent up a nameless prayer to the Un-
defined, with all the strength of its indefinite,
incipient, dim mind and then the Chief Ruler of
;

the system, representative, to the system, of the

Supreme and the Undefinable, answered the prayer,
and released the two mortal enemies from their
doom :

That king of mastodons poured out his soul in prayer

nnto the Nameless. And Brahma and the other high
gods, too much attached to their own names and marks,
came not. Then Hari came, the Oversoul of all the
beings of this system, combining all the gods in His
own person.
1

2
The Yogo-suf.ro, also indicates that the Being
who is the Mo^t Ancient, the Most Omniscient, in
a world-system, is its Ishvara, its Ruler, its

VIII, iii, 30.

23-26; 'II, 1. 32, 45. And the Bhavishya PurGna

'-'

I, (III,
"
iv) says that the Asana of the Purcina-purusha, the seat of
"
"
the Eldest (or, as we might say in modern language, the
chair of the President"), is occupied, now by one, now by
another, great D e v a turn by turn ; e.g., Varuna occupied it in
,

a previous kaipa (eon), Sarasvati in another, Ganesha will

in a future one ; and so on.
72 HIGH RESPONSIBILITY [MANU
Supreme Logos, its Personal God, and that all

superphysical powers and all perfections may be

obtained, by the beings of that system, by surrender
and submission and allegiance to Him, and identifi-
cation of self with Him.

WARNINGS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

But because of the recurrent danger of selfishness

and misappropriation of trust-possessions and
consequent fall, is the warning repeatedly given
that the possessions which an aspirant may desire
"
should be such as can be possessed by all pure
" '

souls equally ; his powers must ever be governed

by Devotion, and his devotion ever joined to Wis-
dom and Dispassion and Compassion, ever looking
forward to Liberation.- Lest the embodied self
should falter even when placed high, and fall back
into egoism again, he
is advised ever to fix his gaze

on that which may not be seen by the eyes, nor be

heard by the ears, which indeed has no outward
being, which is out of existence, out of manifesta-
tion,which is eternal and beyond everything and
anything that passes, however glorious this
transient thing may be from our present standpoint.
Sharp as the sword's blade is the Path, and full of

Light on the Path.

1

-
See Padma Purana, Bhagavata-Mahatmya* ch. ii, for the
repeated mention of this triplet of bhakti, jfiana, and
v iraga and also V. Bh&gavata, V, v. 28.
;
MANU] SADNESS AND DELIGHT 73
41
terrible toil and profound sadness, but also a great
and ever-increasing delight " and subtle, narrow ]

and very dangerous, as the razor's edge, yet un-

mistakeably discernible, is the line which divides
the wish to xa.ue from even the wish to become a
saviour much more clearly is the wish to possess
;

extraordinary and superphysical powers, not for

the sake of helping others, but in order to taste the
intoxicating feel of power, the Path of Satan, and
not the Path of God.

THE ONE SAFEGUARD

It must be the Eternal that draws forth your
strength and beauty, not desire of growth. In the one
case, you develope in the luxuriance of purity in the ;

other, you harden by the forcible passion for personal

stature. Live neither in the present nor the
. . .

future, but in the Eternal. This giant weed cannot

flower there this blot upon existence is wiped out by the
;

very atmosphere of Eternal thought. Hold fast . . .

that which has neither substance nor existence. . . .

Nothing that is embodied, nothing that is conscious of

separation, nothing that is out of the Eternal, can aid
you. .
(And yet also) remember that the sin and
. .

shame of the world are your sin and shame for you are ;

a part of it; your karma is inextricably interwoven

with the great Karma. And before you can attain
knowledge you must have passed though all places, foul
and clean alike. Abstain because it is right to
. . .
'
1
abstain not that yourself shall be kept clean.

All thisbut a paraphrase of what the Manu

is

says, bearing in mind that this Eternal Thing t

which has neither substance nor existence, which

1
Light on the Path.
-
Ibid.
74 THE ONE SAFEGUARD [MANU
is not embodied and not conscious of separation,
b h e tf a, is nothing else than the One Universal
Self.

Let the mandiscriminate between the good and the

evil, the right and the wrong, the true and the false, the
real and the unreal, and so discriminating yet let him
one- pointedly ever behold all in the Self, the passing as
well as the lasting. He who beholdeth all in the Self,
and in himself (because the small self is in essence the
same as the Great Self), his mind strayeth not into sin. 1

: II Manu, xii, 118.

Other scriptures also frequently repeat the warning never to

lose sight of the goal for a single instant, and ever to be on
guard against the" beguiling temptations that beset the way.
The G-ltfi says, Let the sacrificer be content to eat the
"
remains of the sacrifice iii, 13, and iv. 31.
;
In other words,
let tho workman be content with his due wage, the public
servant with his proper salary, and not crave after unlawful
gains or maddening taste of power. The Yoga-Sutra, saying
" "
that accomplishments should be regarded only as bye-
products, of, and even as hindrances to, progress on the path of
renunciation, and liberation, has been quoted before. The
Bhngavata says,

XI, xiv, 14.

: \

II XI, xvi, 32, 33.

MANU] SUMMARY 75

SUMMARY

Such is the broad outline of the Foundation of

Manu's Code of Life, the circling of the World-
process, and the goals of its two halves, ever turn-
ing round and round in cyclic periodicity, in larger
and larger orbits and longer and longer eons. Into

I XI, xxviii, 41, 42.

Briefly,
' k

He who has fixed his soul on (the) Me, he desires

naught-else -than -I, not the sovereignty of either earth or
heavon, nor any yoga-accomplishments, nor even freedom
from rebirth. They all come to him of themselves, as needed
tor the work, because of his raptness in (the) Me. Otherwise,
they are but as obstacles in the way oi union with (the) Me,
and may be regarded either as waste of time and effort, in one
sense, or as means of filling and passing vacant periods, in
another." Friends and lovers yearn to be together, while per-
forming inevitable duties which keep them apart, even though
the duties consist in the wielding of great powers.
"
Brahma prays to his super-ordinate Hierarch Vishnu, Give
to me the knowledge which will save me from the egoism of
imagining that I am the Unborn Creator of this world-system,
and will enable me to serve thee with puro mind."

II, ix, 29.

See Glta, iii, 27, 28, and xviii, 61.

And Vishnu says to Brahma,

76 THE WHEEL OF LIFE '

MANU
lO^.-i

this outline have to he filled in, in their appropriate

places, the ways and means of realising those goals,
by systematically ordering the individual life of man
into the four natural stages, organising his social
life into the fourmain vocations, and regulating
justlyand equitably, and always in accordance with
the facts and laws of man's psycho-physical
nature, the partition of rights and duties, work and
play, leisure and pleasure, necessaries and comforts
between them all.
To summarise :

The activity dealt with by the Scripture is of two

kinds Pursuit of prosperity and pleasure, and Renuncia-
:

tion of and retirement from these, leading to the highest

good, the bliss than which there is no greater. Action
done for one's own sake, ont of the wish for personal joys
in this and the other worlds, is of the former kind.
Action done without such desire, with unselfish desire for
the good of others, and with such conscious and deliberate
purpose, and not merely out of instinctive goodness, is of
the latter kind. Pursuing the course of the former, the
embodied self may attain to the states and the joys of
those d e v a s among whom sense -pleasures are keenest, so
that they think not of Liberation. Pursuing the latter he
crosses beyond the regions of the five elements. He who
seeth all beings in the Self, him-Self and seeth the Self,
,

him-Self, in all beings, he, seeing same-sighted ly the same

n, xi , 30, 32, 33.

-Devi had told this same to Vishnu himself, earlier, in turn.

"
Briefly, The I-Not-Another, the I, the Eternal and Universal
Self alone, is and contains everything.
It is All, always, ever,
everywhere. This is the final secret." For attempt at fuller
exposition of the idea, see the present writer's The Science of
2nd Edition, Chs. vii, viii.
MANUj ITS TWO FELLIES 77

law working everywhere and always, on all scales, in-

finitesimal and infinite, of time and space, attaineth and
realiseth Swa-rajya, true Self-Government, on earth and
in heaven.!

THE WHEEL OF LIFE AND LAW

These two Paths, of Pursuit (Pra-v^tti) and of

Renunciation or Retirement (Ni-v^tti), are sum-
med up in the Wheel of Endless Rotation ( A n u -
v r 1 1 i ) which is referred to in the GltU- verse
, :

He who helpeth not to keep moving this Wheel of

Life and Law which hath been set going by Me, the
Universal Self, and seeketh only the pleasures of his own
senses, he liveth the life of sin and liveth in vain. 2

i ^ ftlfi =3 f|fN
i ^r <&<&& \

I)

fa II Manu, xii, 88-91.

" "
Abhy-udaya means, literally, rise *n
-itefi^tf
success, prosperity ;nis-shreyas similarly Urf^SivJSc
41
the greatest good than which there is no j

bonum.
 78 ITS six SPOKES [MANU
The way of keeping the Wheel moving is the
following out of the ends of both the Paths in their
due proportion and time :

These ends are (i) K ma

ii,
- t a mas , refined sense-
pleasure, (ii) Artha-rajas, profit, wealth, rich and
artistic possessions, (iii) Dharrna-sattva, virtue,
performance of duty, observance and maintenance of law
and order for the Path of Pursuit and for the Path of ;

Renunciation, (i) Bhakti-tamas, love universal, (ii)

Aishvarya-rajas, powers superphysical, (iii)
Moksha-sattva, freedom from all bonds and pains
of separateness, because of the realised Unity of Ail
LifeJ

II Manu, xii, 38.

: \ Bhagavata.

For fuller discussion of the significance of these three very

important words, sattva, rajas, and t a m a s occurring ,

constantly Samskrt literature, see the Note appended to

in all
ch. xi of The Science of Peace, 2nd edition and for illustra- ;

tions from many departments of human life, chs. xvii and

xviii of the Gltfi.

E. J. Urwick, in his work referred to before, The Message of

Plato, p. 28, suggests the following Greek equivalents t a as : m ,

epithumia (appetite) rajas, thumox (passion, impulse,

;

courage) sattva, loyistikon (reasoning faculty). By sound,

;

t a m a s should be equated with thumos, rajas with logistikon,

and by remainder, sattva with epithumia. But, of course, as
philologists tell us, similarities of sound are deceptive. We
'"
also know that words, in their wanderings in time and space.
^

'reverse and exchange meanings also. Thus, in Samskpt,

tikta means bitter, and katu means pungent; but in
Hindi, tT t a has cSme to mean pungent, and k a d u a bitter. ,

Asura and Sura,* in the earlier Vedic Samskrt, meant god and
titan respectively; in 'later, they mean exactly the reverse. In
Zend, Ahura continued to mean god.
MANU] ITS FOUR RUNS 79

THE Two PATHS AND THEIR ENDS

For the Path of Pursuit sense-pleasure of the

nature of the lower clinging, wealth of the nature
of the lower restlessness, duty of the nature of the
lower harmony. For the Path of Renunciation,
also three ends devotion of the nature of the
higher clinging, superphysical powers and office-
bearing of the nature of the higher restlessness,
liberation attained by means of the higher harmony.
The way of realising the aims and purposes of
lifeupon the two interdependent and inseparably
connected Paths, is to plan out and organise that
life, in the individual as well as the social aspects,
into four 5.shramas, stages, and four V a $ a s t j-

vocational or professional classes or sections, with

specific rights and duties for each.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE

The Brahma-chLri, student, the Grha-stha r

householder, the VLna-prastha, u nremunerated

public worker and self-sacrificer, retired into the suburbs
or woods and forests from all competition, and the ati Y
or S a n - n y s 1 the wandering anchorite these are the
j'.
,

four orders that all issue out of the householder and

mark the different stages of each human life.

THE FOUR VOCATIONAL CLASSES

The Brahmana. the man of knowledge, the man

of the learned professions, the Kshattriya, the man
of action, of the executive professions, the aishya t V
$0 IN FOUR REGIONS [MANU
the man of (acquisitive) desire, of the wealth-producing
professions, the S h u" $ r a
,
the man of unskilled labor in
general, the man of the subservient or assistant profes-
sions these are the four vocational classes. The three
first are twice -born, regenerate, conscious of the higher
Self; the fourth is the as yet only once-born, the child-
like. These four classes and stages of life, the circling of
the soul through the three worlds, physical, astral, and
mental, the unbreakable chain of causes and effects,
actions and reactions, running continuously through the
past, the present, and the future all these are proven,
established, justified, by the Ve<Ja, the Science of the
Self, the Higher Knowledge. Grade after grade, the soul
advances, through low and high and higher forms, till it
arrives at the stage when knowledge, love, and corres-
ponding action are all perfected side by side. Then that
soul, realising the essence of the Ve<Ja-Shastra, even
while occupying a physical body, and even though dwel-
ling in any stage or class, becometh one with Brahma,
one with the Vast, Infinite, Universal Life. 1

qurf

: II

: II

: \

: II
MANU] ITS ONE STRONG TIRE OF THE LAW 81

THE FULFILMENT

That life only is complete which secures all these

ends in due rotation according to the Law,

Only he who passes through all the ordained stages,

one after another, controlling his senses, securing the
three ends of the Pursuant life, discharging his three
congenital debts, lawfully fulfilling and then transcend-
ing the three appetites-ambitions, offering up his energies
to the fires of Remmciant sacrifice, exhausting his vital
powers in the helping of others, cultivating love univer-
sal, and walking in the sacred paths of the yoga-myste-
ries, he only, when his sheath of grosser matter falls
away, attaineth Liberation and rejoiceth evermore. 1

Thus, then, the two paths, the two aims, each

divided into three, the four stages of the individual
life and their respective duties, the four psycho-

physical temperaments and vocational classes, and

their four corresponding duties, four means df
livelihood, and four special rewards or prizes of
life (to be described later) these constitute the
fundamental factors of Manu's Science of Social

^ 55% fcT^l 3

Manu, vi,81 ; x,4 ; xii,97 ; i,96, 97 ; xii, 103 ; x, 335 ; xii, 102.

II Manu, vi, 34.

82 DISP ASSIGN [MANU
Organisation. All the rest is details gathered and
arranged around these.

Supplementary Note to pp. 59-61 and 76-77.

The antithetical pairs, r a g a (sa-ragya, -a-raga-ta)

and vai-ragya (vi-raga-ta or simply vi-raga),
kama (sa-kamya, sa-kama-t a) and naish-
kamya(nish-kama-ta), karma (sa-karmya,sa-
karma-ta) and naish-karmya nish-karmata) (

are frequently met with.

Much confusion and puzzlement of thought is caused by
interpreting v a i r a g ya as passionlessness, nish-kama-
*

ta as desirelessness or utter absence of desire, and nish-

karma-ta as inaction or actionlessness, utter absence of
action. The negative prefix in such words is not purely pri-
vative. Untruth does not mean merely absence of truth, bit
positive falsehood. Unreality does not mean mere emptiness
and blank space, but a positive illusion, something which has
the appearance of reality. Unpleasantness does not mean
mere indifference, bat the opposite of pleasantness painful-
ness The opposite of plus is not zero, bat minus. So va i -
r a g y a does not mean mere absence of self-seeking passion,
but positive other-seeking compassion. So nish-kama-ta
means, not the utter absence of all desire, bat the absence
of selfish desire and the presence of unselfishness, which is not
a merely negative quality but is positive altruism. And n s h - i

karma-ta does not mean inaction, but the absence of the

selfish action which binds and the presence of the unselfish
philanthropic action which releases the soul from its bonds;
the former (selfish action) means the incurrence of debts, the
latter (unselfish action) means positive self-sacrifice and the
repayment of debts. So, finally, a - v d y a does not mean mere
i

ignorance, mere absence of knowledge, but perverted know-

ledge, the positive Primal Error of regarding the Boundless
Sell as identical with a limited body. See Yoga-Bhdshya, ii, 5.

Manu's words, pra-vrtta karma and ni-vrtta

karma, pursuant action and renunciant action, are less liable
to misunderstanding. The Gltd uses the word naish-
karmya, and warns the hearer against understanding it as
inaction, as abandonment of all action. Of the four intellec-
tual, emotional (ethical), and physical qualifications needed for
MANU] AS COMPASSION 83
"
successful enquiry after Brahman,** one, usually mentioned
is mumuksha,
*

last in the list, wish for liberation ', the

others being v - v e k a discrimination between the fleeting
i ,

and the eternal, v a i - r a g y a dis-gust with the fleeting,

,

and the group of sham

a, etc., tranquillity, control of
body and sense, resignation, detachment, aspiring faith,
steadfast contemplation. The perennial selfishness of man
has given, wonder of wonders, a perverse turn to even
this wish, and made it a wish for one*s own personal
liberation, as something which can be secured sepa-
* '

rately, without caring for others though liberation means ;

nothing else than liberation from all personal selfish desire

and from all sense of separateness. Probably with a view to
correct this in some books of later theosophical
perversion,
literature, word murnuksha has been replaced by or
the
equated with the word love. But that again is liable to mis-
interpretations. What is meant by mumuksha is the
intense desire for liberation not only for one's own self, but
for all selves, and this is the very essence of universal love,
ail -embracing compassion. The misunderstanding re the
Buddhist nirvana is similar ; it means extinction of selfish
individualism.
How common the perversion, veritable acme of Maya, is,
is indicated in Prahrada's prayer to Vishnu,

I) Bhagavata, VII, ix, 44.

Elsewhere in the Bhagavata, it is said,

ft ^ I

"*
Most munis
retire into solitude to selfishly seek their own
solitary benefit, but the lord Dvaipayana Vyasa is ever work-
ing for the good of all beings." Mbh., Ashvamedha-parva,
ch. 13, also tells how Kama
lies in ambush, hidden in the wish
for M
oks ha itself, to attack the unwary. See The Science of
the Emotions, 3rd edition, p. 398.
 CHAPTER II

THE WORLD-PROCESS AND THE

PROBLEMS OF LIFE

: II

STPScT.

I 1 1

Ptf^SRI

The Lord of Beings maketh and unmaketh countless

cycles and world-systems, as in play. The laws for the
conduct of human life, individual and social, vary with
MANU] RESUME 85

the varying Ages of the History of Man, Krta, Treta,

Dvapara, and Kali, in consequence of changing conditions.
The man of philanthropic wisdom is born to understand
and ascertain these laws from time to time, and treasure
them, and help the observance of them by his people, and
increase the general store of knowledge and the realisation
of the Universal Life among them. To guide him in
rightly discriminating and teaching the different duties of
the different types of human beings, in different circum-
stances, the all-seeing Manu, son of the Self -born, framed
this Science of Duty. Herein are declared the good and the
evil results of various deeds, and herein are expounded the
eternal principles of the duties of all the four types of
human beings, and all the four stages of life, of many
lands, nations, tribes and families, and also the ways of evil
men. And the ruler, the king, the kshattriya, the
administrator, was created to execute the laws and to
ensure the observance of their respective duties by all,
as ascertained and prescribed by the brahmana, the
legislator.
Manu, i, 80, 85, 98-'9, 102, 107, 118 ; vii, 35.

Eesum6

IN the last chapter, endeavor was made to place

before the reader what might be called the ground-
plan of Manu's Scheme of Life, in a few triplets
or quartettes of words the wheel of life and its two
:

halves the three ends appropriate to each half the

; ;

corresponding three debts, three repayments, three

special appetites-ambitions (plus a general fourth),
three special rewards or prizes of life (plus a
86 MAIN IDEAS [MANU

general fourth), three twice-born special types or

classes (plus the general once-born plasmic fourth),
three main special ways of livelihood (plus a general
fourth, subsidiary to the three) ; three stages of
life in the world (plus a fourth away from it)

arising, in their turn, out of the three aspects of

consciousness or functions of mind and the three
qualities of matter ; all ultimately based on the two
primal factors of the World-process, viz., the Self
and the Not-Self, each with three attributes, and
the Interplay between them. ]

That is Pursuit, Retirement, Cyclical Rotation

: Virtue, ;

Profit, Pleasure Liberation of Spirit, Superphysical Power,

Love Universal the Debts to the Teachers, the Angel-forces of
;

Nature, the Ancestors Study, Pious Works, Progeny, (Charity);

;

Ambitions for Honor, Wealth, Power, (Play) Hunger, Acqui- ;

sitiveness, Sex-urge, (Will to Live) Self-preservation, Self-

;

expansion, Self -multiplication, (Self-expression) Man of know- ;

ledge, Man of Action, Man of Desire, Man of Labor Student, ;

Householder, (unremunerated) Philanthropist-Publicist, An-

chorite Learned professions, Executive professions, Wealth-
;

producing professions, professions of Helping with unskilled

Labor ; Cognition, Desire, Action, (Mind) ; Quality, Substance,
MANU] DHABMA VARIES 87

RELATIVITY AND VARIABILITY OF

D H A R M A-DUTY

Endeavor will now be made to sketch in some

details, appertaining to our own particular epoch
of the great life-cycle of the Human Race.
It is obvious that laws and rules are not inde-
pendent and circumstances of the men
of the kinds
whom they are intended to guide and govern.
Particular laws correspond with particular con-
ditions general with general. Unchanging laws
;

can be related only to unchanging facts. Changing

facts require changing laws. This is amply re-
cognised and prominently enunciated by Manu,
Vyasa, and other law-givers :

The scheme of laws and rights and duties, varies

with the variations in the conditions of changing cycles.
It is one for the Krta-yuga it is another for the TretL
; ;

it is still other for the Dvapara period and yet again is;

it different for the Kali-yuga. D h a r m a-duty differs with

time, place, circumstance, sex, age, temperament, voca-
tion, stage of life, means, good and ill fortune. What is
righteous duty for one may be veritable sin for another.
I) h a r m a is very various and manifold, according to the
Ve<Ja itself. Yet there are some few duties which are
binding upon all unvaryingly, with very rare and occa-
sional exceptions. 1

Movement, (Matter) ; Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipre-

sence, (the Infinite) ; Cognisability, Desirability, Mobility,
(Root-Matter) ; Self, Not-Selt, Interplay, (Nature- Process).
88 WITH CIRCUMSTANCES [MANU
The ways of living cannot be the same for child-
hood, for youth, for prime, and for eld. And the
y u g a-s correspond very closely with these. The law
of analogy holds good here as elsewhere ; the reason

srfcr

: II

Mbh., Shanti, chs. 35 and 314.

irf., Anushasana.

, vi, 92 ; x, 63.

"
New occasions make new duties ; Time makes ancient
" "
good uncouth and The old order changeth, yielding place
;

to new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways".

The four yugas, or ages, are the four cycles through which
pass a globe, a country, a race, etc. For an individual they
are, physically childhood, youth, maturity, old age (the four
:

ashramas). See the present writer's Krshna, pp. 3, 50, 51. In

a certain sense, the (idyllic) nomadic, the pastoral-agri-
cultural-riiral, the urbdn-industrial, and the factorial-
mechanical modes of gregarious life may be said roughly to
correspond with the four ages.
MANU] LAW OF CORRESPONDENCE 89

of this law of analogy, or correspondence, as it is

sometimes called, being the Unity of the Self which
imposes uniformity, or similarity in diversity, on
all the processes of Nature, that same Self s Nature.
This law is clearly stated in the old books :

As is the organisation of the small man, even such

isthe organisation of the Large Man. 1 All the details of
the Universe have their correspondents in the details of
the human body because both are born of the Self-same
;

Nature of the Self -same Brahma; and universal and

singular, whole and parts, are inseparably bound up
together. To know the one is to know the other. The
body is the living temple of God, and the Self is the God.
As the microcosm, so the macrocosm. As above,
so below. This is true on all scales ; but for our
present purpose, the Large Man is the equivalent of
the Human Race.

II Bhagavafa, XII, xi, 9

Garuda Pur ana, ch.

90 CONSEQUENCES OF RIGIDITY [MANU
The more minute the details of duty, the more
special and local they must be. This is shown by
Yajnavalkya's verse, at the very outset of his
Smrfi :

Listen to the scheme of duties which have to be

observed in that region of the earth which is the natural \

habitat of the black deer.'

The neglect, or the deliberate ignoring, in the

most important principle of all
later days, of this
law, so amply recognised by the old law-givers, is
the main cause, and also the effect, by action and
reaction, of the disappearance of all living legisla-
tion in India, for very many centuries, perhaps
twelve or even now of
the replacement of
fifteen, ;

the spirit by the letter; of assimilative philan-

thropy by exclusive bigotry of the healthful, ;

It should be noted particularly that the fact of the Unity o^

the omnipresent Self is the cause of the fact ol analogy,
similarity, u/it-formity (as the Manyness of the Not-Seh is
that of diversity). That Unity is the real reason for the
certainty felt in logical induction, otherwise utterly fallible
and wholly unjustifiable. Once, therefore always as in one ;

time and place, so in all times and places. Why? Because

the One is Unchanging. The old Nyaya gives the reason of
vyapti -graha (induction) as being pratyaksha (direct
perception) of jati or samanya
(genus) simultaneously
with vyakti or vishesha (particular or individual).
The new Nyaya calls the same process by the name of p r a t-
yasa11 and makes rather a mystery of it.
i ,
Western
poets and scientists have recognised and are recognising this
Law of Analogy orsama-darshita," same-sightedness,"
in the larger sense more and more fully, as, e.g., in the
also,
case of the analogy discerned between the structures of an
atom and a solar system.
MANU] WORLD-EVOLUTION 91

gradual, and normal change which means growing

life, by the rigid and forced monotony which means

ossification, disease, and death.

EARLIER STAGES OF EVOLUTION

Enunciating, therefore, this important principle,

of adaptation and adjustment, at the outset, the
Institutes (Samhita) of Manu gives a very brief and
rapid sketch of cosmogony, of the descent of Spirit
till it reaches manifestation in the physical plane,

the genesis of the various kingdoms of vegetables,

animals, men, gods, rshis, and of time-cycles. The
details may be gathered from the Puraijas in the
light of theosophical literature.
Out of all these, the facts most relevant to our
present purpose are those connected with the
changes of psycho-physical constitution undergone
by the human race. After passing through enor-
mous periods of time, and evolving sensory and
motor organs, and inner and outer faculties, on
various globes of the physical plane, in different
stages of density known in Samskrt story as globes
of the physical plane ( d v I p a s of the Bhn-loka),

through Rounds and Races and sub-races and still

more minute divisions, on successive and separate
continents and sub-continents and countries
allegorised in the Puraijas by the seven circlings of
Priyavrata's car around the globes, and by the
septenates of divisions and sub-divisions of land
92 CYCLIC EONS [MANU
1
ruled over by his 'sons' and 'grandsons' after
all this, the human race has arrived at the globe
2
and the condition of substantiality of this earth.
And we are now, so Pura$ic and theosophical
literature tells us, in the reign of the seventh Root-
Round-Manu Vaivasvata, whose personal name is
Shraddha-deva, while our immediate Race-Manu
is the fifth, who is also apparently designated by
the same office-name of Vaivasvata.^
That we are in the fourth Round, and have
crossed beyond the middle point of the complete
cycle of the terrene Chain, and also of the greater
cycle of which the terrene Chain is the fourth or
middle one, seems to be indicated by the Hindu

1
V a r s h a s khandas, avartas,
,
with other septenates
of the sons and grandsons of Priyavrata, and their sons, each
a ruler of a d v I p a a varsha, a khanda, and so forth.
,

2
The Jambu-dvipa, at the stage of the Ilavrta- Varsha, the
Bharata- Khanda', and the Ary-avarta, or the Ring or Race of
the Aryas, who are also called Paficha-janah, the fifth
people.
3
Vide The Secret Doctrine. The Manus are of different
grades. Every Round has a Root-Manu at its beginning, from
whom all Law proceeds, and a Seed-Manu at its end, in whom
all results are embodied. Hence each Round has two Manus,
' '

between (two) Manus'. On

'
and is therefore a man-vantara
each globe, through which the evolutionary wave passes of
these there are seven in a Round there is a minor Manu for
each Root-Race. As three Rounds lie behind us and we are
now half-way through the fourth, there have been three Root-
Manus and three Seed -Manus for these three Rounds, and we
are now under the fourth Root-Manu, or the seventh in suc-
cession. On our own globe, we belong to the fifth, or Aryan
Race, and so are under the fifth Race-Manu.
MANU] PRIMEVAL HUMANITY 93

1
works on astronomy and astrology (Jyotisha).
These works say that the present age is the first
quarter of the fourth age (the Kaliyuga) of the
twenty-eighth great age (Mahayuga) of the Vaivas-
vata Round, of the third Day of the Creator Brahma
* '
which is known as the White Boar Period
(Shveta-Varaha-Kalpa), in the second half (of our
Brahma's life-time), i.e., of His fifty-first year.

THE HUMAN RACEITS PRIMEVAL FORM

rapidly brought our 3 1 v a s to this

Having thus
earth-globe and evolved them to the human stage,
we have now, in order to understand the signi-
ficance of the Laws of Manu, to take a brief survey
of the history of the Human Race in the present

great age. is presented in detail in H. P.

This
Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, but most suc-
cinctly and clearly in Annie Bezant's The Pedigree
of Man, and is supported by more or less veiled
statements and allegories scattered throughout the

The verse of the Bkagavad-Glta , x, 6,

ntfl3T, is interpreted
in two ways. One supports the
statement as to the fourth Round ; in it ^C^K; is regarded
as an adjective of Manu-s and ^
of *T?W:, i.e., " The seven
"
ancient Itehi-s and the four Manu-s ". The other is The :

seven great ^shis, the still more Ancient Four, i.e., the Four
Kumara-s, and the Manu-s ". See Bhagavad-Glta, by Annie
Besant and Bhagavan Das, X, 6.
94 THE FIRST STAGE [MANU
1
Samskrt Itihasas and Puraijas. The forty-sixth
chapter of the Murkandeya Purana gives the most
open and connected account that the present
writer has come across. From all these it appears
that humanity was ethereal and sexless in the
beginning then more substantial and bi-sexual
; ;

then still more solid in body and different-sexed ;

that it will again become bi-sexua! and less sub-

stantial; and, finally, sexless and ethereal again.
In Manu, we have only one verse to indicate this
change :

Brahma dividedhimself into two, became man with

woman with the other.-
one-half and

The Markandeya Purana describes this first stage

or Root-Race of Humanity on our globe in the
present Round, a little more fully :

In those earliest times there were no differences of

seasons hence no marking of the beginnings and endings
;

and returnings of year-periods all times were equally;

temperate and pleasant there was neither heat nor cold

; ;

there was no vegetation, no roots and flowers and fruits ;

1
The first of The Secret Doctrine is entitled Cosmo -
volume
genesis, and may
be described as a history, in great broad
sweeps, of the evolution of our solar system down to the
formation of our earth. The second volume is entitled Anthro-
pogenesis, and is a history of the evolution of the Human Race
on this earth, down to the present stage, in the barest outlines,
finishing off with hints as to the future stages. The Puranas
'
and Itihasas cover similar ground. And it is curious that '

modern western 'universal histories/ e.g., Wells' Outlines of

History, are beginning to follow similar lines.
MANTJ] SEXLESS 95

a slight want of aliment was felt by human beings in the

forenoons and the afternoons, but all the needed nourish-
ment was obtained by absorption of subtle substances
[osmosis of what we may perhaps call ethers capable of
being indirectly affected by mental effort ] sound with
]
;

its five qualities

-
was the [one] sensation men knew no ;

differences of age, but oozed out sexless from the bodies

of their parents, full-grown, and without any deliberate
reproductive desire on the part of the parents there were ;

no distinctions of older and younger, superior and inferi-

or, between them, but all were equal no tending and ;

nurturing and bringing up of bodies was needed nor any ;

sacraments or laws, for all behaved towards each other

serenely, equably, without the excitements of loves and
hates they were all very similar in appearance, all lived
;

the full term of life, four thousand years, and their bodies
were incapable of being destroyed by disease or accidents
or violence of natural elemental forces or of fellow-
beings.'

1
Oar breathing to-day seems to be a process of much the
same kind.
"
It is difficult to say what are the qualities meant. Herbert
"
Spencer, in his essay On the Origin and function of Music,"
"
says : .
Feelings demonstrate themselves in sounds
. .

as well as in movements Variations of voice are the

. . .

physiological results of variations of feeling The chief . . .

peculiarities in the utterance of the feelings (may be grouped)

under the heads of (1) loudness, (2) quality on timbre, (3)
pitch, (4) intervals, and (5) rate of variation Using . . .

the word cadence in an unusually extended sense, we may say

that cadence is the commentary of the emotions upon the
propositions of the intellect". The one humming sound of the
Arm-exclamation, by variations, may be made to express
pleasure or its opposite pain, anger or satisfaction, snorting
snoer or soothing approbation, enquiry or prohibition. The vital
importance of svara, tone or cadence, to the efficacy of
Veda-mantra's is well-known.

3
96 THE SECOND STAGE [MANU
THE SECOND STAGE

Then came the second double-sexed stage and

race, illustrated by the stories of Ila-Sudyumna,
the mother-father of Purtlrava ; of Rksha-raja, the
mother-father of Bali and Sugrlva, and many
1
others. Climatic and other appurtenant condi-
tions underwent a parallel change also :

Solid land appeared here and there, not everywhere ;

lakes, channels, and mountains formed and separated out

S[3[Tcf 5fT3 Sfcl II

: \

cfT: *W^ II

: u
"
1
Remnants of bi-sexuality are to be found in
. . .

every human being, and are disclosed by embryology and

comparative anatomy in the form of vestiges of female re-
productive organs in the male and of male reproductive organs
ia the female. Herein exists an indisputable proof of the
originally hermaphrodite nature of the human anatomy/*
Jwan Block, The Sexual Life of Our Time, p. 12.
MANU] HERM- APHRODITE 97

of the ocean ;
the beings began to live in and on these,
and as made no houses; the seasons were still
yet
clement and there was no excess of heat or cold. With
the lapse of time, a marvellous power ( s i d d h i ) came
to them, and their nourishment was obtained from the
subtle aroma of the waters, by the power or function
called osmosis (ras-ollasu). They also suffered from
no violent passions and were always cheerful in mind.
But towards the end, they began to know death; and the
peculiar power of nourishment failed, at the approach of
death, in each individual separately and in the whole ;

race, generally. This race began to put forth pairs of

different sexes for the first time in this kalpa or round.
At the end of their lives, when about to die, they put
forth round, egg-like shapes which gradually developed
the one or the other sex predominantly. 1

: II

clT:

a The printed text has *fF*f, which gives no appropriate

sense.

6 The printed text has fif^T, which makes no sense.

7
98 THE THIRD STAGE
THE THIRD STAGE

Then comes the third stage, which is described

thus :

When the power of absorbing nourishment from

the subtle aroma of the waters was lost, then rain fell
from the skies, rain of liquids not like the waters of to-
day, but milky. And from that rain sprang mind-creat-
'

*
ed* or wishing' trees ( kalpa- vrksha-s ) which ,

served the purpose of dwellings. They were arboreal

houses. And from them the human beings of that stage,
in the first part of the Tret.-yuga, derived all the other
simple things they needed. Gradually physical love ap-
peared amongst them; and progeny became physical,
with monthly 'flowering' and periodic and repeated
gestation. Because of this appearance of grosser desire
]

t ft *WT: II

"
1 See Havelock Ellis, Psychology of Sex, I, Sexual
Periodicity," and III, "The Sexual Instinct of Savages".
"
Iwan Block, The Sexual Life of Our Time, p. 16, says At :

that time, in the human species, as now in the lower animals,

the sexual impulse was periodic in its activity." See also

a ^fw> Sf^iT %T \ The Brahma-Pur aim and the Matsya-

Purdna give more details about these, in describing various
continents (V a r s h a - s). The Vi^hnu-Purdna gives us a
slightly fuller account of the s d d h i s referred to here. The
-
i

Vdyu-Purdna, Purva-bhaga, chs. IV and VIII, mentions other

details. Mbh., Shanti-parva, ch. 206 (Kumbhakonam Edn.),
has a very brief sketch of the transformations of the human
race during the four ages. Many of the other Puranas make
rapid passing references to these. The current verses and
views of Samskrt lore, as regards tff^*J, S%3[5f, etc., (vide
footnote at p. 38, ch. I, supra,) also apply to the successive
human races.
MANU] DIFFEBENT-SEXED 99
* '
in them, the wishing trees died away, and other kinds
of trees appeared, in their place, with four straight
horizontal (four-square) branches, From these, the race
drew such food and apparel as it needed. The food was
of the nature of a liquid secretion like honey, stored
in pot-like fruit, made without the help of bees, and
it was beautiful to see and smell and taste, and
greatly nourishing. Then avarice grew amongst '
them
yet more, and egoism, and the sense of mineness ; and

Ibid., p. 36, for connection between periodicity of sex-feeling

and of food ; and for how, later on, both became continuous,
as, today, special kinds of fruits, originally seasonal, are now
produced throughout the year by special cultivation. The
classical ancient works on Medicine, Charaka and Sushruta,
give valuable information on the cycles of lood-assimilation
and sexual secretions. The disregard oi such cycles is a main
cause of the widespread psycho -physical ill-health of the
"
times. A certain Frenchman has remarked that man is the
only animal that eats when he is not hungry, drinks when
he is not thirsty, and has sex relations at all times." Adler,
The Science of Living, p. 259 (pub. 19? 0). A Purana allegory
says that Indra cut off the wings of the then, flying mountains
with his thunderbolts, so that they fell down and became
immoveable, and he also slew the vast dark demon, Vptra, with
those same thunderbolts, so that he dissolved in rain. The sin
Indra incurred thereby, he divided between the lands, the
waters, the trees, and the women, giving them compensating
boons. The waters become dirty periodically, but nourish life
and produce pearls and many other good things. The lands
suffer from deserts and sterile tracts here and there, bat
hollows and diggings are always getting filled up. The plants
suffer from diseases and unhealthy sap-discharges, but their
branches, if cut off, grow again. Women suffer from monthly
illness, but have the choice and (very doubtful) joy of love

always: fej^R^KT: 1%R*-. Thus pain and gain are always

compensating one another. This allegory obviously describes
the cooling of the earth, and the settling down of great
masses formerly in perpetual commotion, and then the begin-
ning of rains and their consequences. Other allegories similarly
describe other vast geological and even astronomical changes.
i
See Edward Carpenter, Civilisation, Its Cause and
Cure. p. 102.
100 ITS VICISSITUDES [MANU
the trees which had given them all they needed, dwel-
ling, food and raiment, died out because of that sin and ;

the pairs of heat and cold, and hunger and thirst, were
born amongst the people and also evil men, demons and
;

monsters, serpents, beasts, birds and ferocious reptiles,

and fishes and crawling creatures, some born without
envelopes and some through eggs for all such are the
;

progeny of evil thought and sinful deed. Then to protect

themselves from the inclemencies of the changeful
weather, the people began to make the first artificial
dwellings and villages, towns and cities, of various sizes,
;

were formed. And they made the first houses in imita-

tion of the shapes of their former arboreal dwellings.
And they also began to work for food. But the industry
was light. The rain came at their wish and prayer and ]
;

it collected in hollows, and flowed forth in the low-lying

channels, making lakes and rivers. Then a new kind of

Praying for rain, amongst the African people, and other

1

descendants of the third Root-Race, is perhaps a memory of

those times. In the fifth, it became more elaborate, connected
with superphysical rituals of sacrifice. It must not be for-
gotten that the dependence of human life upon, and the need
for, rain are as great to-day as they were ever before, though
the
'

civilised
'
man of the present day may regard Vedic and
' '
other prayers for rain as superstitious. The elemental facts
of life are far more important than the artificial and super-
ficial ones. Modern civilisation may give itself airs on its
steam-power and electricity -power and powder-power and
machine-power but all these are the creations of mind-
;

power, and that is wholly dependent upon bread-power, which,

for the civilised man, if not for the ichthyophagi, depends upon
the rain, directly or indirectly. As the venerable A. R. Wallace
said in one of his last books, Moral Order and Progress,
written when he was nearly ninety years of age, the earliest
discoveries of mankind still continue to be far more vitally
.useful than his latest ones, e.g., those of agriculture and of fire-
making. Man's greatest needs still continue to be supplied by
the products of the vegetable kingdom (varkshl-siddhi)
and of the waters (ras-ollasa). And the nomadic,
pastoral, agricultural, rural, stages are all to be found to-day,
in slightly changed forms, in the most civilised countries
also side by side with the industrial and mechanical.
MANU] GRADUAL DIFFERENTIATION 101

vegetation grew up trees bearing various kinds of fruit

;

at fixed seasons and wild cereals of fourteen kinds.

;

They grew up near the habitations as well as in the

forests, not requiring human labor to plant and sow and
grow, but only to pluck and reap and store. But loves and
hates and jealousies and mutual hurting increased yet
more among them, and the stronger took possession of
the trees and cereals, excluding the weaker for inequa-
;

lities of mind and body had appeared with the new way
of progenition and then these sources of laborless food
;

failed also. Then they prayed to Brahma l in dire dis-

tress and He made the earth, the great mother and source
of all nourishment, take shape as a cow (that is, milch-
animals appeared) and Brahma, milked the cow and
taught them how to milk it, and various cereals and
plants appeared again. But they would no longer grow
and produce fruit of themselves, as before. So Brahma
perfected the hands of the people and taught them the
use of the hands, and the ways of industry and agricul-
ture and horticulture, how to grow canes and grasses and
cereals of various kinds. And thenceforwards men live
by the labor of their hands. And this epoch is called thf
epoch of hand-power (h a s t a - s i <J h i), as the preceding
(J.

ones were those of tree-power (vL rkshi-sid^hi) and

water-power or osmosis-power (rasbllasa-sicjtfhi)
and will-power (ichchh-si<Jglhi). Since that time
food has to be earned with toil, and all other supplies
have to be won by industry. After teaching them the
arts of trade and tillage of the soil, Brahma, established
laws and conventions, differentiating the people gradually,
' ' *
more and more, into castes and colors/ according
to their different capacities and tendencies. And he
divided life into different stages, according to the con-
ditions newly come to prevail, of the birth, growth,
decay and death of bodies. And for each caste and each
stage he assigned appropriate duties.-
1
For the meaning of Brahma, as Universal Mind, Cosmic
Ideation, Collective Intelligence, etc., see the present writer's
na, pp. 15-17, 173-176,
2
102 THE BIRTH OF ARTS [MANU
Where the Markandeya Pura%a speaks of the
Creator, Brahma, the Vishriu-Bhagavata mentions
Prthu, an incarnation ( a v a t a r a ) of Vishmi. It

says that P^thu was the first King who was given
MANU] AND SCIENCES 103

the name of and who milked the cow, and

Raja,
and cultivated it, and drew corn
levelled the earth,
and other foods from it, and also minerals and

f^TT: II

cEI:
104 AGRICULTURE [MANU

precious stones, and created houses and towns, for

1
the first time, in the history of the race.
At the birth of Prthu, the angels (gandh ar*
va s ) sang :

He will be known as the R

L j & because he will
rejoice the hearts of men by his great deeds. . The .

illustrious son of Vena, the Lord of Powers, like a very

father to the people, provided them with food when they
were hungry and taught them how to milk the cow, and
level the surface of the earth, and draw from it the

I \\

For further considerations on the subject, see Krshya. a

1

Study in the Theory of Avatar as. Some modern Western

Scientists are beginning to turn their thoughts in this direction.
Thus Wallace, in his work referred to in a previous note, Moral
"
Order and Progress, avows belief in special spiritual in-
"
fluxes man's evolution which give it a new
in the course of
direction. A sober book like The Dawn," of History (H. U. L.),
pp. 251-'2, recognises the influence of exceptional men" and
"
the disproportionate increase of efficiency when, by a happy
accident, several great men are active simultaneously ".

Analogous are the origin of new types or species by sudden

mutation, as now recognised by evolutionists emigration of ;

colonising bands from old to new countries the shooting off

;

of electrons from one atom-system to another, or from one

orbit to another within the same atom-system and of planets ;

from one solar system to another, or of moons from one

planet to another as indicated, e.g., in the Parana-legend of
how Chandra (our Moon), very long ago, eloped with the wife
(a moon) 'of his teacher Brhas-pati (Jupiter), had a child,
Budha (Mercury), by her, and was ultimately compelled to
"
restore her to Brhas-pati after a great war in heaven" and
gigantic astronomical turmoil.
MANU] AND CITIES 105

cereals; and he constructed, and taught them to con-

struct, and houses, villages, towns and
cattle-pens, tents
cities, and market-places and forts and strongholds of
various kinds and also how to work mines and quarry
;

stone. Before the time of Prthu, these things did not

exist and the people dwelt at ease, without fear and
danger of any kind, here and there, wherever they

Such a bird's-eye view of the past history of

is

the race in the words of the

IV, xvi, 15.

ll V, xviii, 29 to 32.

Many particulars will be found in Vishriu-Purana, I, vi.

(Wilson's translation) and from other Puranas may be gathered
;

by the student who is prepared to give the necessary time

and labor, many details about the third and the fourth Races
' '
and even much larger facts, like Chains' and Systems'. In
' '
The Pedigree of Man, Mrs. Besant has identified Chains
with the various bodies which Brahma 'casts off* from time
to time, apparently in one Day. The Mat sya- Pur ana
describes eighteen 'days' of Brahma, seventeen preceding the
present. Each Parana is supposed to have a special reference
' '

to the minor cycles in the present chain which reflect

the great 'days.' respectively. The weirdest and most
extravagant and exuberant fancies of the most romantic
106 THE FUTURE AGES [MANU
As to the future, it is said, briefly, that after the
Dark Age (Kali-yuga) is over, the old conditions of
the Golden Age (Satya-yuga) will be established
again. It is also said that one age only does not

story-writer of to-day seem to be anticipated in the Puranas, as

having been actual facts at some stage or other of the many
races and sub-races and the hundreds of minor civilisations
touched upon by them. The gigantic bodies and changeful
forms of all the most bizarre and monstrous kinds of the earlier
races of Titans ; their peculiarity ot substance so that nothing
could hurt them, not even the electric forces OT Indra's
thunderbolt as in the case of Namuchi ; the gradual diminu-
tion of size and solidification of substance ot the bodies, till
they became perfectly adamantine in texture and invulnerable
to weapons, so that even the discus of Vishnu and the trident
of Shiva and the will -force of Rshis could not blast them, or
cut through their stiff necks or pierce their hard hearts, while
the results of their t a p a s lasted, as in the case of Hiran-
yaksha and Hiranya-Kashipu and Havana and Kumbhakarna ;

the rapid growth and maturation of the Rakshasa-races, as in

the case of Ghatotkacha instantaneous conception, birth, and
;

attainment of full size, as in the case of devas and

apsaras; budding off or oozing off in sweat, as in the case
of the Maitra-varunas, Vasishtha and Agastya the inter-
;

marriages of the Devas, the Daityas, the Rakshasas and the

divine Kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties, as in the case
of the immense family of Kashyapa, of Samvarana with TapatT,
of Yayati with Sharmishtha and Devayanl, etc. all these
are to be found in the Puranas. A great war of aeroplanes is
described in the Mat sya- Pur ana in connexion with the fripura-
war. Another type of civilisation is described for the days of
Ravana, in the Ramdyana and so on. It is obvious that a
work which aims at surveying the whole of this world-
'

system's history from beginning to end, to deal with the ten*

subjects which Puranas deal with, can take account of only
the roost important events and types. It will have to speak
of globes instead of countries, of genera instead of sub-species,
of races instead of individuals, of epochs and cycles in plae
of centuries and years and months. This is what the Puranas
<do. A King seems to mean often a whole Race and Dynasty,
MANU] SYNCHRONY OF AGES 107

necessarily prevail over all the earth at a time ;

but that while one age is regnant in one part and
amongst one people, another may be holding sway
in another part and over another people like the
older and the younger generation existing side by
many brothers living on together, with
side, or like
many years' differences between them, or like a
virtuous family and a vicious family living in
adjoining houses. Putting these statements to-
gether we may infer that what is meant by the
return of the Golden Age is, that humanity, as

and an episode, what extended over a whole civilisation

occupying perhaps thousands of years. In this way only may
the Puranas be interpreted usefully.

To theosophists, all this will be mere repetition of what is

described, in much ampler detail and more lucidly and con-
nectedly and intelligibly, in The Secret Doctrine and The
Pedigree of Man. To others it may have the interest of
novelty. To the theosophist also, it may be a satisfaction
to find that the Puranas give the outlines of the history
almost the same words as are used in The Secret Doctrine ;
in
and viceversa, to many Hindus who may not have had the
opportunity of looking into the Puranas, it may be a welcome
confirmation of theosophical doctrines. It is partly for this
reason that these lengthy extracts have been given. It should
be noted that the available printed text is more or less
corrupt, as stated by the editors and publishers themselves of
the Bombay edition of the Markandeya Purana and verses
;

and chapters have become disarranged and thrown out of their

original and proper order, while other parts have been wholly
"
lost or withdrawn from public gaze by the custodians of the
sacred knowledge ". In making the extracts and the transla-
tion, I have therefore had to make some very slight change in
the order of the verses, in two or three places, to obtain a
connected sense out of them, in accordance with The Secret
Doctrine.
108 GRADUAL INVOLUTION [MANU
a whole, will tire of its present mood of intense

separative egoism, sex-difference, individualistic

property-grabbing ;
of the involved loves and
hates and vehement excitements of the passions ;

of the endless clash of opinion against opinion and

pride against pride ; of the desperate struggle for
existence, not only for the necessaries of life, but
for honor, power and prestige, luxuries, and amuse-
ments ; and that, so tiring of it all, the human
racial soul will gradually withdraw to a higher
level, to the bi-sexual and then the sexless condi-
tions, to comparative freedom from the grosser
passions, and to the more peaceful joys of spiritual

love, sympathy, and (higher communistic, solida-

rian) co-operation which those conditions mean,
before merging into comparatively complete libera-
tion (videha-moksha) with the closing of
Brahma's, i.e., our Round-Manu's, day of wake-
fulness and work.
In the setting of these transformations of the
human race, have arisen the Laws of Manu which
we have to deal with. But, before taking them up,
it may not be out of place to make a few comments

on these brief historical outlines, as they have to

be referred to over and over again, in understand-
ing the reasons for those laws.
In the first place it may be noted that there is
nothing inherently improbable in such a course of
transformations. The law of analogy is coming to
be recognised more and more as all-pervading, even
MANU] ANALOGIES 109

by modern science, which begins to see that atoms

are as solar systems, and that the life of a single-
celled animal is typical of all life. The law of
recapitulation, viz., that every individual recapitul-
ates in its growth the types of all preceding
kingdoms and races, is definitely enunciated by
evolutionist science and this law is based on,
; is

indeed but another form of, the law of analogy. If

there be any truth in these laws, then, since we
may distinguish these stages and transformations
in the life of a single human being, we may well
infer that the life of the whole race will be found
to correspond. The infant shows the stage of
sexlessness ; the adolescent, the traces of both the ;

grown-up, of difference ; the aging, again a gradual

effacement of difference ; and the aged, a complete
effacement. Of course, at present, these stages are
marked more psychologically than physiologically.
But the analogy is sufficient for our purpose of
establishing a prima facie likelihood.
Secondly, the need to refer to sex-difference so
prominently, due to the fact that, as indicated in
is

the extracts, other features and differentiations,

all

psychological and physiological, and forms of social

organisation and other appurtenances, depend
largely upon this ; and changes in those run parallel
with changes in this. The purpose of all this
evolution and involution may be described, in one
way, as being, the growth of egoism, and,
first,

then, the transcendence of it. But (next after the

110 THE PROCESS IN PSYCHIC TERMS [MANU

hunger-feeling) the most concrete embodiment of this

idea is the accentuation, and then the blurring, of

the sex-feeling. On these again, depend the nascence

1

and the subsidence of all the other passions ; and on

them, in turn, all the other endless complications
of life. Hence the prominence given to it.

x
See, f.i., Maratt, Anthropology (H. U. L.), p. 159 and ;

The Science of the Emotions, ch. Ill (B) "On the Nature of
"
Desire". The chief and most complicated complex," in the
terminology of the psycho-analysts of to-day, hrdaya-
g r a n t h i and kama-jata, in that of the Upanixhats and
the Bhagavata, is the sex-complex, undoubtedly, at the present
stage of different-sexed humanity.

Mundaka.

: I

Bhagavata, IV, v, 8.

: || Ibid., X, Ixxxvii, 39.

But the ego-(food) complex and the property-complex must

not be lost sight of. They are comparatively simpler because
there is less secretiveness about them. Less not absence of. ;

All three, being prominent consequences of individualist

selfishness, and therefore exposed to danger from competitive
adversaries, are accompanied by fear and secretiveness some
more, some less as well as by ambivalent exhibitiveness.
Insanity may be said to be, invariably, an uninhibitable excess
' '
of any one of the ignoble emotions, due to a corresponding
' '

deficiency of the contrasting noble emotion, or vice versa.

All emotions, mainly six ignoble and six noble, are directly or
indirectly connected with the two triplets of psychical and
physical e B h a n a s, ambitions-appetites. Complexes as well
kinds of insanity may, accordingly, be divided and subdivided
under the main ambition- appetites and the good -and -bad
MANU] AND PHYSICAL TERMS 111

In the third place, it will appear to many that, in

the extracts, cause and effect have been reversed.
It is stated that physical degenerations and changes
take place in their natural environments because of
psychical degenerations and changes in the men ;
while a thinker of to-day would deem it safer to say
that the psychical changes took place because of
the physical changes. Because men are greedy and
quarrelsome, therefore the rains fail, and the crops
do not grow and famine stalks in the land is a
startling way of putting things to the modern
thinker. To him it appears more reasonable to say
that because the harvest has failed and there is a
shortage of food, therefore there are more thefts and
burglaries, and men perforce show greed and selfish-
ness, and endeavor to snatch the crumbs away from
the hands of their fellow-men.

" "
emotions. Within limits, complexes enrich the life, by" long-
"
circuiting of the processes of consciousness, as ganglia do
the nervous system or art-curios, articles of virtu, pictures,
;

etc., a dwelling in excess, they hinder, load, obstruct free

;

movement, produce in-sanity. Thus, excess of loka-ishana

(ego-complex, ambition for name and fame) and ma da (pride)
would cause megalomania of dara-ishana, and k a m a
; ,

erotomania; of k rod ha (anger) at defeat of any e s h a n a ,

homicidal mania of m o h a (perplexity, because of fear for

;

others, i.e., excess of compassion, or for onself, i.e., fear

proper), may cause theo-mania or persecution-mania ; of
lobha, klepto-mania. And so on. Manu's Scheme helps
to prevent excess of e s h a n a - s and formation of such mon-
strosities as the edipus-complex and the electra-complex, and
neuroses and manias generally, and makes Society sane, by
provision for balancing everywhere. Excess is Insanity ;
Balance is Sanity.
112 INTERDEPENDENCE [MANTJ

The final truth, and in the most comprehensive

sense, is, of course, the truth of the interdependence
of spirit and matter, consciousness and vehicle ;

the truth of psycho-physical parallelism, that

changes of one series of phenomena go side by side
with changes in the other series and taking the ;

total of time, it is impossible to say which precede

as cause and which succeed as effect. And the
words of the Vishnu Puruna approximate to this
view more closely, where it describes the same
stages of primeval human history. It says that
Vishriu, on the one hand, hardened the hearts of
men, and, on the other, simultaneously produced
the changes in the natural surroundings, which
made it possible for humanity to taste in full the

experiences connected with the spirit of Egoism, so

that it might return to Universalism and submis-
sion to the Will of the Good and the All-Merciful
with a fuller heart and mind. But if we mark off
definitely a number of events making up a cycle,
then it becomes possible to say whether a psychi-
cal event stands at the beginning, or a physical
event, each alternately succeeding event being, in
the former case psychical, in the latter physical.
Thus, a thought leads to an action ; that gives rise
to another thought ; that leads to another action
and so on. Or, an action gives rise to a thought ;

that leads to a new action ; that gives rise to

another thought, and so on. It is thus a matter of

temperament and of selection for the purpose in

MANU] INITIATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS 113

hand, whether we shall begin the cycle which we

wish to mark out for study, with a psychical event
or a physical event. The ancients have clearly
enunciated the assured truth of this interdepen-
dence and for
metaphysical purposes.
rotation,
But the empirical or practical purposes of
for
guiding the life of a world-system, or of a minute
individual therein, they begin with consciousness.
From this standpoint, the material arrangements
and conditions any particular world-system, or
of

planet, or department of it, are the product of the

will and the consciousness of its Ruler ; even as a
house, a garden, a school-room for the education of
his children, with all its furniture and appliances,
is the creation of its proprietor's will and con-

sciousness. In the case of a world, at least one

purpose the Brahma-Logos in creating its
of
conditions is to make them subserve the evolution
of the embodied selves with whom He is dealing.
And once we recognise that the arrangements of
the physical world are the product of superphysical
forces, we may well go on to say that the gifts of
the gods flow forth more readily when the men are
virtuous and loving to each other and to the gods.
In order that milk may flow forth in abundance
from the mother's breast, there must be a surge of
mother-love in her and of tender compassion for
the helpless baby. And this will be when the baby
turns to her. How shall it flow when the children
quarrel among themselves and insult her, or are
8
114 SYMBIOSIS [MANU
grown-up and self-reliant, and do not care for her
any more ? Even so is it with the human race and
its great mother, the Earth. When human beings
multiply too much in sin, the Earth becomes barren
by counterpoise, maintain the balance of nature.
to
The corruption the emotional and the astral
of

atmosphere by the masses of vicious thought and

feeling superphysically, reacts on the physical
atmosphere, and on the clouds and the rains, and
therefore famines, plagues, and epidemics of
different sorts occur. 1

1
See the story of KarkatI, the cholera-microbe, in the
present writer's Mystic Experiences, and of Duhsaha-yakshma,
"
the consumption-bacillus, in the Markandeya-Purana. The
Fuegians believe in a great black man . . .
wandering
about the woods and mountains . t . who influences the
weather according to men's conduct." Spencer, Principles of
Sociology, I, 392. For a supplementary explanation, see
Manu, vi;i, 22, the implication of which is that when the
many are reduced to serfdom by the few, and the tenure of
the soil by its tillers is at the scant mercy of others, and the
cultivators of the earth see the produce of their labor snatched
away, season after season, by tyrant masters, then they
naturally have no heart left to put into their work, and
neglect the preparation and manuring of the soil, which
becomes impoverished in other ways also, by the improvident
greed of the masters. Extremes meet. What primitive instinct
recognises by intuition, advanced science works up to, at last,
after prolonged courses of intellection and reasoning. That
psychic-biotic and chemical-physical forces and s t h u 1 a and
sukshma (dense and subtle, physical and astro-mental)
matters interact, that violent evil emotions produce poisonous
toxins in the living body, and elevating and noble emotions
produce health-enhancing secretions, is being recognised by
medical physiology. And one theory of the origin of
epidemics is that disease-germs are sometimes carried up into
the skies by whirlwinds and water-spouts, and then come
MANTJ] BETWEEN ANGELS AND MEN 115

From the matter-of-fact standpoint of modern

politics and economics also, if it is true that a

shortage of supply increases the intensity of com-

petition in the demand, it is also true that if the
producers are weaker than the non-producers, and
the latter deprive the former unjustly, by force and
cunning, of the produce of their labor, leaving them
not even a living minimum, then they will surely
cease to labor and produce, and will swell the

down with the rain, in the ill-fated tracts. Similar views are
"
mentioned in Charaka, in the chapter on Jana-pada-
uddhvansa ". Those who have realised that mind and matter
are co-efficients, and interdependent, that every mood of mind
goes with a mode of matter, and vice versa, that there are
kingdoms above as well as below and side by side with man,
and superphysical as well as physical, that because of the all-
pervasiveness of the Universal Life-Principle, the Self, there
' '
is a vast incessant symbiosis and co-operation between all
these kingdoms, but more prominently to us between some,
and less so between others they will find it not necessary to
;

altogether brush aside the doctrine that a kingdom of d e v a s

(gods, elohlm, farishta-s, mala yak, angels) goes side by side
with the human kingdom, that the two are inter-related for
reciprocal help or hindering (Glta, iii, 9-15), that as there are
'

fourteen Manus, progenitors of men,' so there are fourteen

' '

corresponding Indras, kings of the dev as , and that as

races of men succeed one another, so also do those of the
d e v a s, on parallel and inseparable lines, d e v a s and men
both being more or less individualised forces of Nature, as
indeed are all the other kingdoms also, in different ways.
Modern science is trying to discover the secret of producing
rain artificially who knows but that the old sacrificial y a j ft a -
;

rites had some

efficacy in this respect, and, combining thought-
force, prayer-force, will-force, with physico-chemical forces
released by the chanting of mantra-s and by the offering
of various substances into the fire, were able to set working the
appropriate angelic nature-forces ? But the science of the ritual
has obviously been lost for long by the professing custodians.
116 POLITICO-ECONOMICAL EXAMPLES [MANU
ranks of the non-producers of various sorts, till
gradually the whole land will reel back into the
beast, as has been illustrated repeatedly even in
1
the recent history of the nations. It is also
admitted conversely that the quality and quantity
of the work of the cheerful and contented workman
are better than those of the morose, the sullen, the
discontented. And, finally, it is recognised that it
is not the natural needs, but the artificial greeds,
of highly intelligent speculators, with their trusts
and their corners and their endless device- for

tempting or forcing others to their ruin, that make

the struggle for existence so very much more
painful than it would otherwise
be. Indeed, it is
becoming undisputed that the present system of
competition in the over-production and over-acquisi-
tion of luxuries the cause of an enormous wast-
is

age and of the lack of necessaries to

of all kinds,

large masses of people. Thus even matter-of-fact

economics ultimately base on character and sen-
timents, and do not altogether contradict and
disprove the old books.
Fourthly, as to the other details about the extra-
ordinary powers, if we look around us to-day, we
Compare the conditions of the Greeks and their helots, the
1

Romans and their provinces, the English Saxons after

the Norman conquest, the German peasants before the
outbreak of the Peasant's War in A.D. 1522, and the agri-
cultural populations of France before the French Revolution,
of Czarist Russia, of contemporary "British*' India and
"Indian" India (i.e., the Indian States), and of Bolshevik
Russia during the earlier experiments of the new regime.
MANU] PRESENT-DAY LIFE 117

find factswhich answer very nearly to the descrip-

tions. The vegetable kingdom and the lower forms
of the animal kingdom live by what may be called
the osmosis-power (ras-ollas a-s i d d h i ) They
.

absorb nourishment from the surrounding elements

without any deliberate effort. The large majority
of animals, and men also, live even at the present

day by what may well be said to be nothing else

than the tree-power (varkshi-siddhi); a consi-
derable part of the human population of the earth
still derives all its requirements, food and clothes

and utensilsand 'house-materials, wholly from

various kinds of plants ; to say nothing of the fact
that the most important part of human nourish-
ment is air-breathing, which is but a form of
ras-ollasa. All the varieties of sex-conditions
and methods of propagation too, are to be observed
in the vegetable and animal kingdoms to-day. It

has only to be remembered that the human beings

of those first Races were very different in bodily
constitution from those of to-day, though the
embodied selves were the same as is shown, for
instance, by the statement, in the Ifcihasas and
Puraijas, that Jaya and Vijaya incarnated as
Hiranyaksha and Hiraijya-Kashipu in the Paitya
race, then again as Ravaria and Kumbha-kanja in
the Rakshasa race, and finally as Shishu-pala and
Panta-vaktra in the Aryan. And because their
bodily constitution was so different, therefore, when
the Pura$as speak of their food and drink and
118 SEEDS OF LOWER IN HIGHER FORMS [MANU
clothing and dwellings as coming from the trees
and the waters, they do not mean that richly
cooked viands, elaborately prepared liquors, silks,
satins, woollens, brocades, and palaces of brick,
stone, jewelled marble, steel, stained glass, and
silver and gold, allcame out direct from the waters
and the trees, but just the means of nourishment
and of covering up their bodies and escaping
from the rigors of the changing climate.
A point which might be dwelt upon, is that
fifth

some the Pauraijika statements confirm the

of-

theosophical view that, in the present Round or

Manvantara, the lower kingdoms have des-
cended out of the human, though in the previous
Rounds the human was gradually developed out
of the former.
In the other Puranas, these ideas seem to be
indicated by such stories as that of the primal
creations by Rudra-Sthaiju, under the command of
Brahma, which creations (monads) were exact
copies of their Creator, and would not multiply in
turn ; and again that of the Mohinl-avatara of
Vishnu, during the period of which the germs of
lifethat emanated from Shiva became the minerals.
The significance of such stories seems to be that
what are known as the elemental kingdoms in
theosophical literature, are, so to say, matured and
live their life within the body of the Creator, just
as the seeds of a plant have a slightly separate life,
and attain maturity, within the body of the
MANU] FIXITY OF SPECIES 119

parent-plant ; and that when they appear first of all

on the physical plane, they appear as the mineral
kingdom. The Vi$hnu-Bhagavata indicates that
these stories belong to previous manvantaras,
or Rounds. On the other hand, in the present cr
Vaivasvata Round, the animal kingdom is described
as born from the different wives of the Rshi
1
Kashyapa (which is also a name for the Sun), the
eldest of whom is Aditi (which is also a name for
the Earth), and all of whom are the daughters of

Paksha, who has taken a new and human birth as

a descendant of Vaivasvata Manu.
On the question of fact, obviously the layman, the
non-expert in physical and superphysical science,
is not competent to pass any opinion. He must take
his facts from modern science and ancient scrip-
ture. But reconciliation between the two does not
seem to be impossible, and may be attempted, even
by the non-expert, on grounds of reason.
On the one hand, we have the view of the fixity
of species, as indicated, for instance, in Manu's
verse :

As the Creator fixed primally, such is the nature

of each creature throughout the period of manifestation,
and appears in that creature of itself, be it murderous or
be it compassionate, gentle or harsh,
truthful or deceptive.-
120 EVOLUTION OF SPECIES [MANU
Modern cytologists also seem to support this
view, which is also the view of the Bible and of
pre-evolutionist science, when they say that the
number of chromosomes is fixed for each species.
1

On the other hand, there is the view of evolution,

of the
origin species, proclaimed by modern
of
science and also indicated amply in ancient litera-
ture, and most emphatically in respect of the
gradual progress of the embodied self through the
lower to the higher stages, till it arrives at the
human stage, when liberation becomes possible.
How to reconcile these views ?
And another question is, whether there has been
a special exception, in the present Round, and a
reversal of the normal process, so that lower forms
have descended out of higher.
Some slight treatment of these views is relevant
here, because of its bearing on the caste-question,
as will be pointed out later.
The reconciliation of all these views seems to lie
in the fact, now
recognised by some of the most
prominent evolutionists, that what they call the
primal germ-plasm, the ancestral germinal cell, the
infinitesimal biophore, the living atom, in short,
has in it already the whole of the infinite, possibi-
lities ofspontaneous variations and natural selec-
tions of forms, i.e., definite species but that the
;

* "
The chromosomes .always appear in the same number in
"
the same species at every division of the nucleus Ency. ;

Britannica, 13th Edn., Vol. 29, art. Cytology.

MANU] RECONCILIATION 121

unfolding of these possibilities of forms is succes-

sive, i.e., by evolution, and that sudden mutations
of type or species also take place under the stress
' '
of special spiritual influxes which supersede the
routine course, and stimulate into activity special
ids or constituents of the biophore which would
otherwise have remained dormant, and throw into
latency others which would otherwise have become
active.
1
This is in exact accord with the ancient
view that the infinite is contained in the infinite-
simal, that every atom contains everything, and
2
that the inner consciousness creates the outer form.
The consciousness of Brahma taking the name
as representative of any ruling consciousness of the
1
See foot-note at pp. 105-'6, supra. And compare the Yoga-
"
sutra, 3rFc*fcffiffi o rRi: Sf^TOT^ I iv, 2. In-floodings, sudden
influxes, developments, of special elements, features, lying
latent in the total character, under the stress of special
stimulation, may bring about a complete change of form, a
birth into a very different type." The Enc. Brit., 14th edn.,
"
Art. "Evolution," p. 922, says: Since the chromosomes of
existing organisms differ much in shape, size, and number,
it is clear that there has been variation in these characters

in the course of evolution. ... In a complete theory the

first origin and diversity of these factors (genes) must still
be accounted for. It must be supposed that new factors have
been added and possibly old ones have dropped out, that
new material has entered the stream of germ -plasm, into
the cycle of metabolism, and become incorporated as self-
propagating ingredients joining in harmonious co-operation
with previously formed factors. Presumably this building
process is still going on."

I and so on.
122 BRAHMl'S MOODS [MANU
requisite grade and power makes limitations of
time and space, and decides for each particular
germ-cell of life what particular form it shall
develop and manifest, for what period of time, and
in what region of His system somewhat as a
human being makes pots and pans out of homoge-
neous clay and decides how long the clay shall stay
in the form of any one pot or pan, and then be
broken up and fashioned into another. It is fairly
obvious that each expression of countenance, each
gesture, each attitude of body of any living creature,
embodies a mood of his consciousness. And if

photographs were taken of each such expression

and gesture, and could be animated each by a
separate piece of vitality, then the one creature
would become and remain so many different crea-
tures, till the photographs faded away. Somewhat
thus, each living creature may be regarded as a
mood ofBrahma's consciousness. The Pura$as
say so e.g., Brahma was wroth on a certain occa-
:

sion, and His hair slid off as ever-angry serpents.

On another, He shed tears of sorrow and vexation,
and these became the germs of dire diseases. His
smiles of joy became the gods and gladsome fairies.
His restlessness and moods of activity became the
human kingdom. 1

5TRTT: eft ^=FT: sN>) fetal: I

FZ3T: II

Vayu-Purana, Pt. I, ch. 9.

MANU] EMANATIVE CREATION 123

That poisonous toxins and disease-germs are pro-

duced by painful cerebral functionings is recognised
by modern pathology. And researches in psychical
science show that thoughts vitalised by surges of
emotion take forms in subtler matter, and that, if
the emotion is sufficiently powerful, they may
become more densely material and even visible to
others. What wonder then that Brahma's moods
should take living shape Further, as every con-
1

sciousness, high or low, is governed by the eternal

law ofrhythmic swing, so these moods and mani-
festations of Brahma's mind would also follow a
they would proceed gradually from
definite course ;

the sense of unity and love to separateness and

struggle; and then back again. These two ex-
pressions cover all varieties of manifestation. But
and this the point of the reconciliation we
is

may trace our cycle from any point we please.

Also, there are other cycles running at the same
time, but at different stages, from different stand-
points, and on other, but connected, planes. We
may trace our cycle from unity to separateness and
back again or we can trace it from separateness
;

The Bhagavata, III. xx, describes ten creations, as that

Brahma put on and cast off body after body, which wore taken
possession of and occupied, successively, by the rakshasas,
yakshas, '*devas, r s h i s, men, etc. From another stand-
"
point, this myth would typify the case of institutions
created by the original founders for one purpose, and subse-
quently captured by schemers and utilised by them for very
different purposes.
124 VARYING CYCLES [MANU
to unity and back again. We may count the
complete day from sunrise to sunrise, or from sun-
set to sunset,or from midnight to midnight, or,

finally, from midday to midday. And while it is

midday in one place, it is midnight, and morning,
and evening, in others. In one sense, the infant pro-
gresses into the man, and the man decays into the
corpse. This is true from the standpoint of the
body. But from the standpoint of the Spirit, it
would perhaps be truer to say that the innocent
child degenerates into the selfish and worldly-mind-
ed man, and the man of the world refines again into
the gentle and peaceful sage.
If we take only the period of active manifesta-

tion, the day of Brahma, as a complete circle, then

its first half makes the Path of Pursuit, and its

second, the Path of Renunciation. But if we take

one day and one night as making a complete cycle,
then from the middle-point of mergence to the
middle-point of emergence or manifestation will be
the Path of Pursuit and from the middle-point of
;

manifestation to the
middle-point of mergence
again will be the Path of Renunciation After
the deepest slumber at midnight, there will be a
nascent tendency towards the dawn and waking,
even during mergence. And after the climax of
activity at the middle of the day, there will super-
vene a growing inclination to rest, though half the
day is yet to run. In this way all kinds of cycles
and sub-cycles may be formed.
MANU] CROWDING LIVES AND THE WHEEL 125

And it may well be, that in coming up along the

previous Rounds, the embodied selves gradually un-
folded and then rolled up and put back into abey-
ance, but within themselves, the grosser and
still

more evil tendencies that make for dullness and hate

and struggle, till they arrived at the human stage ;
and then, in a time and recrudescence of
of reaction
selfishness, corresponding bodily decay and
to
disease in the individual, they have let loose these
germs, and thus provided the material sheathing of
animal forms through which new and younger em-
bodied selves will gradually develop and progress in
the endless course of cycles and develop and pro-
gress with the help of the present human selves,
giving to these the opportunity of expiation and
repayment of debt by becoming office-bearers and
making spiritual progress as a race, corresponding
to the spiritual old age of an individual. In this
way kept up the endless stream of generations of
is

selves and of forms, and the unceasing rotation of

the Wheel of Life along the spokes and tyre of
which they evolve and involve.
As Manu says :

Countless are the forms which issue forth from His

body, and provide vehicles of active manifestation for
individualised selves, high and low, old and young, and
these forms are, in turn, kept moving by these selves. 1

xii, 15.
126 NO LAWS NEEDED FOB EARLIER STAGES [MANU
And an Upanishat says :

In that vast whirling wheel of Brahma, which

contains and nourishes all, the h a sa m -
the individual-
s,
ised selves, rotate and wander ceaselessly, so long as they
fancy and keep themselves apart from the Mover at the
centre of the wheel. But so soon as they realise that
they are one with It, so soon do they attain to their in-
herent motionless, changeless, steadfast, restful, central
immortality. 1

Thus far the history of the human race as given

in the Pura$as, and such arguments in favor of its
correctness as may be drawn from familiar experi-
ence and analogy.
From these outlines of the racial history, it is
clear that for the first two stages no such laws
were required as are to be found in the current
Institutes (Smrtiv). The objects of the two halves
of life were realised by these races instinctively or
deliberately in a very simple fashion, without the
use of any elaborate regulations. Equality, frater-
nity, and liberty, in their crude physical sense,
were not merely possible as ideals then, but were
actual, and indeed inevitable, among people who
split off into equal halves, one from another, like
amoebae ; budded off from the full-grown, like

Shvetashvatara, i, 6.

Compare the description in Tantra works, of the s a h a sr -

'

a r a chakra, the (astral) wheel of a thousand spokes/ at

the brahma-randhra, the crown of the head. (See
also C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras.)
MANU] LAWS NEEDED NEAR END OF THIRD 127

hydra ; or who, dying out of one body, immediately

put forth and flung their vitality into another, like
bulbous plants, as indicated in the Rakta-bija
stories of the Puraijas.

But, towards the middle and end of the third

stage, when the method of propagation became
different, and therefore distinctions arose of older
and younger and equal ; when physical fraternity
was superseded by an unignorable paternity and
maternity and filiety physical equality, by the ;

obtrusive difference between the tiny infant and

the full-grown man ; and physical liberty by a
patent helplessness on the one hand, and, on the
other, an inner soul-compulsion to supply not only
one's own but the helpless dependents' needs when ;

loves and hates supervened, and egoistic mis-

appropriations by one of what was intended for
many, defeated the primal, simple, and instinctive
socialism and commonwealth a commonwealth
like that of the non-ferocious birds and animals
1
to-day, then equality, fraternity, and liberty

"
1
Hobbes
(thought) Man being essentially selfish, the
:

state nature was one of war.

of Locke conceived . . . . .

(it) ... to be one of equality and freedom Rousseau. . . .

. .conceived (it) as a condition of ideal happiness, only

.

abandoned because growing population and advancing civili-

sation brought evils." Gettell, Introduction to Political
Science, pp. 83-85 (pub. 1922). The Puranas and Itihasas
support Rousseau's view, as will be seen from the quota-
tions, in the text, above, from the Markandeya Pur ana.
The Vayu Purana Part I, ch. viii, and Mbh., Shanti-parva,
t

ch. 65, deal with the subject of the origin of the state and of
 128 EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, LIBERTY [MANU
transferred themselves from the physical to the
superphysical planes and equality became equality
;

of right to maintenance of body and education of

mind, according to need and capacity ; fraternity
became brotherhood of soul and liberty the inner
;

self-ordered liberty of Spirit which is ever indefeasi-

ble everywhere and then laws and conventions
:

and divisions of labor became necessary, and

"
"divine kings were appointed to govern men.

Vasi$htha says toRnma In the shoreless immensity

:

of Brahma, by the Force of Its eternal universal

Nature, our particular Creator, Brahma, arose, of Himself,
as a vast Centre of Vibration, even as a wave arises
amongst countless other waves on the surface of the
ocean. When, in this creation of His, the Golden Age
came to an end the age when infant humanity simply
moved and acted, always, and as bidden by the elders
of the race, and so grew towards maturity then, because
the growing egoism struggled with the old innocent
obedience, humanity suffered confusion, as does the child
passing into youth. Then Brahma, surveying the whole
plan and history of his creation, past, present, and future,
created me, and stored all possible kinds of knowledge in
my mind, and sent me down to earth to replace the
ignorance and error of the childlike race with educa-
tion and truthful science. And as I was sent, so
were other sages also, Nf.ra<Ja and others, all under

' '
the king, specially. The warring
state of nature is called
"
matsya-nyaya, the law of the fish/' devouring " one
another the idyllic and arcadian, kapota-nyaya,
;
the
law of the pigeons," billing, cooing, loving, and flocking, or
"
harina-nyaya, the law of the deer," peacefully feeding,
multiplying, and herding. God gave the king war begat ;

the king people appointed the king

; social life evolved the
;

king ; ali such views are reconciled in the Maha-bharaja in

a single story.
MANU] THE EVER-VIRGIN YOUTH 129

the leadership of Sanat-Kum^ra. These Sages then

1

established kings in various regions of the earth, to guide

the perplexed people, and formulated many laws and
sciences, for mutual help and sacrifice amongst the human
and the cl e v a kingdoms. They framed these laws and
sciences out of their memory, in order to help on the
accomplishment of the three objects of the life of matter :

Duty, Profit, and Pleasure. But with the further lapse of

time, when the wish for food became diurnal, and agri-
cultural labor to earn it necessary, then feuds and
rivalries and disturbances of emotion in men, and
oppositions of heat and cold and wind and weather in

Sanat-Kumara, as Skanda, is referred to in the Ckhdndogya

1

Upanishat (vii, 26) as the Final In tiator who imparts the

faraka-mantra, the secret which enables the j T v a to
'
cross over/ from darkness to Light, from the unreal to the Real,
from death to Immortality, from doubt to Certainty, from fear
' '
to Safety he is thus a representative of Shiva, the final
;
' ' *
Saviour '. As Skanda or Q-uha he is the son of Shiva and ;
' '

passes through the wombs of a number of great beings,

ParvatI, Agni, Gafiga, and six Krttikas. Perhaps this means
that he is a highly advanced j T v a who has lived on many
globes and gathered vast experience of all their cycles.
Samba, the son of Krshna, is said to be an incarnation of his,
or over-shadowed by him. The Secret Doctrine speaks of him
as the Great Initiator, or the Great Being, the leader of the
band of the four Kumaras, forms of Shiva, who sacrificed them-
selves for the sake of Earth's humanity, and came over from
Venus in her last Round, after the end of our Krta-yuga,
and about the middle of T r e t a the time of the third Root-
,

Race, about eighteen million years ago, and whose bodies are
created bykriya-shakti, by many Lords of Wisdom.
' *
There is a grand description of the birth and anointing of
Skanda, his endowment with marvellous powers by the gods,
and of his slaying of the titan (also named) faraka, in
Mbh., Shalya-parva, chs. 45-47. The word taraka also
means the AUM, wherein are locked up the highest " saving "
grace and sacred knowledge and occult power. (See The
Pranava-Vada.) For designations of the Spiritual Hierarchy
in terms of various religions, see the present writer's Krshna,
p. 218.
9
130 AND THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHY [MANU
nature, arose concurrently, and kings became unable to
guide and govern their peoples without wars and strug-
gles with enemies outside their dominions, and without
the infliction of punishments inside. And, therefore,
both rulers and ruled suffered great depression. Then,
in order to enhearten them again, and carry on the
Creator's plan of evolution to its fulfilment, we expound-
ed, to the kings and rulers, the wide-ranging views of
the true knowledge (explaining the scheme of life, and
the necessity of the apparently evil stages, and the laws
wherewith to regulate those stages and achieve life's
ends through them). Because this Science of Life, this
Science of the Self (Aclhyatma-viijyfi) was first
expounded to the kings, therefore it came to be known
as the Royal Science and the Royal Secret. From the kings
"
it filtered out to the p r a j I.
, the progeny," the people.
Knowing it, and knowing it alone, may men, be they
* ' '

princes or be they people,' attain to peace of mind and

do their duties well. 1

HJJ: II

II

: II

\
MANU] BHRGU'S RENDITION 131

Manu has a verse which has a similar signi-

ficance for the theosophical reader. Svayambhuva,
the first Manu, is approached by the Rshis for
instruction. After speaking a few verses to them*
he says :

All this Science of human duties, the Rshi Bhrgu

will explain to you in full. He learnt it from me in
its entirety. 1

II
Jjft ijfel:

TO :

Vasishtha, II, xi, 3-18.

: II Manu, i, 59
132 OF MANU'S LAWS [MANU
And thereafter it is Bhfgu who recites the
Institutes of Manu to the listeners.
Bhygu, according to the Puraijas, is the ancestor
of Venus, Shukra, and we are told, in The Secret

Doctrine, that from the planet Venus, now in its

last or seventh Round, perfected Beings came over
to the earth at about the middle of our third Race,
(as a special 'spiritual influx') to guide this
humanity. Apparently, highly advanced as well
as younger embodied selves have come in from
other planets also, to colonise the earth and to help
in ruling the colonies, as is indicated by the stories
of the Solar and Lunar kings and their births and
marriages, and of the various classes of ancestors

(Pitfs), who are the sons of various Sages (Rshis)

connected with various planets, and make up the
bulk of our population. 1

But the work of principal Guides and Teachers

was taken up by the beings from Venus. And the
laws given by Bhpgu, a portion of which seems to
be embodied in the current recensions of Manu-
Smrt/i, are, then, the laws which appertain to the

5TRIT:

: I!

: jar

U Manu. Hi, 194-201

MANU] MAIN PROBLEMS OF LIFE 133

special circumstances of the human race during

the epoch of hand-power (h a s t a-s i d d h i) and sex-
*
difference. For that epoch the caste-and-order
(Var^-ashrama Dharma)of Manu as declared
1
polity'
by Bhfgu, is the archetype and basis of all systems
of social organisation and law, of all the nations
and civilisations that take birth, live, and die
within that epoch ; and which they all must follow
in its broad outlines, however much they may differ
in the minuter details, however much they may

profess to supersede them, however much they may

reduce, or annul, or even pervert into curses, the
blessings and the benefits of them, by working them
in the wrong and rebellious spirit.
In order to understand how Manu's Code is such
archetype, and how, when modern efforts at solving
a difficulty fail, we may perchance derive a helpful
suggestion by going back to that archetype, it is
desirable that we should take a survey of the main
problems that vex the modern mind. These are,
many, that is to say, the main
after all, not so very

problems. The minor ones are countless. But the

important ones, the key-problems, on which the
others depend, are comparatively few. And they
1
The division of Society into four castes teachers, warriors,
merchants, manual workers and of the individual life into
four orders or stages student, householder, server, ascetic.
Varna is, literally, color,but is used as the equivalent of caste
also because, it would seem, there is some natural corres-
;

pondence between specific colors of astral and physical bodies,

specific temperaments, and functional types.
134 SAME FROM AGE TO AGE [MANIT

have been the same for thousands of years. The

words, the counters of thought, the language, have
altered from age to age. Perhaps the aspects have
also changed slightly. But the main issues have
been the same, age after age and country after
country. At the present day, perhaps some millions
of tons of paper and ink are used up annually, and
an incalculable amount of energy and time spent,
in the putting forth of thousands upon thousands of

journals, magazines, dailies weeklies, books, pamph-

lets all perpetually treading the mill of the same

score or two of questions, and, toall appearance,

making no palpable progress. And

the spirit of the
bulk of such reading and writing is the spirit of
strife, appropriate to the Dark Age, the age of

Kali, struggle, competition; the spirit of dis-

cordant struggle, and mutual irritation, and scorn
and belittlement of others and smart display of self,
and continuous attack and defence the spirit which
;

effectually makes all satisfactory solution of the

difficultiesimpossible, being itself the main cause
of these difficulties. And it is not confined to the
young and the excusable, but has invaded the
legislative halls of nations and the minds and words
of aged statesmen, where at least should ever reign
the spirit of the Golden Age, the spirit of patri-
archal anxiousness for the good of the people, of
mutual recognition of good motive, of sober and
earnest discussion with the one object of finding out
the best way. But the consolation, in what would
MANU] MODERN INTENSITY 135

otherwise appear a tremendous waste of time and

temper and health and energy, is that, perhaps, in
this fashion, the race may be rushed more quickly

through the stage of egoism and aggressiveness ;

that it may
learn the necessary lesson of the evils
thereof, in a widespread if somewhat cursory edu-
cation, by means of current papers, reaching almost
every home not wholly illiterate ; and learn it in a
l
shorter time, and also in a more bloodless though
by no means more painless fashion, than in the
immediate past, of the so-called mediaeval ages, of
East and West alike. Also, the theosophist will
see in these new ways and means of education, the

promise of another result, in accordance with the

scheme of evolution that he believes in, viz., the
Quicker development the subtler, astral and
of

causal, bodies, by the intensified exercise of emotion

and intellect with restraint of physical violence,

1
This was written nearly five years before the Great
European or rather World War of 1914-18. And even so,
' '
the word bloodless was scarcely correct even then. During
the sixty-two years of the writer's life, at the time (1930) of
writing this note, there have been something like twenty big
wars, most of them in Europe, in which more and more men
have been under arms, successively, until the culmination in
this last, in which more than throe times as many combatants
(thirteen millions) were slaughtered outr'ght, as in the war of
the Mahabharata epic (four millions). From harsh thoughts
and emotions to harsher words, and from them to murderous
blows is the usual psycho-physical course, in the national
life as much as in the individual. See the present writer's The
Superphysics of War (Adyar Pamphlets Series).
136 OF THE WAR [MANU
the proper day of which (physical violence) was
1
the day of the fourth Race.
We are told in the old books that the Dark Age
suffers consumption and waste of vitality because

// the restraint of physical violence is secured. But it has

1

not b,een, so far, as shown in the previous note. It is true

that, within the limits of their own populations and territories,
"
states and nations have, for many decades now, been count-
"
ing heads instead of breaking them ; but outside those limits,
mutual behavior has been almost worse than ever. The evil
emotions, would seem, have been gathered up and removed
it

bodily, as were, from the inner parts to the peripheries, like

it

rubbish swept from houses into the streets. But this is a

natural process. Men advance slowly from large concept to
larger and yet larger concept of the sphere of the self, body,
family, tribe, nation, race, mankind, until, in the course of
ages, they perceive that all is Self.

In the meanwhile, with all its shortcomings and its vicious

all-vitiating limitation of co-operation with the white-colored

peoples and acquiescence in the exploitation by them of weaker
other-colored races, the League of Nations is a hopeful sign ;

and Mahatma Gandhi's great, wonderful, unprecedented, work

in India, of leading a Holy War for freedom (progressing
for over six months now at this time, September, 1930,
all over India), from servitude to Britain, a truly holy war
of utter non-violence and patient suffering (by passive resist-
ance and civil disobedience of various evil laws and autocratic
ordinances) against the violence, by fine, distraint, confisca-
tion, jail, bludgeon, and bullet, of the foreign government
this marvellous work, arresting the surprised attention of all
the other countries, and evoking sympathy in almost all, is
giving to the professed objects of such Leagues, the vital
spiritual supplement they so greatly need.

If this in which women and children have also

Holy War,
begun by side with the men, succeeds and all
to suffer side
persons, in all countries, who think about it at all, with the
exception of handfuls of predacean-hearted militarists and
capitalists here and there, are surely praying with all their
heart that this vast experiment, in the very spirit of the Christ,
MANU] OF GOOD AND EVIL 137

burning the candle at both ends, by

of fast living, of
intensity and selfishness as well as of the
of sin
inevitably corresponding self-sacrifice and merit;
and that the experiences which would ordinarily
spread out over 432,000 years, might, by this process,
be concentrated into a fourth of that long time.
This is in accordance with the immense mental and

may succeed then the Human Race will have discovered

"
the practical aspect of the moral equivalent of War ". Its
theoretical complement, the secret of good government, it will
discover when it realises that self-government means govern-
ment, i.e., primarily legislation and secondarily execution, by
the higher Self of the people, their best and wisest, their most
experienced and philanthropic, their select and elect, the true,
k

humble, slaves of duty ', followers in the footsteps of the Ideal

Spiritual Hierarchy. This higher Self, unhappily dormant for
long now in India, is, indeed, being revived and re-awakened, in
the heart of the Indian People, on its ethical and actional side,,
by the saintly self-denial and the divinely-inspired methods of
Mahatma Gandhi, which are creating anew, in that heart, the
daivt-sampat (Gltd, xvi, 1-3) of courage, a-bhaya,
self-sacrifice, philanthropic sensitiveness, fellow-feeling, public
spirit, patriotism, unity of heart, harmlessness, a h i
-
m
s a ,
the will to suffer but not to do wrong, resolute truthfulness,
saty-iigraha, brave declaration of and insistence on
rights and principles. The cognitional side of that higher
Self, the clear vision, the wisdom of theosophy proper, the-
farsight and foresight, the unity of intellect, the clear con-
viction and the light of knowledge side by side with the heat
and fire of self-sacrificing courage, the unfaltering grasp of
the permanent spiritual psycho-physical principles which
underlie all just social organisation and sound economic
policy and which alone can make it possible to firmly
establish and steadily maintain a stable and true S w a - r a j
the raj of the true S w a the rule of the Higher Self, after
,

self-sacrificing courage has won it this will surely come to the

people when they have sufficiently developed the indispensable
fundamental virtues of ahimsa, satya, and a b h a y a .
138 CAPITAL AND LABOR [MANU
emotional activity of the age and the neurasthenia
which is its characteristic disease.
Making out a rough list of these problems even
on the basis of the contents of current journals, we
see these :

1. The struggle between capital and labor,

between rich and poor, looms very large. How to
abolish poverty; to secure an adequate supply of
necessaries for every individual ; to regulate pro-

fessions, occupations, industries, factories, means

of livelihood generally; to make impossible the
perennial dislocations of social routine by strikes,
riots, rebellions and revolutions to keep the people
;

duly alive, in short this is the

first harassing

difficulty, the economical, which is playing havoc

with the nervous systems of scores of statesmen
and administrators, and with the very lives of
millions of the poor.
2. How to assign the rights and duties of the
sexes; make domestic life happier; and how to
regulate population, i.e., maintain a due proportion
between sources of production of necessaries and
the consumers of the produce this, the problem of
sex and population, is intimately connected with
the first or economical problem. Competition
between the sexes, struggle between the right side
and the left side of the same body, war between the
father and the mother, would be a horror unheard
of, were it not that the spirit of egoism, pride,

appropriation, beginning in the field of economics

MANU] DOMESTICITY AND HEALTH 139

and politics, has penetrated into the home, in

accordance with nature's provision that excess
shall defeat itself by laying the axe to its own roots
in the end. 1

3. How to prevent disease, secure at least a

modicum and physical development for
of health
the people, regulate sanitation, abolish epidemics
and contagious and infectious diseases due mostly
to social vice, provide for a wholesome disposal
of refuse-matter, avoid overcrowding, minimise
intoxication this is another important set of the
worries of the man in office, whose futile strivings
with them are the joyful opportunities, for trenchant
but barren leaders and comments, of his sworn

"
1
The proverb says, When thieves fall out, honest men
prosper." And thieves must lall out, sooner or later, over
the division of the loot. W.tness the late great war, for
"
world-donvnion or downtal!," mainly between England and
Germany at bottom, into which the other countries were
dragged in by the force o'' circumstances. It is not possible
to hoat half of a bar of iron red-hot, and keep the other half
cool. Il a man, or a nation, saturates his or its mind with
pride, contempt, oppressiveness towards another, it will be
scarcely possible for him or it to keep any portion of that mind
sweet and affectionate for his or its kith and km
for very long.
The rich towards the poor, the astute towards the simple, the
' '

fanged and clawed towards the defenceless, the ruling races

'
towards the subject '-races by excess ot arrogance and
greed and intoxication of power suffer such a corruption of
their general nature, and of the moral, psychical, spiritual
atmosphere all around them, as compels them to fight amongst
themselves and destroy each other. Karma works from within.

Fears and warnings of a yet greater war are already rife.

Armaments continue to swell in the west, and are heavier and
more burdensome than before. The spirit has not been
140 EDUCATION [MANU
adversaries and inappeasable critics, the occupants
of the editorial and contributorial chairs.
4. What to do in the matter of education,
whom to teach, whom to leave alone ; whether to
make it compulsory for all, or optional ; make it

free, or make it expensive, or leave it to the indi-

vidual's means and opportunities why to teach ; ;

when to teach what to teach how to teach when

; ; ;

and how far to generalise when and how far to

;

specialise ; how far to make education literary,

scientific, cultural, how far technical, mechanical,
industrial, vocational what times in the day and
;

what seasons in the year to use for the purpose ;

to teach many things together, day after day, or
few, or one at a time ; what holidays to observe,
whether short and frequent, or long and at long
intervals ; whether to insist on instruction in re-
ligion and
the things of another life than the
physical, instruction in manners and morals, in

graceful ways and social etiquette, in courtesy and

gentilesse, or whether to make the education wholly
secular and leave every child, unless protected by
some special and fortunate instinct, to grow up in
the notion that he is better than everybody else and
owes no gratitude to his elders and no debts of any

chastened there yet the spirit of the asurl-sampat, the

titanic, demoniac, satanic, devilish spirit of pride, greed, lust,
hate, sensuousness ; (Glta, xvi, 4, 7-21). A Yadava war is
likely to complete the work of the Maha-bharata 'War. The
" "
thousand arms of Karta-vlrya and Ban-asura must be cut
off, before the battle-itch in them will cease.
MANU] SOVEREIGNTY AND GOVERNMENT 141

kind to the social and natural organisation and

environment in which he lives this is another
set of difficulties, acutely exercising the minds of
literate people to-day.
5. Who shall hold sovereign power who ; shall
exercise authority ; who shall make and who shall
work the laws what is the best form of govern-
;

ment; autocratic, democratic, or midway and

parliamentary , monarchical, republican, or bureau-
cratic ; theocratic or plutocratic, plebeian, or
I
patrician, aristocratic or oligarchic ; what shall
be the mutual and proportions of the
relations
various departments of government, legislative and

1n the Aristotelian phrase, the rule of the one, the few, or

1

the many, monarchy, aristocracy, or polity, or, in their per-

verted and corrupt forms, tyranny, oligarchy, or democracy.
This distinction by arithmetical number does not carry much
significance on its face, by itself though, in the actual
;

working, because of the psychological facts involved, it

assumes importance. The deep psychological significance
of different forms of government, as inseparably intertwined
with, or indeed springing out from and rooted in, social
structure and culture, is better brought out by the Samskrt
words, brahmana-rajya, or ecclesiasticism, sacredotal-
isin, theocracy, k s h a 1 1 r y a-r a j y a
i feudalism, militarism,
,

aristocracy, bureaucracy, vaishya-rajya, capitalism,

mammonism, timocracy, plutocracy, shudra-rajya, labor-
ism, democracy, mobocracy. All these are deformations, by
exaggeration of one feature at a time, of the only right form,
M a n a v a-r a j y a, homocracy or aristo-demo-cracy, legislation
by selfless talent. Seeley, (in Political Science, p. 140)
approximates to this idea when he speaks of the War-State,
the Law-State, the Trade-State, the Police-State, the Culture-
State.War and police, in excess, would fall under kshat-
triya-rajya, Law under brahmana-rajya, Trade
under v a i s hya ; culture, perhaps, under manava .
142 STATE-REGULATION [MANU
executive, civil and ecclesiastical, judicial and

police and military, and their numerous sub-divi-

sions what shall be the various forms of taxation,
;

of raising the income of the State and lessening its'

expenditure what shall be the diplomatic methods

;

of maintaining the balance of power between

nations, (in such a way that that balance shall

always be strongly inclined in favor of one's own
particular nation !) how shall be avoided the crush-
;

ing burdens, of militarism and navalism and now

air-forcism, which are nature's readjustment of that
inclination of the balance; whether 'self-govern-
'
ment shall mean government by the higher self of
the people, their best and wisest, disinterested and
selfless and philanthropic, their real 'select and
elect,' or by the lower self of the people, unprin-
cipled hunters of place, power, preference, pay,
perquisites and pleasure, corrupt and corrupting
self-seekers these topics form another class of
questions which are the prolific source of endless
heart-searching and heart-burning, blood-boiling
and brain-wasting.
6. What affairs shall be dealt with officially
by government, what left to the private
the
management of the people who shall own the land;

and the mines, quarries, forests, and other such

natural resources, and to what extent in whose ;

hands and how far shall wealth be allowed to

accumulate whether any private property and
;

possessions shall be permitted or none whether ;

MANU] versus LAISSEZ FAIRE 14$

the State shall regulate, on the basis of the best

available medical and scientific knowledge, the
nature, quality, and quantity of the food of the
nation, and how and by whom it shall be produced,
or whether it shall be left to the blind gropings,
instincts, mutual imitations, casual readings and
chance information, and the momentary likes
and dislikes, of the people; whether wise men,
experts in psychology and pathology, in economics,
politics, and history, in the various sciences that
minister to the welfare of human beings, sages
who can judge temperaments, and mental, moral,
and physical qualities, and what numbers the
territories and available resources of the state
can support easily without conflict with other
states whether such shall have a voice in the
making of marriages, the regulation of popu-
lation by control of births, the assignment of
vocations and the fitting of men and women into their
appropriate places in the scheme of the manifold
social labor ; or whether these shall be left to the
blind chance and blinder competition of the inclina-
tions of the moment of each individual ; briefly
whether the national organisation can and should
be conducted along the lines of a wise and benevo-
lent Socialism, in which the government consists
of advice by patriarchal-and-matriarchal-bearted
and experienced elders, arid intelligent acceptance
and co-operation by instructed youngers, or whether
the general level of character is as yet so low, and
144 INNER IMPULSION [MANU
selfishness and aggressiveness so high, that it must
for long continue to be let run in the rugged race-
courses of arrant and rampant and unrestrained
Individualism these are other problems, which
though but other forms of those included in the
before-mentioned five groups, are yet acquiring a
distinctshape of their own, and beginning to make
themselves felt, at first, in academical writing?, and
then in a more active and experimental fashion in
1

departments of government.

1
In terms of Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology,
these problems may be classified under (i) Domestic, (ii) Cere-
monial, (ui) Political, (iv) Ecclesiastical, (v) Professional, and
(vi) Industrial Institutions; or, under the (i) sustaining, (ii)
regulating, and (ili) distributing systems. Spencer tra-jes the
evolutionary history of the institutions and the systems. Our
theme is What are the forms of these which are the best and
:

most su'table for humanity at its present stage, according to

Manu. The advent of Bolshevism in Russia, in 1917, has
expressly initiated a tremendous experiment, on a vast scale,
in an extreme form of Socialism or Communism. But changes
of a radical character have been taking place in its policy
annually since then ; and it is far too early yet to form a
definite opinion on the subject. But it would seem that
Bolshevism errs profoundly in respect of some fundamental
laws and facts of human psychology, and will therefore fail.
Manu's Scheme is, it seems to some of us at least, the very
best and most practical form of communism possible, keeping
in view the psycho-physiology of mankind. The capitalist
countries also are slowly, and with much resistance, but
surely, moving in the direction of a less extreme and more
reasonable socialism, without giving themselves that name,
under cover of super-taxes and death-duties, which are
devices but not good devices for redistributing wealth and
reducing inequalities. Vide, e.g., G. B. Shaw's Guide to
Socialism and Capitalism (pub. 1928). What are Manu's
devices? Moral and spiritual culture of the whole people,
MANU] versus OUTER COMPULSION 145

Along the lines of these newest shapes of the

problems, and the experiments connected with
them, gradually leading on to a more equitable
division of necessaries and luxuries, leisure and
work, pleasure and possessions and power and
honor, somewhat like the Manu's, may be found
ultimately the satisfactory solution of the whole
mass of difficulties ; experiments, for instance, in
the way of new forms of taxation, tending in the
direction of a more even distribution of wealth or ;

of abolition of an old system of caste or class, and

introduction of new tests and standards of qualifica-
tion for the different vocations. Of course, the
obvious defect and danger of such experiments is
that they introduce a sudden change in one part of
the social organisation, but make no provision for
a concurrent change in the rest of the parts. If

great wealth has accumulated in the hands of a

few, however unrighteously they may have gather-
ed it, and a large number of dependents have
gathered round these few, even though they may
be engaged in non-productive labor ; if that wealth
should be taken away suddenly from those few and
no provision be made for those dependents who
also are part of the people and ought to be provided
for, though employed unwisely for the time being
then the sudden change will surely lead to

firstand foremost, whence perpetual inner impulsion to the

good, the harmonious, and the just, rather than external
compulsion by so-called law, and perpetual conflict and failure.
1Q
146 MORAL CULTURE [MANU
confusion and the throwing out of gear of the whole
system. We cannot knock off walls and pillars
and arches, here and there, at will, from under the
roofs of an existing and many-storeyed building,
without disaster. If we are tired of living in it, or
find it defective, uncomfortable, and necessary to

change, then we have either to build a new one

from the foundations ; or, if we have not the time
and cannot afford to do so, then at the least we
must carefully and thoroughly shore up and support
all superincumbent weights before we make any

alterations in the existing supports. Even so, a

radical change from Individualism to Socialism and
Humanism cannot be brought about at one stroke
and in a single day, but can only be gradually
secured by first the thorough education of the
:

whole population, rulers and ruled, in the funda-

mental fact of the non-separateness, the Unity
of all Life, and, based on that, in the psycho-

physical principles of social organisation, according

to the receptivity of each individual by the conse-
;

quent change, for the better, in the general tone and

spirit of each towards all, a change from the wish to
outrace others to the wish to carry others along l
;

' '
1
Compare the following from a recent book : The centre
of consciojsness (should be) transferred from our private to
our associate life. . . The consciousness of the soli-
.

darity of the group leads directly to a sense of responsibility,

responsibility in a group and for a group. Every
. . .

"
single act of our lite should be looked at as a social act ;

Follett, The New State, pp. 367-8. The book has been rightly
MANU] versus PENAL CODES 147

and then by the resultant improvement of the

general average of character by the education of
the soul of the nation in short. Then only will
become healthily possible a redistribution of work
and leisure, a new division of labor and the proceeds
thereof, in such a way that each shall make the
best and most of his powers and take the least of
personal requirements, and all shall be comfortable
personally, through a sufficiency of private pos-
sessions, and all own the wealth of an abundance of
public places and objects of leisure and refined
and ennobling pleasure jointly. This, in its
perfection, may be said to be the task of the sixth
Race of the theosophist. Then perhaps will come
to the human race that gentle epoch which is

praised by critics of repute in the west ; it has caught

glimpses, though vague and distant, of the spirituality, the
abheda-buddhi, the sense of the solidarity of life, which
pervades Manu's scheme and is reflected by the Gita and
theosophy proper. The word c h c h h a is mentioned once
i

in the book it shows that

; the author is in touch with
ancient Indian thought. Compare" also what H. P. Blavatsky
says in The Key to Theosophy In sociology, as in all true
:

science, the law of universal causation holds good. . . .

It necessarily implies human solidarity. It is only . . .

by all practising in their daily lives true brotherhood and

sisterhood, that the real human solidarity which lies at the
root of the elevation of the race can be attained. . .

This action and interaction, in which each shall live for all
and all for each, is one of the fundamental theosophical
principles that every theosophist should carry out in his in-
dividual life." Manu's four caste-classes are called a g r a -
" " "
j a n m a and anu-janma, earlier-born and later-
born" brothers. His social organisation interlinks all with
each in daily life perpetually.
 148 HAPHAZARD OPPORTUNIST PATCH WORK [MANU
referred to in the
Puraijas as belonging to the
'

nation of the Uttara-Kurus,' where there are no

kings and no laws, but all are equally virtuous.
This would be the state of the seventh Race, the last
on our globe. But, in the meanwhile, administrators
of human affairs and those whose affairs they ad-
minister seem likely to continue to work for long,
"
yet, on the principle that Enough for the day is
the evil thereof," and not trouble themselves about
ideals and deep-lying causes. What one observes of
the ways of legislation around him at this time is
that some one public worker gets firm hold of some
one particular grievance, and, oblivious of all
others, hammers away at his own hobby, secures
the public ear by dint of perseverance, and worries
the legislators, day after day, till they, some
hundreds in number, tired out with talking amongst
themselves in endless repetition of a few ideas, in
many variations of mutual sarcasm and condemna-
tion and imputation of motives, not having the
time and the opportunity, in the general hurry and
hustle and speed-lust, to consider the bearings of
the question in hand on other questions, not having
even the inclination to examine it in the light of
that general survey of life which is the business of
the Science of the Self pass a measure which
perhaps remedies the particular grievance, but
1
creates ten new ones.
1
As pointed out elsewhere, most of the isms that are being
tried or discussed, in almost all the countries of all the
MANU] versus SYSTEMATIC PLAN 149

Does the Manu of our Race, or his representative,

Bhj-gu, deal with these problems, and are his

methods any better ? His Code of Life as before
said is known as the
Vanj-Eshrama Pharma.
There are four stages (ashramas) and four classes
(var^as), appropriate for the fifth Race. The
names of these two sets of four and their corres-
ponding debts, duties, rights, repayments, ambitions,
appetites, rewards, means of living, all arranged un-
der the two paths and their six ends these three
or four dozen words almost exhaust the whole of
this Code of Life, and, it would seem, cover all the

continents to-day, ranging from extreme individualism to ex-

treme communism, are radically vitiated by the fact that they
ignore some all-important laws and facts of psychology. This
is beginning to be recognised in the west. Thus Gettell,
"
Introduction to Political Science, pp. 3 84-' 7, points out the
"
psychological obstacles in the way of both individualists and
socialists. G. B. Shaw, in his Guide to Socialism and
Capitalism, while quoting with much "approval the observa-
tions of Mr. and Mrs. Webb about the inevitability of
"
gradualness," laments the general lack of the will to
equality," without which the right kind of legislation, which
would bring the desired gradual change, is not possible. He
has no suggestion to make as to how to create and spread this
" "
will-to-equality, and his chapter on Incentive to whole-
hearted labor, (i.e., spurs to full activity, inducements to the
putting forth by each brain or muscle worker of the best that
there is in him) is very feeble. Manu's Scheme provides for both
by widespread popular public education in a b h e d a -
b u d d h i, the sense of unity, of comm-unity, of non-separateness
(of which Miss Follett, in her The New State, pub. 1926, has
"
caught a glimpse), and by "
the partition of the four prizes of
"
life," and the four main means of living between the four
types of workers. Fuller explanation will be attempted
later on.
150 ETHICAL PSYCHOLOGY [MANTJ

problems we have mentioned, with their sub-

divisions,and some more besides. 1
How they do so remains to be studied. First, we
have to look at the problems from a different
standpoint and group them in a slightly modified
form. The different standpoint consists, as usual,
in looking at them from within rather than from
without from the point of consciousness and its
;

unfolding in the material vehicle, rather than that

of the body and its external surroundings, lands,

territories, possessions. And whatever change in

classification may be needed will be due to this
difference of point of view.
By nature of his psycho-physical constitution,
1.

every human being begins life as an individual,

yet part of a family-tri-unity, with an increasingly
separative sense of egoism. This, generally speak-
ing, grows during, and attains culmination at
its

the end of, the first normal

quarter of the life-term.
All this time others have to work for and take care
of him :

He whose parents are living, even though he be sixty

years of age, feeleth as light and free of care as the two-
2
year old baby crowing and rolling in the mother's lap.
2. Then, because of that same constitution, the
individual, in turn, becomes a family-tri-unity :

1
See pp. 8 5-' 6, supra.
2

.> Shantiparva.
MANU] OF THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE 151

The man is not the man alone, but the man, the
woman, and the child the three together make the
;

complete man
the whole family is the full extent and
;

measure of the man. The sages have declared that the

*
wife is the same as the husband.

He now he
begins, in turn, to think for others ;

finds, with growing intensity of realisation, that he

is not only an individual among individuals, but

that he is also a family. Yet further, he realises,

consciously or sub-consciously, that he and his
family do not stand alone, but in organic inter-
dependence with other individuals and families ,

that is to not only an individual

say, that he is

and a family, but also a community, a society, a

" "
nation ; that he is not only an I but also a
*'We". This period, also roughly speaking, lasts
another quarter.
3. By a further growth along these lines, he
finds that his nation or country is interdependent
with many other countries and nations ; briefly he
finds out that he is the Human Race. He realises
that the network of consciousness of the racial soul
really includes all individuals ; that as a fact, every
human being is known to every other, directly in a
few cases, and indirectly in all cases, by means of
intermediate individuals and that the relationship
;

isnot only thus psychical, but, if the ancestry could

only be traced back far enough, physical also ; truly

HT S3J3TOT II Manu, ix, 45.

152 EVER-EXPANDING SELF [MANU
are we all flesh of the same flesh and spirit of the
same spirit. At this point, his egoism, the range
of his self, so far attached strongly and confined to
his own and his family's bodies, begins, consciously
or sub-consciously, to get rather detached from
these and widened out of them, by the larger out-
looks and strivings that come upon him :

"This one is my countryman; this other is a

"
stranger so thinks the man of narrow mind and heart,
The noble soul regards the whole wide world as kin. 1
Another fourth of the life may be assigned for this
stage. R s h i - s love and help mankind in the mass.
4. Finally, he realises consciously or uncon-
sciously that he is more even than the Race, that
he is not to be restricted and bound down to any-
thing limited, but is verily the Universal Self, and
so must pass out of all limitations, thus coming
back on a far higher level, along the spiral of life,
to the first stage and then the point from which
he started; the "I" become? equal to the "We,"
and the "We" to the whole universe. "I am A
" " "
or B or C the I is identified with only a few
;

"
score pounds of flesh and blood and bone. I am
"
a Benaresi it becomes identified with two hundred
"
thousand human beings. I am an Indian, an

Asiatic, a terrene Human " ; it expands to three

hundred millions, to nine hundred millions, to
MANU] EDUCATIONAL 153
"
eighteen hundred millions of human beings. I am
"
I, every I, all I's, and there is Naught-Else-than-I *;

"the Universe grows I." Contracted into a self-

centre-d point in the first stage, the ego expands into
the universal circumference again in the last stage.
He who
beholdeth the Self in all, and all in the Self,
he, thus seeing equality, sameness, analogy, every-
where, always doeth every action for the sake of the
Great Self, the Universal Self, not for the sake of the
separative selfish self, and he attaineth true Self-govern-
ment, the reign and rule of the Higher Self, he becometh
all and entereth into Brahma."
These are, psychologically and universally, the
'
four Manu.
orders,' or life-stages, of
1. The problems connected with thebest and
most perfect accomplishment of the first quarter of
life, in its relation to and as preparation for the

other three are the problems of Shiksha, of

Education, Re-creation, Re-generation,body, of

mind, and soul, in all aspects, Pedagogics in the most

comprehensive sense. They belong to the Student-
Order (Brahma-charl ashrama), and are to be dealt
with by the teaching class (Brahmana), the man
of Knowledge and philanthropy, the man of the
learned professions principally.

For the significance of Naught-Else-than-I, see The Science

1

of Peace and the Pranava-vfida.

II Manu, xii, 91, 125.

154 ECONOMICAL, POLITICAL [MANU
2. Those connected with the fulfilling of the
needs of the second quarter, are the problems of
J 1 v i k a Livelihood, of domesticity and population,
,

of feeding, clothing, housing, of production of all

kinds of wealth, necessaries and luxuries, and all
matters subservient to these in short all questions
;

of Domestics and Economics. They belong to the

Householder-Order (Grhastha ashrama) and are to
be dealt with by the merchant class (Vaishya), the
man of (acquisitive) Desire and philanthropy, of
the pastoral, agricultural, mercantile, industrial
professions, principally.
3. Those connected with the third quarter may,

from one standpoint, be said to be the problems of

R a k s h a Protection, including both Promotion of
,

good, yoga, and Prevention of ill, k s h e m a in ,

short, all the problems of Politics and Civics, of

administration and forms and methods of govern-
ment, of the constituent as well as the ministrant
functions of the State. They belong to the Public-
Service-Order (Vanaprastha ashrama) and are to
be dealt with by the warrior class (Kshattriya),
the man of Action and philanthropy, of the execu-
tive professions, principally.
4. Those connected with the last quarter of
life are the problems of Metaphysics and
Superphysics, of s hant i Religion, in the sense of
spiritual and psychical developments and ex-
periences, and ultimately of the life of spiritual-
ity proper, i.e., pure renunciation even of the
MANU] SPIRITUAL 155

super-physical (which are yet material) powers and

possessions, and employment of them purely for the
good of mankind and of all the other kingdoms of
nature. Current ecclesiastical gradations, duties,
1

and affairs generally, in all the living religions, are

faint and mostly distorted reflexions of what these
are in their reality, as dealt with by the Hierarchy 2
of Manu-s and Rshi-s which guides human evolu-
tion. They belong to the Ascetic-Order (Sannyasa
ashrama) and are to be dealt with by all those of
the three twice-born castes or classes who develop
spirituality sufficiently to be able to take the third
birth of Initiation into the High Mysteries (Yajna-
diksha).
8
Such men of Renunciation and Peace may
be regarded as belonging to the class of Spiritual
"
Laborers (Spiritual Shtldra), or as having trans-
"
cended (V a r ri-a 1 1 1 a). The English
all class-caste

word 'minister' etymologically means 'servant,'

1
See Glta, xv, 5 ; xii, 4 ; iv, 31 ; hi, 13.

L>
For the names of the principal offices in the Hierarchy, in
the technical terms of the various religions, Vaidika (Hindu),
Bauddha, Christian, Musalman, etc., see Krshna, p. 218.

U Manu, ii, 169.

"
The birth
first the physical one, into the physical world,
is

from the physical father and mother ; the second is the

intellectual (-spiritual), from the teacher and the divine store
of science (Savitrt) ; the third is the spiritual (-psychical),
from the Initiator and the vow of renunciation (y a j n a -
dTksha, "sacrificial consecration, self-preparat-on, dedica-
tion, initiation) ".
156 FOURFOLD ORGANISATION [MANU
and public instinct has rightly named the clergy-
man as well as the responsible head of a state-
department by that same word.
The manual-laborer class (Shndra) the man of un-
skilled Labor, the child-soul, subserves the physical
side of all these, as the Brahmaria does the spiritual-
intellectual, the Kshattriya the ethical-legal, and
the Vaishya the physical-nutritional-economical.
Thus, for Manu, all human affairs become
grouped under the four Orders and the four Classes :

and he solves all educational problems by means of

the Educational Organisation comprising Brah-
ma$a-s and Brahmachari-s, all political problems
by the Political Organisation consisting of Kshat-
triya-s and Vana-prastha-s, all economic problems
by the Economic Organisation constituted by the
Vaishya-s and the Grha-stha-s, all spiritual pro-
blems by means of the Spiritual Organisation of
the Casteless and the San-nyasis (who have re-
nounced their own individual will and replaced it
by the will of God), and all labor problems by the
Labor Organisation of the Shudra-s and will-less
(who obey others, having no will of their own). ]

"
1
Working for some one else and being assured of a daily
wage, seems better
"
suited to these people 01 unfortunate
qualities. ."
'
(Foremen's opinions about some of their
. .

men) This man works all right so long as I tell him what to
:
*
do '. The man can work all right as long as he is told
.

what to do, but he can't reason out things for himself '. ." .

Lennes, Whither Democracy, pp. 7, 67. One Samskrt name for

the Shudra-servant is k n-k a r a, which etymologically
i
"
means What shall I do ? (i.e., please tell me what to do>
give me clear orders) ".
MANU] TO SOLVE FOURFOLD PROBLEMS 157
"
The four ,shramasare those of the student, the
* '

householder, the forest-dweller (i.e., retired from the

market-places and other centres of competition, living in
the suburbs, performing various kinds of yajna-
sacrifices, deeds of charity, piety, unremunerated public
service of many kinds), and the ascetic who has
renounced the world. And all these four arise from
the householder (that is to say, from the peculiar sex-
;

constitution of present-day man). And

The four classes are the three sub-divisions of the
twice-born and the one once-born, viz., Teacher,
Warrior, Merchant, and Laborer (BrLhmana, Kshat-
triya, Vaishya and Shudra) and there is indeed no fifth
;
l
anywhere."
That is to say, all men, all over the earth,
naturally fall into one or other of these four,

according to their inner and outer characteristics.

And the^e four classes also may be said to arise out
of the householder (as all the organs and functions
of the body evolve out of the germ-plasm), for
they are differentiated by difference of function,
occupation, or vocation; and all vocations are
subservient to the upkeep of the household, the
welfare of the family, the happiness of man,
woman, and child.
Because he nourishes and supports the other
ashramas (of all the classes) with food for body and
also for mind, therefore the householder is the eldest.
As all the rivers, small and great, come from the ocean

II Manu, vi, 87.

lcW: I

t
raff: II Ibid., x, 4.
158 THE HOUSEHOLDER'S GREATNESS [MANU

through the clouds and go back to it for rest, even so

allthe other orders find birth and nourishment and rest
in the order of the householder. As all living beings
live dependent on the air, so all the orders live dependent
on the householder. The Ve<Ja declareth the householder
to be the best and the seniormost of all he nourisheth ;

the others as well as himself. Not the un-self-dis-

ciplined, not the weak of heart and limb and sense and
mind, may adequately sustain and discharge the burdens
and the duties of the household. Whoever desireth
happiness on earth and in heaven, let him sustain and
discharge them. The r s h i s the <J e v a s the p i t r s
, , ,

the b h u t a s the a t i t h i s i.e., psychically supernormal

, ,

men, angels, ancestral spirits, denizens of other king-

doms of nature, and human guests all these expect
help from the householder, and that help should be given
to them by the wise head of every family. Whatever
merit of virtuous deed anyone gathers that person,
nourished by whose food-gifts he gathers that merit-
three parts of that merit belong to him, the giver of the
food,and only one to the doer of the deeds of virtue. l

Ibid., iii, 78.

ft I

TOP? SR^*r
: ^W^fJr^^TT I

cIT ftc^f ^S^r^ft pSf^: II

(I

Ibid., iii, 77-80 ; vi, 89-90.

MANU] THE STATE THE MERE MEANS 159

Thus high and unqualified is Manu's eulogy of

the order of the householder, so austerely noble is his
conception of the royal augustness of the patriarchal
householder's office with its burden of benevolent
duties and responsibilities of all kinds in over-
powering contrast with the modern western ideas of
avoidance of marriage, seeking of divorce, shirking
of family responsibilities, frantic hunting after
heartlessly selfish and sensuous pleasures through
all sorts of vice and sin, and the general reign in
1

one word, of the asurl-s

"
amp a t, of the lurid
"
atmosphere of demoniac
lust, hate, greed, pride,

jealousy, terror, hypocrisy, of the roaring capitals

of the west, and now of their unhappy imitators in
the east also.
1

Is he not himself the Primal

Patriarch of all this vast Human Family this
immense Household of some two thousand million
human that have been dwelling on this
bodies,
earth, age after age, perpetually renewed by births
and deaths, for some millions of years, and in which
bodies some sixty thousand million souls (it is said
in theosophical literature) have been incarnating
turn by turn ? And is it not obvious that all the
vast and immensely complicated apparatus of
civilisation, schools and colleges and universities,

xvi, 4-21.
160 THE FAMILY-HOME THE END [MANU

public services in scores of administrative depart-

ments, kings and presidents and governments,
armies, navies, air-forces, world-wide agricultural
industries, enormous
factories, and huge organi-
commerce and for transport all these
sations for
are mere means that they exist only that the
;

family-homes may be happy, that children may

laugh and play, and the women be glad, in every
home that the happiness of the homes is the end
;

of all these means ? The family-home is indeed the

heart of the state and in that home, the woman is
;

the heart, the man the head, and the children

the limbs.
Of course the divisions of functions between the
Orders, as between the Classes, cannot be made very
hard and fast. There are no hard and fast divisions
anywhere in nature. Everything overlaps and
merges into surroundings, by means of fringes
its

of varying depth, and in impalpable gradations.

1
The predominant feature sets the name. The
second and third Orders, especially, have a
tendency to run into one, so much so that the
forest-dweller, (Vanaprastha) is not to be seen in
India, now, as a specific type, distinguishable, on
the one hand, retired from the com-
by having
petitions of
bread-winning and money-making, and
'
taken up residence in the suburban woods,' from

Brahma-tfutra.
MANU] CORRESPONDENCE 161

the householder living with his children and ;

marked off, on the other hand, by continuing to

busy himself with public affairs, philanthropically,
without taking any remuneration, from the
anchorite (SannyasI, who has definitely given up
the world and all its outer activities). But the
underlying idea of the stage, viz., sacrifice, or
service in the widest sense, may well be recognised
in the genuine honorary public workers of to-day ;
and the more a nation has of such, the more for-
tunate it may be counted. The form of sacrifice was
different in the older day, but the essence is the same*
The four castes or classes, in a sense, go over,
in separate lives, the same ground as the orders-

stages (ashramas) do in the same life respectively.

The castes subserve the orders that is to say, they
;

make it possible for all human beings to pass

through the appropriate experiences of all those
stages of life, and achieve all life's ends, conse-

cutively, evenly, and most fully, without distur-

bance and confusion. And they also repeat,
respectively, the characteristic features of those
stages of life and of those parts of tke human
physical human body to which they correspond, 1

1
The great Vedic hymn, known as the Purusha-Sukta, i.e.*
the hymn to the Macrooosmic Man, sings,

: \

U
11
162 OF CASTES AND ORDERS [MANU
and side by side with which they have developed
in the history of the race. As we have seen, in the
earliest stages, when the psycho-physical consti-
tution was different, the class-castes did not exist.
There was not such a definition of parts, head and
trunk and limbs, in the human body, then, as has
grown up With the growth of heterogeneity
since.
in the body and the mind of the individual by
differentiations of organs and functions, there grew
up, side by heterogeneity in the functions of
side,

groups of individuals, a division of labor, an or-

ganisation in Society. In the course of time, the
Brahmaria class, corresponding to the head, came
to be entrusted, principally, with all educational,
literary, scientific, legislative, religious, and other
such matters requiring intelligence of high and
refined quality the Kshattriya,
pre-eminently ;

corresponding to the arms, with those of war, poli-

tics, governmental and executive work the Vaishya, ;

corresponding to the trunk and its organs, with all

affairs concerned with wealth, food -production,
trade, industry ; and the Shadra, corresponding

A hymn in the Mbh., Shanti-p., ch. 46, is to the same effect ;

T: \\

"
The Supreme, manifesting as the Human Race, has
millions of heads, eyes, feet. The man of knowledge is the head
of the Great Man, of action His arms, of desire His trunk and
thighs, of labor His legs and feet." A
sannyasl told this writer
that padbhyam, in the Vedic verse, is dative, and not, as
usually thought, ablative.
MANU] AND THE HUMAN BODY 163

to the became veritably the supporting

feet,

pedestal of Without the Shddra's help and

all.

service, the daily routine of their life-duties would

be impossible for all the others. He is the reversed
reflexion of the Brahmaria-Sannyasl. The latter
has merged his egoism, his smaller self, in the
Universal Self, and has thus become a well-wisher,
a servant of all, on the higher planes. The Shudra
is the servant of all on the physical plane, because

he has not yet developed conscious egoism (illu-

sorily) out of and away from (though always really
as inseparable part of) the Universal Self. 1

1
"
Valmiki, Rfimayana, VII, ch. 74, says, In the Krta-yuga
all men were brahmanas; in the Treta, kshattriyas,
differentiated out of them at first, and then the other two by
the end of that epoch." Mbh., Vana-p., chs. 151, 180, and 313,
and Shanti-p., ch. 186, say the same th ng :

Also the Bhagavata :

^ II IX, xiv, 48-9.

The Vayu-Purana, Pt. I, ch. viii, has already been referred

to. Shukra-Nift, ch, i, has verses to the same "
effect. The
utter inter -dependence of the four castes, nay, the dependence
of the three twice-born as branches on the fourth once-born as
the root/' is stressed in Mbh., Anushasana-p., ch. 208 :

w^i: ^^fT: II
164 AND THE AIMS OF LIFE [MANU
In terms of the ends of life, it is obvious that
while each order-stage is a preparation for the next,
the first two are chiefly devoted to duty, profit, and
pleasure ; and the last two aim at universal love,
and service with
kinds of powers, and
of all all

mergence of the sense of separateness to the deepest

and widest possible degree in the Great Unity of
all Life and Consciousness.
From another standpoint, it may be said that
dha r ma
virtuous good deed, belongs to all the
,

twice-born castes in the form of sacrificial pious

1
works, charity, and study, but i* especially in the
keeping of the student (Brahmachari) and the
Brahmana that k a m a pleasure, and a r t h a the
; , ,

due gathering and use, for enjoyment and charitable

and public purposes, of wealth, belong chiefly to the
householder and the sacrificer (Grhastha and
Vanaprastha), and the Vaishya and the Kshattriya ;
and that m o k s h a liberation, belongs to all the
,

twice-born, but is especially in the keeping of the

The Jainas have verses to similar effect :

The Buddha is also reported to have said :

*T STTc^T %Wft *|3[fa SOTJTT *ftfct ^WT: U

That is, he recognised four vocational classes, not heredi-
tary castes.
MANU] OTHER STANDPOINTS 165

true thrice-born and the ascetic (Sannyasi). To

those not born a second time belongs chiefly the
d bar ma-duty of helping all the others, and the
pleasure and wealth of the household order mainly.
From yet another standpoint, pleasure belongs to
the first, wealth to the second, duty to the third,

and liberation to the fourth quarter of life ; and,

again, to the S h d r a the V a i s h y a
, the ,

Kshattriya and the Brahmana, respectively.

Such is the Varn-ashrama Dharma of
Manu. It is so named because it gathers the whole
Code of Life under these two heads, and thereby en-
deavors to hold together all his progeny, and not
only the human kingdom, but the other kingdoms
also, so far as may be, in the bonds of soul-brother-

hood, of mutual love and helpfulness, in the true

spirit of the practical socialism of the joint human
family ; by the positive mean* of ready and willing
self-sacrifice for each other, of constant chari-

tableness, and of unceasing endeavor to increase

the stores of knowledge and by the negative means
;

of avoidance of cruelty, untruth, greed for posses-

sions, and all impurities and sensuousness.
Sacrificial works of public utility, dedicated to the
public good, study of the useful sciences, and discriminate
charity these purify, elevate, and consecrate the mind.
Harmlessness, truthfulness, honesty, purity, sense-
control this, in brief, is declared by Manu to be the
Dharma- duty of all four castes/
1
These are exactly the same as the paiicha-shlla,
the five virtues, of the Buddhist, and the five yam as of
166 ESSENTIAL UNIVERSAL DHARMA [MANU
Patient fortitude, forgiveness, equanimity, probity,
purity, self -restraint, reasonableness, learning, truth,
freedom from anger these ten are the marks of
<J ha r ma
-virtue. By all the four Orders of all the
twice-born should this tenfold cjharma be served and
followed diligently. 1

Before proceeding to deal with Manu's solutions

of these problems, a few words may be said regard-
ing the significance of some of the more important
terms used in the work. The spirit in which the
whole is best studied was discussed in the last

chapter.
The word Dharma is used in two senses, a
2
narrower and a wider. In the former, it is one-
third of the object of the Path of Pursuit. In the

Yoga-f*titra, i, f 30 ; also the teachings of Jesus (Matthew, 19) :

"
. . . Thou shalt do no murder
nor commit adultery ; ;

nor steal nor bear ialse witness; (nor amass wealth unto
;

thyself, but) thou shalt give to the poor."

Manu, x, 63 ; vi, 92, 91.

2
The foot-note at pp. 47-50, supra, attempts to explain the
significance of the word in various aspects. What in western
terms, are called the laws of man (legal laws) and the laws of
God (moral and religious laws), are both derived from and
MANU] DHARMA AS PU^TYA 167

other, the whole duty of the embodied self, and

it is

comprehends the whole of his everlasting life, in

the physical as well as the superphysical worlds.
But the difference is one of degree only, for the
larger includes the smaller.
The basis of this Dharma, i.e., the source of
our knowledge of what it is, and of our conviction
of its authenticity and authority is, as said before,

based on the laws of Nature, i.e., God's Nature ; and d h a r ma

includes all these. 33: ^J^^fo^^fafe % (Vaishe- 3*?: I

"
shika Sutra). That which leads to happiness here and here-
after"; this is d harm a as the whole Code of Life, of law
human and divine (i.e., religious, superphysical). ^t^r^F n5*b :
]l

"
EpJ: (Mimamsci- Sutra),
( A law is a command " this is legal ;

law. 3ft f| ^feH, flfcT Wfcf, arafa ^1

*Rfo, 33. 3^T qrf^R
"
3?7q?ftacl I
(Shankara, Sharlraka Bhashya), That on the
presence of which the existence of a thing as that thing
depends, in the absence of which it does not exist, that is the
latter's d h a r m
a, the law of its nature, its differentiating de-
"
marcating defining characteristic this is nature and natural
;

Jaw, the law of nature. The word dharma

is used in

another, but closely allied, sense, also. Thus in - dharma

sanchaya, "the gathering of merit," dharma means
p u n y a. Strictly, p u n y a is the consequence of d h a r a, as m
papa, sin, demerit, is the consequence of a-d h a r a. By the m
observance of law, the discharge of duty, the performance of
good deeds, a special spiritual-ethical quality accrues to the
doer. He acquires a right or title to reward, (we are not
speaking ofnish-kama karma here), a certain power and
authority to command the services, directly or indirectly, of
those to whom he has done good. He becomes a creditor with
" "
spiritual-ethical assets, as the others, who take loans
from him become debtors ; as, much more, the sinners become
" "
debtors who deliberately injure others and take loans from
"
them forcibly (see Krshna, pp. 274-'6). This credit,"
"
p u n y a, is also sometimes called dharma; and this debt/'
papa, a-d h a r a. m
168 THE BOOTS OF DHAEMA [MANU
the Veda, Knowledge, all true Science. True know-
ledge only can be the basis of right action. A
further expansion of this principle, that a perfect
scheme of duty can be founded only on perfect
wisdom, is contained in a few verses of Manu :

m
The root of D h a r a is (i) the whole of science,
the whole of systematic knowledge and (ii) the memory,
;

and then (iii) the conduct based thereon, of those who

possess that knowledge and are known to be virtuous ;

and, finally, (iv) it is the satisfaction of the Inner Self

of each, his conscience. 1

(i) That Perfect Knowledge of the Whole which

is simultaneous omniscience of the past, the pre-
sent, and the future, in the mind of Brahma, (i.e., the
Universal Mind or Cosmic Consciousness of our
World-system, Who is therefore the primal source

Slff: qieyifc+r^ S^PJJH II Manu, ii, 6, 12.

Antar-atma is the Samskrt word to which the English

word conscience most approximates in s.gnificance.
In these verses will be found the synthesis of all the
theories that have been advanced, of the genesis, intuitional,
"
rational, revelational, evolutionary, etc., of conscience," and
of the conviction of d h a r m
a-duty. After all, all convictions
of truth and propriety, in every sc.ence and every art, involve
much the same processes of the working of an '.inner /acuity, '

mind, intellect, intuition, conscience, etc. (all aspects of one

' '

and the same antah-karana, inner sense ') upon outer '

facts. See Brhad-aranyaka, 1, 5, 3.

MANU] ITS ULTIMATE BOOT OF ROOTS 169

of the Veda, because indeed His knowledge of His

world-system is His ideation of them, and His
ideation of them is His creation of them some-
what in the same way as the complete-conscious-
ness of the author of a .story is the substratum and
sole source of all the part-consciousnesses, all the
thinkings and doings, of all the characters of the

story that perfect knowledge, embodied for the

selves who come becomes succes-
into His system,
sive. It unfolds first as (i) sense-perceptions, then
as (ii) memory, with reasoning and expectation
based thereon, then (iii) conduct based on expecta-
tion all checked and governed by the constant (iv)
supervision and sanction of the Inner Self hidden in
all. For, after ail, if any, the most ignorant, should

believe that another is omniscient and therefore

should treat his lightest word as revelation, still
the decision to hold that belief and offer that
reverence is the decision of that otherwise ignorant
soul's own inner or higher Self (the Pratyag-afcma
within him), which is omniscient, too, and works
sub- or supra-consciously within the sheathing of
that soul and manifests outside as the unthinking
trust and reverence ; that this person is or is not fit

to accept as teacher and follow as guide, is or is not

a prophet, messiah, rshi, avatar a is 'my'
decision ; that the Veda is the better and truer
scripture, or the Bible, or the Quran, or any other
not, and if He
'
is my
'
decision ; that God is or is
1 '

is, then He is other than 'my self, or is 'my-Self

170 EQUIVALENTS IN OTHER RELIGIONS [MANU
'
is 'my decision and all this is proof conclusive
;

' ' l
that God is Naught-Else-than-I My-Self .

From a different standpoint these four (i) Know- :

ledge, (ii) Tradition, (iii) Worthy Example, (iv)

Intuition, may be said t correspond to what in
modern jurisprudence would be called (i) the word :

of the statute, (ii) immemorial custom, (iii) case-

law and precedent, and, finally, (iv) equity and good
conscience. The word of the statute here is the
word of the Veda, Knowledge so far as it has been
embodied and expressed in sound :

The Veda is Shruti, and derivative works on

Thar ma are Smrti. The two should always be con-
sultedand carefully pondered in all questions of difficulty
J
connected with duty.

The seven Rshis, hearing and learning from their

Elders in turn, spoke out and revealed the truths
embodied in the mantras of the Rk, the Yajuh, arid the
Sama, which are verily as the limbs of Brahnu., the
Expander and Creator of these worlds, who expanded
and created them (the worlds) at first in terms of thought-

1
See Kr^hna, pp. 195-'6.
2
Modern writers on ethics base moral laws on either (L)
revelation, or (ii) evolutionary tradition, or (iii) utilitarian
expediency, i.e., reason guided by the motive of securing the
greatest happiness of the greatest member, or (iv) individual
"
conscience or intuition. Islamic theology regards the sources
"
of law as almost exactly the same (in principle, not as
regards the actual books of course) as those mentioned by
'

Manu, viz., the Quran, Revelational Scripture,' HadTs (the

sayings and doings of Muhammad the Prophet and his
apostles), Ijmaa (the decisions of the councils of the learned),
and, finally, Qayas (one's own individual opinion based on .

reason). The Christian ( ) Word of the Gospel, (ii) the Acts

MANU] THOUGHT AND SOUND-LANGUAGE 171

as sound (Shab<Ja-Brahma) out of the immensity of

1
Brahma, the Infinite Principle of All-consciousness.
The original embodiment and expression of
knowledge, thought, ideation, is in terms of sound
'
and ether,' akasha-tattva, the first to mani-
fest in the history of our world-system and of
the human race, and possessed of potencies out of
and by which all other forms and forces have been
evolved subsequently and successively.

THE SOURCES OF DHARMA

Manu's promise is that
He who discharges his duties in accordance with this
perfect knowledge and the memory, the high traditions,

and Traditions of the Apostles, (iii) the Decisions and Inter-

pretations of the Fathers of the Church, (iv) Individual
Conscience, are the same.

sra g t
II Manu, ii, 10.

The orthodox reading is ST^i^ instead of *ft*fMt and

" "
the interpretation is not to be questioned but
that they are
" "
blindly followed". ^faff^ means to be carefully examined
and construed in accordance with the rules of the Mtmamsa".
If 3T*fal1*% is accepted then it may be explained as meaning
"
not to be slighted and lightly doubted ". That *ft*Tfc3f ig
the correct and better reading is shown by Manu, iii, 224,
in which the word J-ffrrife^f occurs in the indubitable sense of
"
having carefully considered ".

*n*nft

Afatsya P., oh. 145

172 MIND AND PARADISE [MANU
based thereon he shall achieve good name here and
1
highest happiness hereafter.
For there is an essential connexion between the
two, and happiness hereafter is principally of the
mental plane and depends upon the satisfaction of
mind given to fellow-beings on the physical plane.
" "
Manu does not say happiness here, always for
the path of duty is often very hard to tread on
earth, when the majority are not willing to walk
upon it side by side.
And his injunction is that
These two sources of Dharma, knowledge and
memory, science and tradition, revelation and law, should
not be rejected lightly, but be always examined and con-
sidered carefully in accordance with the rules of the
M m m
T a sa the Science of Exegesis, in all matters of
,

duty and he who flouts these two foundations of all life

;

and duty should be excluded from the counsels of the good,

excluded for the sake of public welfare, the good of
all, for he would bring about general confusion and
annihilation. 2
The reason of the injunction becomes clear if we in-
terpret Veda and Smrti in their original, etymologi-
cal, and comprehensive sense, viz., consciousness and
memory, Science and the Traditions based thereon. 3

f|

Manu, ii, 9.

: \

>: II Manu. ii, 11.

SfTflT,
MANU] DHABMA AND REASON 173

These are obviously the foundations of all good,

noble and happy life, and he who will not accept
them as such cannot be treated otherwise than as
madman and be carefully excluded from
nihilist, to
all deliberations which seek to promote the welfare
of the community.

PHABMA MUST BE RATIONAL

Manu says further, what K^shna and Vyasa
repeat later, that
The appropriateness of all injunctions by the ftshis
as to duty should be carefully ascertained by means of
the reasoning that does not ignore first-hand observative
knowledge and memory, but is consistent with and based
on them for only he who so applies his reason (not in
the spirit of barren cavilling or shallow flippancy, but out

The Skt.rootvid (Eng. wit, Lat. videre) has two princi-

pal meanings, to know and to exist esse is percipi other, but
; ;

allied, meanings are, to think, to picture in mind, to reflect

upon ; to gain ; to cause to know, to communicate, to impart ;
to experience or be conscious of ; to tell ; to dwell in. Smrti
is derived from s r m
to remember ; S
,
m
a r a is the erotic love
which is always remembering and yearning for the beloved ;
in its larger sense, Cosmic Ideation, Universal Memory,
it is
'
which by its energy creates the worlds.
yearning* So great
family-traditions, racial memories, keep the family and the
race going along noble paths.

A m n a y a means that which is remembered, from the Skt.

root m n a (Gr. mnasthai) to remember. It should, ordinarily,
have meant the same thing as Smrti; but it does not.
While Smrti-s are digests and compendiums of law, written
down by f s h s from time to time, out of their memory of
i ,

the commands scattered through the Vedas, these latter,

*'
are ordinarily known as Shruti, the heard/* by the pupils
from the teachers, generation after generation. But they are
174 OBSERVATION AND SCRUTINY [MANU
of an earnest wish to find and understand the truth, and
observes the not very arduous courtesy of listening with
common respect to the opinions of the elders who have
had more experience, and listens not for blind acceptance,
but for careful pondering, he only) really knows the
m
D h a r a and none other. Seek refuge in rationality
, ;

he who loses reason, loses himself. Cultivate reason

diligently. He who does not know the objects and the
reasons of the law, cannot really know the law (reason, ;

reasonableness, rationality, is the only ratio-maker,

relation-maker, synthesiser, reconciler). Base your laws,
spiritual and temporal, on the accumulated stores of
science, checked by first-hand observation and scrutinis-
ing criticism. 1

Thus interpreted, none could seriously contest the

foundations of the V arn-as hram a D harm a.
But some might say that the interpretation is too
broad, and only a few specified books are meant by

also known as the Amnaya, for they are carried in the

memory. As a fact, even to-day, when lipi, writing (as
distinguished from s h r u t i, hearing) is so much to the fore,
yet the really active and effective knowledge of a person is
what he has heard and carries in his memory and can readily
speak out to, and cause to be heard by, others, viz., his
m
own s h r u t i and s r t i .Education, even to-day, is in large
.part by word of mouth, oral teaching and lecturing.

ii, 49, 63.

: U Manu, xii, 105, 106.

Mbh., Shanti, ch., 265.

MANU] VEDA AS LIMITLESS SCIENCE 175

Shruti and Smrti. Yet even they must admit that the
books have not come down to us in their entirety,
that much the larger portion of them has been lost.
1

Many of the books available, and regarded as

sacred, open with the express statement that that
work exists in a hundred or a thousandfold greater
size and detail in the heaven-world, or in the
Sa ta-1 o k a
y a fact which is fairly obvious when
,

we consider that everything is connected with

everything else, and that every science is capable
of infinite expansion. As the poet has well said :

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you from the crannies,
I hold you in my hand, root and all,
But if I could know you, all in all,
I should know what God and Man is.

And, in any case, the narrower view, which would

exclude, is not likely to be of much practical help
at this time. Indeed it is a great hindrance.

"
1
A Taittirlya text expressly says, Zft^ 3 ^T:, The
Vedas are endless," countless, infinite in number and extent,
even as the World-process, obviously, if Veda means, as it ought
to, and in reason cannot but mean, all true Science if it is to

justify the veneration given to it. Patafijali's Maha-bhashya

is a comparatively recent work on Samskrt Grammar, written

circa 178 B.C., when Pushy a-raitra, mentioned therfttn

contemporary, hurled from the throne of Ma
scion of the Maurya dynasty, founded by
putting down the prefects of Alexander in
" "
tions twenty-one branches of the P
one of the Yajuh, one thousand of th--
Atharva. See The Pranava-V ada of G
by the present writer, on the subject \
<

extent, intent, and content.

 176 VEDA AS ALL VIDYA-S [MANU
SUPERPHYSICAL AND PHYSICAL, RELIGIOUS AND
SECULAR, ARE NOT-SEPARATE

It is noteworthy that the distinction between

' ' * '
the secular and the religious does not appear in
1
the older culture, as it does in the present. The
Samskjt verb-root v i d ,
to know and to exist for

knowledge and existence are aspects of each other

is the common source of all Veda and all Vidya.

All sciences and all arts are regarded as comprised in

the supplementary Vedas (Upa-Vedas), or the limbs
and parts (Ved-angas and Ved-op-angas)of
the one Veda. The word S h as t r a, from s h a s, to
teach, is only the causative aspect of v i d, to know.
' '

Probably the modern word science is derived from

the same root, or the allied one s h a m s, to inform.
"
In Manu, the expression, the science of the Veda"
(Veda-shastra) occurs repeatedly, in the sense
of 5-tma-vidya Metaphysic, and nowhere
or
in the work is any distinction, of nature or kind,
made between Veda on the one hand and Vidya or
Shastra on the other, but only of whole and parts,
organism and organs. Every piece of true know-
ledge and genuine science is part and parcel of
the TotaJ Knowledge (A k h i 1 a-Ve d a) which is the

"
1
The
fact that everything which we admire as true,
beautiful, and good, l^as been evolved under natural conditions,
gives a religious complexion even to the idea of nature . . .

The religious feeling might be called a cosmic vital feeling."

Hoffding, Psychology,' p. 262.
MANU] MAMY NAMES OF THIS PHABMA 177

source and the foundation of P h a r m a. So much

so is this the case that there is no distinctive name
for the Hindu religion, as there is for others. It is

only the Ancient Law (Sanatana P h a r a), m

the Law of Knowledge or Scientific Religion
(Vaidikapharma), the Duty of Man (M a n a v a
Pharm a ) , the Duty of the Stages of Life and the
Classes of Men (V a r $-a shrama Dharma).
There is no word in Samskrt possessing exactly the
same as the current connotation of the word
' '

religion for the reason that the connotation

embodies a half-truth, and half-truths are generally
errors. Others may try to mark themselves off
from the followers of the Law of Knowledge. Its
followers can include them all without even chang-
ing their name. All can be, indeed all are, despite
themselves, the followers of that Law to a greater
or a lesser extent ; to the extent that they guide
their lives by the Religion of Science (Veda-
s ha s t r a ) , the Law of Wisdom P a r a m a - (

V i dya ) , the Noble Way 3. r y a-m a t a) or the

(

Great, broad, liberal, world-comprehending View

(Brahma-dj-shti). This P h a r a is so all- m
inclusive, of all religions, that it does not need to
proselytise. By the inherent laws of human nature,
every human being, so soon as he attains to a certain
stage of knowledge, so soon as he crosses beyond the
narrowing views of bigotry born of egoism, so soon
must he of his own accord become a follower of this
P h a r m a, and that without changing his previous
12
178 ITS INCLUSION OF ALL HUMANS [MANU
name. For all, in any part of the world, who can
thus deliberately realise the value of the Religion
of Science physical and superphysical, there are

places, ready, according to their res-

naturally
pective temperaments, amongst the three twice-.
born castes. For those who have not progressed so
far in soul-unfolding their natural place is in the
fourth division, and they are there, by whatever
other names they call themselves.

CONVERSION INTO IRYA

Manu has, indeed, expressly declared that all

human beings whatsoever, of every time and every
clime, already belong to one or the other of the four
1
classes, and that there is no fifth class. His
Manava - D h a r m a, is, or at least is intended to
be,an Organisation of the whole Human Race, and
not of any one small or large sub-race only. It is
a Scheme of Four main broad Vocational Classes
or Professions, varija-s, into which all sorts of

tribes, nations, sub-races, races, j a t i

- s , could be
fitted and incorporated. And this was undoubt-
in

edly done extensively in the earlier centuries of

the 5.ryan occupation of India, and probably down
to so late as the commencement of the Vikrama

: II x, 4.
MANU] "ARYANISE THE WORLD" 179

era, 57 B.C., by means of vrat y a- st a cere- om

monies (as, f.i., those referred to in the A^harva
Veda, Book XV, and in Mann, ii, 39), in accordance
witfr the injunction of the Ry Veda (IX, 63, 5),
4t L
Go forth and Sryanise the whole world ".

NEED OF LIBERAL INTERPRETATION

If the custodians of the ancient law, in this land

of India, would expand their souls and minds to the
width of such construing, in terms of living vo-

cations, appropriate temperament, natural endow-

ment, instead of blind, rigid, dead heredity, then,
instead of crushing out its life with the ever more
tightly closing iron bands of narrow interpreta-
tions, they might give it a vast expansion, and
bring all nations, at one stroke, within its pale.
The Brahma^as, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas and

I
The word vratya or v r a 11 n a means
nomads, broadly ; and its opposite is shailna, the settled.
(Panini, Sutra, ch. 5, Sec. 2) ; 3J

those who live by the produce of daily labor, hunting,

wage-work, etc. ;
who move about in hordes ; who can be
"purified," civilised, by special disciplinary observances; such
are vratya or vratlna.

those who dwell in fixed and settled houses ; who live on rice
and other grains produced by agriculture ; who observe good
manners and regular customs such are s h a 1 T n a ; .
180 FOUR CASTES UNIVERSAL [MANU
Shndras of America, Germany, France, Eussia,
Britain, and all other countries of the West, would
then at once take their places side by side with the
Brahmarjias, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas and Shddras of
India, China, Japan, Persia, Arabia, and all other
countries of the East.
In modern India also, a distinction has grown up
between spiritual and temporal, divine and worldly,
vaidika and laukika. This is perhaps partly
due to the fact that the course of evolutionary
in

densification of the outer body, the physical plane

became more marked off from the superphysical, and
the physical began to be too much with us, while
the superphysical receded more and more into the
mysterious distance. For the rest, it seems due to the
general wave of egoistic competition and concurrent
excessive differentiation and division in all depart-
ments of life which wave, while running highest
in the west, the habitat of the fifth sub-race, has
also affected all other parts of the earth-world. 1

ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC KNOWLEDGE

In the earlier day, whatever difference was made

between sacred and lay, was, it would seem, only
the difference between the more important and the

1
The Atharva Veda, XII, 1, in the Hymn to the Earth ,
"
sings : Thine, are the Five Races, for whom,
PrithivT !,

though they be mortal, Surya spreads forth daily with his

rays the Light that is Immortal."
MANU] PUBLIC AND SECRET KNOWLEDGE 181
1
less so. The head-works
an extensive scheme
of
for the water-supply most parti-
of a capital are

cularly guarded against casual and careless sight-

seers, and from all possible causes of taint. The
pipes and taps in the immediate use of the towns-
folk cannot be and are not so guarded. Facts of
science and products of mechanical art, when they
subserve the military purposes of the State, become
official secrets, and are guarded rigorously by acts
of legislation. Even the
knowledge,
so, secret

physical or superphysical, contained in those works

u
which are known as the Veda proper with its
secrets (R a h a s y a)," the heart of the total Veda
as distinguished from its limbs and clothing, was
guarded from misuse and the taint of sin and
selfishness with greater care than the rest. That
there is a secret significance in parts of the Ve(Ja
is expressly mentioned by Manu :

He who bringeth up the pupil, investing him with

the sacred thread, and teacheth him the Ve(Ja with its
secret meaning and its practical working he is known
as the L. c h r y a. And not easily and lightly may any
,

one learn this secret meaning and its practical working.

The twice-born should acquire the whole of the Vecja
with its secret meaning, with the help of t a p a s of many
kinds, ascetic practices of self-denial, fasts and vows and
vigils, as ordained by rule.-

1
"
Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, III, Eccle-
siastical Institutions," gives his own explanation of how
differentiation grew up between secular and religious.
182 THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHY [MANU
But this oocult knowledge was never withheld
from the duly qualified (acjhikarl) who, by his
desert, had gained the right and title to it.
When the arrangements for the handing on of
the Secret Doctrine from generation to generation
began to degenerate in the temples and the houses
of the teachers, because of the degeneration in the
character of the custodians, since the setting in of
the present cycle on the day that Kyshiia left the
earth, and the sacred secret knowledge began to be
misapplied by them for selfish purposes instead of
for the public good, then, Buddha
it is said, the
published a part of it to the world at large, to make
that world less powerless against what was becom-
ing black magic ; to attract fresh recruits, in the

shape with the potencies of self-sacrifice

of souls
and of superphysical development in them, for
re-strengthening the ranks of the Spiritual Hierar-
chy which guides the evolution of men on earth ;
and, generally, to restore the disturbed balance and
further the behests of the Great Law.

II Manu, ii, 140, 165.

Manu,
"
ii, 76-83, and xi, 265, speak of the guhya, the
secret, of the three-lettered AUM,
Brahma, and by
which is

knowing which only is the Veda known'*. The Pranava-

Vada may be regarded as the commentary on these verses.
H. P. Blavatsky speaks in The Secret Doctrine of the Vedas
as being the work of Initiates and containing much occult
science, in veiled language, which can be extracted only with
"
the help of different keys ". See Krshna, pp. 136, 220-'l.
MANU] PERIODIC DISTURBANCES 183

DISTURBANCES AND RESTORATIONS OF BALANCE

These restorations of balance are periodic. In

our own day, when the secret knowledge became
wholly lost from public consciousness in India ;
when began to appear in the west, in the shape
it
"
of the secrets of scienceand of mediumistic spiri-
tualism," but in disjointed pieces, and unhealthily,
for lack of the unifying metaphysic and purifying
ethic when it began to threaten danger to mankind
;

because of the underlying spirit of materialism and

sensuousness which was guiding the utilisation of
those secrets in daily life then, it may well be said,
;

the balance began to be and is still being restored

by a new public disclosure of the spiritualising and
elevating principles of that
Secret Doctrine, by
means of the Theosophical Society and other more
or less similarly spiritual movements. Material
science and civilisation having encroached upon
the forest-haunts and mountain-solitudes to which
the Ancient Wisdom had retired for the time, in
the purposes of Providence, it became unavoidable,
by the law of action and reaction, that spiritual
science and civilisation should in turn invade
the restless brains and roaring Babylons where
material desires and sciences hold revel. When
Hiraijya-kashipu and Havana drive Indra from
Heaven, then Prahrada and Vibhishaija are born
in their very palaces on Earth, to bring about
their downfall and destruction. It is the old,
184 AND RESTORATIONS OF BALANCE [MANU
old, churning of the ocean of life, between the two
' ' * '
forces of spiritwards and matterwards ; the
ever-repeated battle between the gods and angels
(Suras, Pevas) and the demons and titans
(Asuras, P a i t y a s ) now the one prevailing,
,

now the other which churning and battling makes

;

up the Play and Pastime ( L 1 1 a ) of the Supreme.

Other myths, legends, stories, and histories ( they
"
are very much allied, all are concrete dream-
all
'
dramatisations of abstract principles, ideas,
wishes, forces, laws ) illustrate the same eternal
"
Ideation. Hiraijya-kashipu, the Golden-throned,"
is an evil titanic re-incarnation of Vijaya, a
fallen archangel of Vishnu, and wars against Him
with all his
might. His son Prahrada is an ardent
whole-souled devotee of Vishjtu, to protect whom
from the tortures inflicted by his father, Vishnu sud-
"
denly appears as Nara-Simha, the Man-lion," and
1
rends Hiraijya-kashipu in pieces. In a later incar-
nation, Hiraijy-aksha and Hira^ya-kashipu (Jaya
and Vijaya) appear as Ravaija and Kumbha-karjta,
and war against Rama (Vishnu incarnate as
Perfect Man), but their younger brother Vibhl-
shaija is a whole-hearted devotee of Rama. Thus
do the lobes of sin and the nerve-strands of

" "
1
A
rationalist may perhaps explain that this Man-lion
was a pet of Prahrada's. Theosophical literature has another
explanation, of a special breed of lions, having a face distantly
resembling the human.
MANU] DHARMA AS SCIENTIFIC LIVING 185

conscience strive against each other, or function

turn by turn, in the same brain.

ALL-PERVADING COMPREHENSIVENESS OF
PHARMA
Along the lines of this view of the
ashrama Dharma, it becomes easy to under-
stand why that Dharma includes so many of the
small personal and physical details of life. The
modern student, starting with a narrow and sharply-
defined notion of what he calls religion, viz., beliefs
and practices concerning superphysical affairs

alone, and regarding these as wholly cut off in nature

from physical affairs, and identifying the word
"
d h a r m a with religion, wonders vacantly that the
Hindn eats, drinks, sleeps, bathes, studies, travels,
sells, purchases, as well as marries, worships, prays,
by the rules of religion' ". He does
4
and dies, all
not wonder, but takes it as a most acceptable
and proper compliment to his intelligence, if he is

told that he himself does all these things, or at least

tries to do them, in accordance with the rules of
4 ' '
science '. And yet the word religion in the one
*
case means exactly the same thing as science' in
the other. For Dharma
is not merely other-

world-religion, for use on Sundays only, and in the

churches only, but is also every duty, every piece of

right conduct, every law, every proper and specific

function of every thing or being, in this and in all
186 PSYCHIC SCIENCE [MANU
other worlds. And Veda is all-knowledge, all-science,
of the physical and the superphysical planes, and not
merely of the physical, as the science of the modern
west has been so far, though now it is beginning to
reach out into the unexplored subtler planes, with
much reluctance and internal conflict. Manu's
Pharma-shastra thus becomes the Whole
Scheme and the Whole Science of Life ; it is

a Code for regulating that life so that it shall

be, as far as and
possible, fullest of happiness
freest of pain in all its
departments, physical and
superphysical, which are ever interblended and ;

it utilises for its ends all the most important facts of

all the sciences, which have any close bearing on

that stage of human evolution with which the Code

1
concerns itself.

PSYCHIC SCIENCE

To-day, in the west also, 'psychic science' is a

recognised expression, and researches, investi-
gations, reports, journals, books, concerning it are

"
1
The first [pharma-shastra] covers not only the laws
made by man, but the laws of nature, on the
i.e., all science,
basis of which alone can men without grievous
legislate
error, for the welfare of their community. Take up any
statute-book and you will find that every really and positively
useful Act therein, every Act promotive of Public Health,
Wealth, Comfort, Knowledge, Recreation, draws its support
1
and justification from some facts of science/ Bhagavan Das,
Indian Ideals of Women's Education, p. 10, (Adyar Pam-
phlets Series).
MANU] AND MODERN SCIENTISTS 187

multiplying. So long as microbes and animal

magnetism were not known to western science,
' '
rules as to touching and not touching
were pure
superstition. Now they have become known, those
"
same rules are becoming science. Indeed Science '

is in danger of becoming more bigoted, tyrannical,

narrow-minded, orthodox, than ever 'Religion'

was. Witness the discussions and practices about
inoculation and vivisection. So long as the astral
and mental worlds of subtler matter (B h u v a h
and Svah), and their denizens, disembodied
humans, fairies, nature-spirits of various kinds

1
Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., eighty years of age, a leader in
science, ex-President of the British Association and of the
Radio Society of Great Britain, and ex-Principal of the
Birmingham University, and also a leader in psychical
research, in the course of an address, at Bristol, on 7th Sep-
"
tember, 1930, said Many have a feeling of resentment
:

against those who would switch the line of discovery to any

extent away from the beaten track into unknown regions. . . .

The time will assuredly come when some of these avenues

will be explored by science and there are some who think
;

that the time is drawing nigh when that may be expected to

'*
happen/' He concluded with these words The universe is
:

a more spiritual entity than we had thought. The real. . .

fact isthat we are in the midst of a spiritual world, that it

dominates the material. It constitutes the great and omni-
present reality whose powers we are only beginning to
realise, whose properties and functions exhaust all our
admiration. They might indeed be terrifying had we not
been assured for our consolation that these tremendous
energies are all controlled by a Beneficent Fatherly Power
whose name is Love. In that faith we can face any destiny
that may befall us in the infinite future." The Upanishats
call that Power, that Love, by the name of Sat-Chid-JLnanda
Brahma, Param-5.tma, the Supreme Self, the Universal Life.
188 SCIENCE vs. SUPERSTITION [MANU
(p ret as, apsaras, gandharvas, devas), are
not definitely perceived by scientific men and their
followers, so long as the passage to and fro of
human selves between the various worlds, and the
causes and conditions of such passing to and fro,
are not realised, all beliefs and practices regarding
these will remain superstition to them. As soon as
they are perceived and understood, these beliefs and
practices will become the subject-matter of the most
applied sciences, the new and larger
important of all

Pharma-shastra of the future. And this is

quite natural and proper. Superstition is faith
without reason. Science is the same faith, but
with reason. In India, the beliefs and practices
are left the reason has disappeared. In the west
;

the reason is slowly appearing the beliefs and

;

practices will follow. Mutual help would make

the restoration of the whole so much the quicker,
and obviate the danger of mistakes and running to
extremes over half-discoveries. 1

"
1
Witness, for example, the excessive touch-me-not "-ism
that arose when the spread of disease by microbes was newly
discovered, and which began to be corrected when it was
further discovered that a great many bacteria help to make
excellent edibles. With a special bacillus being discovered
for each disease, every day, the doctrine of inoculation for
diseases will naturally soon reach, if it has not already
reached, its reductio ad absurdum, and the excessive and
therefore morbid and in-sane expertism of science will be
effectively condemned and put down by the layman, who is,
after all, the parent of the expert, and the final judge between
disagreeing doctors and experts of all sorts. A professor of
medical science in a College, recently said that medical
MANU] NATURE-CURE vs. DRUGS 189

KNOWLEDGE MUST COMBINE WITH VIRTUE

But in order that such mutual help may become

possible, the outer custodians of the ancient
learning, or rather of such pieces of it as are
extant, and the creators of the new learning the

opinion is again veering round to the view that the mainte-

nance and promotion of general health and vitality is more
important than the extirpation of disease microbes. It is
the old story, in ever new forms, of soil vs. seed, general
health vs. special microbe, nature-cure vs. drugs, moral
culture vs. penal code, layman vs. expert, general economic
prosperity vs. special public services, the citizen doing things
for himself vs. the state doing everything for him. The
golden mean is always the best course. Mann's Scheme,
always eminently sane and rational, accordingly, provides for
the best possible education and general culture (besides
special vocational technical training) to be given to every
citizen-layman-householder, in the first place ;and in the
second place, makes provision for experts to supplement, when
absolutely necessary the lay householder's general knowledge.
"
The maxim that Those governments are best which govern
least" seems to pervade his laws. The people, properly
organised and educated, should do as much for themselves
as possible. If the general health is good, the vitality, the
life-forces, strong, the organs functioning normally, the seeds
of disease will not find nourishment in the body, though all
sorts of them are always present. OnJy when the phagocytes
weaken, the foreign germs flourish ; as when the police
slacken, or, worse, become dishonest, the underworld of crime
and vice, always present, rushes out to overwhelm the upper ;
the current dailies are full of accounts of how the police are
in collusion with the criminals in Chicago and other big
towns, and are causing terrible atrocities; the reports of
governmental Commissions and Committees themselves prove
the great corruption in almost all departments of the public
services in India ; and in almost all countries the conditions
are similar, more or less, because the public-servant has made
himself public-waster.
190 WISDOM VS. CUNNING [MANU
brahma^a-s of the east and the brahma$a-s
of the west should both broaden their minds
sufficiently to make common cause. Manu says,
Vi<Jya came to the bri.hmana, and pleaded: "I
am thy sacred trust. Do thou guard me well and give
me not away to the impure, the crooked-hearted, and the
shallow-minded that cavil slightingly. So only shall I
be of ever greater power and virtue." 1

Thus Knowledge sought refuge and home with

her natural guardian. So well has he protected her
that he himself knoweth no longer where he hid
her away Only her outer dress remains with him.
!

And now when she asking him to let her put on

is

that dress again, she is not recognised by him. He

is satisfied with the outer clothing and displays it

to strangers, and desires that it be honored and

accepted as the Ancient Wisdom herself. But the
custodian and his dress meet no longer with honor,
but with contempt and ridicule, like a king degraded
and dethroned and deprived of power, but left with
the robes of royalty and walking about in them in
the streets of a strange town, where the children,
ungrown throw mud at him and treat him as
souls,
a lunatic or a masquerading clown. This has
happened in the east. Almost worse has taken and

Manu, ii, 114.

The more sonorous Vedic form of this verse is :

TT $J
MANU] DEGRADATION OF SCIENCE 191

is taking place elsewhere. The brahmaija-s

of the west have made themselves slaves, and
demons of Militar-
prostituted their Science, to the
ism and Capitalism, the perverse and un-duti-ful
kshattriya-s and vaishya-s, there, as
witness the Great War of 191 4-' 18.
To restore the Ancient Wisdom to her rightful
throne in the hearts and minds of the whole human
race, necessary to ally the outer form and dress
it is

of learning with the living soul and body of true

austerity ( t ap a s ya ) .

And the t a p a s of the brahman a, i.e., the man of

the learned professions, is avoidance of luxurious living
and diligent pursuit of study, assiduous search for ever
more and more of knowledge as the t a p a s of the ;

kshattriya is protection of the weak of the ;

v a i s h y a, distribution of the necessaries of life of the ;

s h u <J r a, the helping of all the others to do their

respective duties. The Vecja feareth him who knoweth
"
little : This man will deprive me of my rightful mean-
ing," will murder the text and pervert the true sense,
The Ve<Ja needs to be expounded with the help and in
1
the light of comprehensive history and science.

FRESH BEGINNINGS
Wemust go back to the origins of life and
power. Not otherwise can fresh vitality be

U
\

Manu, xi, 235 ; Mbh., Adi., i.

192 BEGIN AFRESH [MANU
found. Streams of living water, wandering far
from their sources, become befouled. Those who
want pure drink must toil back to the sources.
Waking and working, the embodied self becomes
tired ; supply of energy it must go back
for fresh
to sleep. When commentaries upon commentaries
have overlaid and buried out of sight the real
meaning of the text, we must dig down to it again.
When narrow and exclusive interpretations have
brought about the rigidity of disease and the poison-
ing of the juices of the mental body with mutual
distrust and arrogance, hatred and selfishness,
then we must seek and assimilate more liberal and
rational ones with the help of the knowledge
newly stored by younger nations, to restore the
elasticity of health and the free circulation of the
vital fluid of love and sympathy and mutual help-
fulness in the limbs of the old. And for fresh

inspiration to interpet newly and livingly the old

learning, we must go to the mental tabula rasa of
meditations and the physical and ethical condi-
tions of self-denying asceticism and self-discipline

(tapasya) and subjugation of the lower, when

only the Higher can make itself visible and audible.
Manu says :

Self-denial and science, philanthropy and knowledge,

which together make wisdom, are the way of the b r a h-
m a n a to the highest goal.
By strenuous self-denial and
conquest of the lower cravings he destroyeth all the
demerits that hinder the growth of the soul, and then
MANU] REJUVENATE THE OLD IDEAS 193

doth the Wisdom shine out by which he attaineth the

Immortal. 1

OLD IDEAS

Before beginning the exposition of Manu's treat-

ment of the problems above referred to, an attempt
may be made to illustrate the significance of the
old words and ideas with the help of the new. The
west is beginning to recognise consciously the in-
extricable inter-weaving of the individual life with
the social, the inseparable interdependence of the two.
Its thought on the subject is as yet perhaps inchoate.
But it is fresh, living, therefore nascent, vigorous,
full of promise. The older thought, on the other
hand, though perhaps complete in its way, defined
in shape, rounded out and finished, is withered with
the withering which has fallen on the noble words
in which it is enshrined, because of great age.
Placed beside the new, the old may rejuvenate
itself with the radiating vitality of the young, and

at the same time help to bring to full bloom what

is now in bud in the latter. A few passages will
therefore be extracted below from modern western
writings which may serve to illuminehow close
the relationship is between varija-dharma
and ashrama-dharma, 'social polity' and

Manu, xii, 104.

13
194 'INDIVIDUAL POLITY' [MANU
'
individual polity,' the higher socialism and the
higher individualism, and how both are guided by
the purush-artha-s.
Var^a-dharma is the organisation of the
social life of the whole Human Race as one
vast community, made up of many smaller
communities, as the one vast earth-encircling
ocean is made up of many seas. Such organi-
sation means the fitting of every person into
his proper place in society, assigning to him that
particular kind and part of the social labor for
which he is best fitted, by the performance of which
he secures livelihood for himself and family and at
the same time helps on the total life of the com-

munity. 3.shrama-dharma is the organisa-

tion, the ordering, the planning out, of the life of
each individual human being in that community,
so as to bring out the best that is in him.
Var9ameans that which is chosen also color ;

also that which describes.

1
or paint ; That
vocation which is 'chosen' by a person for his
' '
means of living, and which describes him best
and most fully, by showing his position in human
Society, his special relation to his fellow-men, that
is his v a r $ a. We
see that every mood of mind

1
1, 3$\ ;

3T g^ |fcl 3$: I

: \
MANU] AND SOCIAL POLITY 195

goes with a corresponding mode of matter ; that

psyche and physique correspond ; that some persons
'
are built,' physically as well as mentally, for one
kind for work, others for others ; some for poring
over books, antiquities, nature-phenomena, some for
soldiering and adventuring, some for trading and
counting and accounting, some for handy helping
of others ; that each occupation has and creates its
own characteristic and typical expression of face,
its special gait and carriage, its stoop or stride, its

peculiar and general set of limbs and

postures
shape of body, manner, its tone of voice, its
its

way of thinking and feeling, which last is the deep-

lying cause of all the others. It seems possible even
that the color and complexion of the outer skin of
the physical body of a person may have a corres-
pondence with the color and complexion of his
inner mental body. And, any way, it is easy to
'
understand that when we mention a man's business
in life,' we 'describe him most fully he is a pro-
'

fessor, an admiral, a lawyer, a banker, an author,

a stonemason, a bricklayer, an engineer, a painter,
a gardener, a king, a jeweller, a constable, a judge,
a manufacturer, a merchant, etc. In law courts
deponents are asked to give their names, their
father's names, their places of residence, and their
occupation, which finishes off the description of
the man.
Ashrama means a place of work and also a
place of rest ; hence a dwelling-place in which one
196 THEIR INTER-WORKING [MANU
1
both works and takes rest. 5.shrama-s are the
successive stages of life, through which all human
beings should pass normally, laboring and resting
for a quarter of the lifetime in each. Ofvanja-s,
a person can usually take up only one in one life ;
Changes of vocation are obviously difficult, and
can be only exceptional. One who has been a
soldier for years cannot become an edu-
many
cationist or a merchant at a moment's notice. But

everyone ought to work, and work hard, at the

performance of the duties appropriate to each stage ;
and they are duties which, in broad outlines, are
common to all individuals, though, in details, they
differ. Thus, every one must gather some general
culture in the first a s hram a, and keep the lamp
of knowledge burning, generation after generation,
unless congenitally incapable of doing so ; while
the special vocational knowledge will differ with
the temperament. So every one must also rear a
family, hand on the torch of life undimmed, and keep
unbroken the continuity of the race, in the second ;

but what the particular kind of his household

^, "performing austerities,
penances, fatiguing oneself." Compare the Buddhist Shra-
m ana *<&{ by itself means primarily to labor ; but with the
.

prefix f^,it means to rest with 3TT, it may mean either.

;

Words sometimes come to mean two opposite things there ;

are a considerable number of such in Samskrt, and, it is said,

" " "
in Arabic. In English, invaluable/* priceless," pitiful,"
" "
wretched," sorry," etc., are examples.
MANU] AND MUTUAL SUPPORT 197

will be, careworn patriarchal prince's or pros-

perous carefree peasant's, sedentary shopkeeper's
or pedantic schoolmaster's, sturdy soil-tiller's
or singing cowherd's, will depend on his peculiar
* '
temperament. So, again, every one must sacrifice
for the public good, in the third, so that the supply
*
of public servants' of the hiyhest type, because
honorary, is never exhausted, and the many-hued
splendor of reasonable private and great public
possessions never fails but whether he will serve as
;

unremunerated legislator, or municipal councillor,

or creator and endower of hospitals, temples,
colleges, universities, art-galleries, public parks, or
organiser or member of town militia or vigilance
committees will depend on his special tempera-
ment and training and vocation followed in the
second stage. In the fourth stage
all should think

of things beyond and behind and permeating the

things of this world and here again his achieve-
;

ment will differ, in kind and degree, with his

1

psycho-physical temperament.

1
See Krshna, pp. 200-2, 218. Buddhist works speak of
three types of Bodhi-sattvas, viz., Prajfia-dhika, Shradha-dhika,
and Vlrya-dhika, that is to say, excelling in (i) Knowledge,
(ii) Devotion (Compassion), (iii) Action, respectively. Our
Buddha is said to be Vlrya-dhika, a Master of Action,
though he is also known as the Lord of Compassion, and also
the Enlightened One. Perhaps the indication is that hie
enlightened knowledge and profound com pass, on were actively
employed for the helping of the world. See A. Dharmapala,
Arya Qharma of Shakya Muni, p. 19.
198 NEW DRESSES [MANU
Finally, it has to be remembered that organisation
means (a) specialisation and division of labor, i.e., of
functions, and (b) organs discharging the different
functions, graded as super-or-
systematically
dinates, co-ordinates, and sub-ordinates, all bound
together by the cord of subservience to a common
4

goal,' which may have intermediate, subsidiary,

goals also. These are our two (or four, or six, as
we may like to divide and sub-divide) purush-
* '
a r t ha- s, ends of life, the desirings,' the wished
l ' ' 1
for riches,' the interests,' of a person

NEW WORDS

And now the modern passages which approximate

to and illustrate these ideas.
Spencer concludes his great work on the Principles
of Sociology with the following words :

The ultimate man will be one whose private require-

ments coincide with public ones. He will be that manner
of man who, in spontaneously fulfilling his own nature,
incidentally performs the functions of a social unit and ;

yet is enabled so to fulfil his own nature by all others

doing the like.

\
gf( 3t% f% g^f: I
'
That which is asked for,
'
begged, desired is ar th a hence property, weal-th (well-ness),
,
'

possessions, interests of all kinds. That which sleeps, dwells,

in a tenement, a town, a house, a body,' viz., the j I v a or
soul, is a puru-sha. The Latin word persona, a mask,
seems to be allied. The body is the mask which the soul
puts on.
MANU] FOR OLD THOUGHTS 199
41
His own nature," in terms of Manu and
would be his special psycho-physical temperament
and constitution, his varija, his s wa-dharma.
Repeatedly Spencer observes sadly :

The forms of social organisation are determined by

men's natures, and only as their natures improve can the
forms become better The practicability of such a
. . .

system [of co-operation] depends on character . . .

Higher types of society are made possible only by higher

types of nature The requisite sweet reasonableness
. . .

is not yet sufficiently prevalent . . . Out of ignoble

natures [we cannot] get noble . . . actions. (Prin.
of Sociology, III, pp. 564, 579.)
Manu tells us that the only way to raise the
general level of character, and maintain a perpetual
pull upwards is to make division of social labor,
and equitable partition of means of living, and of
special rewards, (as has been indicated before and
will appear more and more fully as we proceed),
thereby creating the best form of communism, and
therein giving the highest honor (not power, nor
wealth) to the true brahma^a, the man of self-
denial, of science, of wisdom, the perpetual
preceptor and exemplar of the higher Self, common
to all beings, the Universal Principle of Common

Life, the fount of the real Spiritual Communism out

of which all that is really noble, valuable, and
practicable in so-called communism flows of itself,

while its disastrous errors are avoided. By thus

constantly spiritualising the whole culture of the
community, by means of a class of genuine
congenital missionaries (as contra-distinguished
200 THE PROSPEROUS STATE [MANU
from mercenaries) can the ignoble be converted
into noble, the lead into gold for the thought of ;

this higher, this Supreme and Eternal, Self is the

one and only elixir of life which converts tired
feebleness into fresh strength, decrepitude and
death into new life it is the one secret chemical
;

which transmutes the base into the noble metal. A

community in which a fair number of such philo-
sopher-scientist-priest-legislator-ascetics, genuine
brahma$as, natural priests of the Self, B r a fa-
in a , moving about, mixing with and counsel-
are
ling and instructing the people and the people's
children, is very fortunate it can never fall into
;

ignoble ways.
To find out the " own nature " above referred to,
of each young person, is one of the main tasks of
the brahma^a -educationist. How to ascertain
and develop the special vocational aptitude of
each young person this is the problem which is
rightly attracting more and more attention in the
west and has not been solved yet by far. A state
which solves this problem, and two others equally
important, viz., (i) how to elect legislators of the
right quality, good as well as wise, selfless as well
as experienced, talented as well as upright, ethically
as well as intellectually fit, full of knowledge and
also full of philanthropy, and (ii) how to adjust its
population to natural resources, and keep that
its

population in necessaries as well as comforts, with-

out exploiting other and weaker nationsthat
MANU] ITS THREE MAIN TASKS 201

state will find very probably that it has uncon-

sciously adopted and adapted the principles (not,
of course, the details) of Manu's Scheme. 1
A
Federal Board of Vocational Education seems
to have been recently created in the U.S.A., which
"
has defined its duty as being to extend and demo-
cratise the secondary public school system of the
U.S. so as to offer a broad practical training for
useful employment to the growing millions of our
boys and girls, who for want of such training are
going unprepared for their life's work into Agri-
culture, Industry, Commerce, and the Home".
The function of Vocational Guidance is said by
"
this Board to be to help each individual to reach
that particular vocational niche or, better, gateway,
which where he will most greatly benefit
leads
himself and most fully contribute to the good of
all. ... A satisfactory programme of industrial or

vocational education can be prepared only on a

national scale ". 2
Manu
provides for more than a national scale.
His arrangements are on an earth-wide scale. 3

For a conversation on this subject with the head of the

1

Department of Education, in Columbia University, New

York, see the present writer's pamphlet on Indian Ideals of
Women's Education (Adyar Pamphlets Series).
2
This is taken from the presidential address of Mr. N. S.
Subba Rao, at the Indian Economic Conference, Allahabad,
held in December, 1929.
3
Baron Kikuchi's book on Japan (pub. 1909) exhibits a
very admirable system of cultural and technical education,
202 MANU AND CONFUCIUS [MANU
Another very recent writer says :

In his realistic grasp of the social nature of the in-

dividual's problem and his inexorable demonstration of
the unity of the health and harmonious behaviour, Adler
resembles . the great Chinese thinkers.
. . He may . .

well come to be known as the Confucius of the west. 1

Now Confucius by history, to have woven

is said,
together Philosophy, Cosmology, the Principles of
Government, the Social System, the Moral System,
and Religion, in a consistent whole and that is ;

his title to fame as one of the greatest thinkers and

teachers of mankind. But no systematic work of
his own, expounding his views connectedly, is

available. And Manu has perhaps done the work

more systematically, fully, and scientifically.
Comparisons are odious, but sometimes unavoidable,
and occasionally very helpful !

This new thinker, Adler, so highly compared,

says :

which may be said to have worked out the vocational aspect

of Manu's principles of education in an up-to-date manner* but
the suffusion of spirituality is almost wholly lacking.

1
Mairet, Introduction (p. 30), to A. Adler's The Science of
Living (pub. 1930). Adler is the third and latest of the
three investigators and thinkers, the other two being Freud
and Jung, who are credited with having created and developed
the new and very important branch of Psychology, viz.,
Psycho -Analysis. The root-aphorism of this new science, in
"
English words, may
be said to be the very old proverb, The
"
wish is father to the thought," and in Samskrt The a v y a k t a-
vasana, the Unconscious Desire, which is the same as
Maya-shakti, is the cause of the conscious or v y a k t a " ;
Sankhya-karika.
MANU] MODERN PSYCHOLOGISTS AND MANU 203

In each mind there is the conception of a goal or

ideal to get beyond the present state, and to overcome
the present deficiencies and difficulties by postulating a
concrete aim for the future . Without the sense of
. .

a goal, individual activity would cease to have any

meaning . .How this goal is fixed it is difficult to
.

say ... In the last analysis, to have a goal is of course

to be like God. But to be like God is of course the ulti-
mate goal, the goal of goals, if we may use the term . . .

The beginning of social life lies in the weakness of the

individual . .An individual who might be deficient
.

in certain faculties if he lived in an isolated condition,

could well compensate for his lacks in a rightly organised
society . ..
Every one has a feeling of inferiority.
But the feeling is not a disease ; it is rather a stimulant
to healthy normal striving and development. It becomes
pathological when it overwhelms, and instead of stimulat-
ing, depresses .. The inferiority feeling stimulates to
.

movement and action. This results in a person having

a goal. Individual Psychology [which studies concrete
individuals, as Adler's does] has long called the consistent
movement, a plan of life . . . The normal man is an
individual who lives in society and whose mode of life is
so adapted that, whether he wants it or not, society
derives a certain advantage from his work (He is) . . .

socially adjusted. Also, from a psychological point of

view, he has enough energy and courage to meet the
problems and difficulties as they come along (He . . .

is) psychologically adjusted How shall we educate

. . .

our children ? This is perhaps the most important question

in our present social life. It is a question to which
Individual Psychology has a great deal to contribute.
Education, whether carried on in the house or at school,
is an attempt to bring out and direct the personalities of
individuals. Psychological science is thus a necessary
basis for the proper educational technique, or, if we will,
we may look upon all education as a branch of that vast
psychological art of living The most general prin-
. . .

ciple of education is that it must be consistent with the

later life which the individual will be called upon to face.
This means that it must be consistent with the ideals of
the nation. If we do not educate children with the ideals
of the nation in view, then they will not fit in
. . .
204 "NEW LAMPS FOB OLD" [MANU
as members of society. To be sure the ideals of a nation
may change they may change suddenly as after a
revolution, or gradually, in the process of evolution. But
this simply means that the educator should keep in mind
a very broad ideal. It should be an ideal which will
teach the individual to adjust himself properly to chang-
ing circumstances .
(The way in which an indivi-
. .

dual's life is related to the communal being is distinguish-

able in three life-attitudes, as they are called his general
reactions to society, to work, and to love) When . . .

(prodigies) approach the three great problems of life

society, occupation and work, and marriage their diffi-
culties come out . The goal of Individual Psychology
. .

is social adjustment . Only when we pay attention

. .

to the concrete psychological life of the individual* do we

come to realise how important is the social element. The
individual becomes an individual only in a social context.
. . . Schools and teachers should be equipped with
psychological insight which will enable them to perform
their task properly All individuals have a sense of
. . .

inferiority and a striving for success and superiority

}

which makes np the very life of the psyche?

COMPARISON OF THE Two

The reader is now invited to compare the
italicised words in the quotation, with Manu's

^ I Chh&ndogya, 7, 23, 1.

2
Adler, The Science of Living, pp. 33-'4, 54, 61, 96, 100.
103, 173, (15), 185, 199, 214, 215. These extracts make up a
very long quotation. There is nothing very unusual about
them. Similar ideas are being expounded and discussed by
scores of other writers, in books, magazines, dailies. Some
western philosophers have expounded some of the ideas in even
a better way. This particular writer has been utilised here,
for the purpose of illustrating the ancient Indian ideas,
"because he has a certain weight and vogue at the present time
in the west, his book happened to come to hand, seemed
to be at least as good i.s any other was likely to be for the
purpose in view, and was up to date (pub. 1930).
MANUl AND LESSER LIGHT 205

technical terms, as explained above, and judge

whether the comparison helps or not to illumine
the significance of Manu's terms, and, at the same
time, to show that that significance, in turn,
completes and lights up much that is imperfect and
'
obscure in Adler's thought. His words goal, ideal,
aim, ultimate goal to be like God, the ideals of the
'
nation, a very broad ideal are very obscure as
compared with, and are all included, completed,
illumined, in Manu's d harm a, art ha, kama,
moksha. His difficulty as to 'how the goal is
is solved not by Individual Psychology but
fixed,'

by Metaphysic and General or Universal Psycho-

' '

logy. His weakness of the individual,' feeling

' *
sense of inferiority,'
of inferiority,' striving for
development and success and superiority, which
'
make up the very life of the psyche all find their

ultimate cause and reason in the finitising of the

Infinite Param-atma into the jiv-atma,by

ashubha-vasana, the erroneous will-to-live as

'
a separate egoist, at first, and then by the j I v a s
striving to achieve the ultimate goal, under the
stress of the opposite, viz., shubha-vasana, the
right will-to-live as a universalist, to merge into the
' ' '
All again. His
Individual Psychology and Psy-
'
chological science as necessary basis of education
'
are only a part of S-tma-Vidya. His rightly
' '

organised society and

individual in right social
context,' when realised, will probably be found to be
very like Manu's and K^shjia's Chatur-varijya
206 ORIGINALS AND TRANSLATIONS [MANU
and Chatur-as hramya. The individual's
' '

being socially adjusted is his finding his proper

'

varna having enough

; energy and courage,'
being 'psychologically adjusted,' is becoming
1
sthita-prajiia , in the terminology of the Glfa.
*
How educate, so as to bring out and direct the per-
*
sonalities of individuals,' to make these consistent
with the later life,' is the finding and developing of
the true v a r $ a of the student by the teacher. The
4 '
vast psychological art of living is Manu's Code of
' ' "
Life. The three life-attitudes and the three
greatproblems of life' connect with the three
eshaija-s and three tosharia-s, the primal
appetites-ambitions and their gratifications, the
way which again has to be sought and found in
of
2 *

metaphysic. The teachers with the psychological

insight' needed to decide and guide the vocational
aptitudes of pupils are the true brahma^a s not
by birth ( j a n a ) but by m , psycho-physical
temperament, ascetic way of life, appropriate means
of livelihood (karma), self-denying philanthropy,
and wisdom.
These considerations naturally lead on to a fuller
discussion of the Problems of Education.

1 '

Steady-minded '.
2
See The "
Science of the Emotions, ch. On the Nature
of Desire ".
 CHAPTER III

THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION

, xii, 97, 99 ; ii f 140, 165.

The four types of human beings, the four stages of

life,and all the infinite variety of experience implied by
these, nay, the three worlds, or yet more, the whole of
the happenings of all time, past, present, and futureall
are revealed, upheld, maintained, made possible and
actual, are realised, only by Knowledge, by Consciousness
(Universal and Individual).
The Ancient Science of True Knowledge beareth and
nourisheth all beings. All welfare dependeth upon Right
Knowledge. Right Knowledge is the living creature's
best and most certain, nay, his only means to happiness*
To achieve it is therefore his first and foremost duty.
208 RESUME [MANU
He who bringeth up the pupil, bringeth him near
unto himself, and unto the Supreme Self, who invests
him with the sacred thread that is the mark of the twice-
born, and teacheth him the Scripture with its secret
meaning and its practical working he is the true
acharya. He who would be re-generated, would
achieve second birth, into the world of Spirit, he must
acquire the whole of the Wisdom with all its secret
sciences, by means of ascetic practices of self-denial of
many kinds, fasts, vows, and vigils, as ordained by
ancient rule.

IN the last chapter, we went over the outlines of

the history of the race ; we saw that, during the
current epoch, the ways to realise the ends of life
are, according to Manu, the ways of the four main
classes, temperamental types, vocational sections
(v a r ij a), and of the four life-stages (a s h r a m a) we
;

made the main problems of life, and arranged

lists of

them into four large groups, as dealt with by the

four stages and the four castes ; and we also saw
that the same old ideas are reviving, freshly if as
yet somewhat inchoately, in the garb of new
phrases, in current western literature. may We
now attempt to discuss, in a little more detail, the
solutions provided by Manu of some of those

problems.

PLACE OF EDUCATION IN THE SCHEME

OF LIFE

Under Manu's classification of the affairs of life,

Education has to be dealt with first. From the
MANU] ARMAMENT FIRST? 209

modern standpoint, which looks more to the physi-

* '
cal life, one's nation must be powerful first and
be educated afterwards. The governments of to-
day, therefore, concern themselves first and foremost
with questions of offence and defence, increase of
their own territories and population, and reduction
of their neighbor's and secondly, with matters
;

of trade and agriculture, mineral and other natural

wealth. The Army and Navy and now Air-
forces also, eat up from a third to a half of the
total revenues of most of the civilised governments
1
of to-day. Education with them, till very recently,

"
Immediately after the close of the precious war to end
1

"
war between the Great self-deceiving Hypocrites, the sense-
less, profitless, horror of the mutual butchery of the modern
Titans, the nations of Europe, even Japan's budget for 1919
was just about one hundred and three million pounds of
expenditure, of which forty was for the Army and the Navy ;
but she spent thirty-five on Education in 1923, including
local contributions. Mr. Hoover, President of the U.S.A.,
said in a public statement, towards the close of 1929, that
44
The men under arms, including active reserves in the world,
are almost thirty millions, or nearly ten millions more than
before the Great War. Aircraft and other instruments of
destruction are far more potent than they were even in the
great war. And there are fears, distrusts, and smouldering
injuries among nations which are the tinder of war". A
member of the British Parliament, who was director of bom-
bardment operations during the war, said, about the same
"
time, that a fleet of air-planes, carrying forty tons of a
(certain) gas with an arsenic base, could completely destroy
the population of London in a few hours ". What is the remedy
"
for this tinder of war " ? More of Manu's adhyatma-
vitjya and moral culture, or more bombs? ""(The Giant
Assembly) by the law of 3rd Brumaire, 1795 its political last
will and testament finally set before its successors the great
14
810 OR EDUCATION FIRST? [MANU
came third or fourth in importance. But it is
now being realised that right education is the
foundation of all power and prosperity ever-growing ;

stress is being laid upon the need for it, in dailies,

monthlies, speeches, books, and official reports of

committees and commissions ; and consequent
legislative enactments are trying to translate the
results of the discussions into practice. Whether
the practice will prove fruitful of good or of evil,
will depend on the amount of sound or unsound
physiology, psychology, and philosophy utilised/

problem of Public Instruction, remembering the words of the

most remarkable of its members and the most illustrious of its
'

victims, that next to bread, the most urgent need of the

"
people is Education* Louis Madelin, The French Revolution,
;

p. 483.
Manu gives place to shiksha, education, the
the first
next to raksha, protection, and the third to jlvika,
'bread/ in the order of the 'nobility' of the functions, as
diitingj-ishei from their 'necessity' to life. The Buddha also
places Right Knowledge first. So does Shankar-acharya,
"
following the Upanishats. Krshna declares that there is
no purifier like unto right knowledge". Kalidasa, in Raghu-
vamsha (ch. i) describing the ideal royal virtues of king
follows the order of Manu :

: 11

"He educated his people into virtuous citizenship, he pro-

tected them from ills inner and outer, he ensured for them
appropriate work and livelihood he was their real father ;
;

their physical fathers were only the means of bringing them

into this world of sorrows."
1 "
Biology and psychology are entering increasingly into the
study of education, especially in its early stages, and are
MANU] THE WEB OF HUMAN LIFE 211

THE CLOSE-KNIT WEB OF HUMAN LIFE l

From the introspective and psychological stand-

point of the Ancients, education comes first in
importance as well as in the chronolog cal order of
life. The individual and collective status and
happiness of a people correspond with and rest on its
economic condition. If the latter is prosperous, the
former will be high and great. Economic equity and
prosperity depend upon social organisation. If
the latter is well-planned, stable, not easily
dislocated, yet elastic, with justly partitioned
rights, duties, and prizes of life, and
is governed by

a serious, substantial, high and permanent aim, as

the physical organism by the soul not swayed
about by passing panics and passions like a fickle
lunatic by conflicting moods, nor obsessed with a

affecting its practice/* Enc. Brit. (13th edn.) vol. 29, p. 921
"
(Art. Education"). Manu bases not only ed ication bit all
other departments of his Code of Life, on Psychology and
Philosophy. It is a very hopeful sign that, in these discus-
sions, voices are beginning to be raised more and more loudly
against the element of vulgar arrogant jingoism wh ch is to
be found m
much of school and college literature, poetry and
history, and, even more, in that prime means of popular
education to-day, viz., the journalistic press. The nat.onal songs
" "
of the nat ons, Britannia rales the waves," and Deutsche-
" "
land fiber alles," may have been inspired w th patriotism
at the time and in the circ imstances in wh ch they were first
composed; bit, to-day, to broad -m nded, large-hearted, well-
informed, far-s ghted persons, they cannot b it seem to have
more vulgarianism in them than any fine sentiment. Manu does
not countenance such mischievous nationalism.
'
See The Dawn of Another Renaissance (Adyar P. series).
212 INTERLINKING OF ALL [MANU
low aim of sense-pleasures and riches, as a mono-
maniac with a dangerous idea then the economic
condition will be one of well-distributed wealth
and great public possessions. But the social
organisation again depends upon the population,
the structure of the family, and the nature of the
domestic life. If the population is not excessive
nor lacking, if the family is well-knit and maintains
meritorious traditions, if the domestic life is full of

mutual spiritual affections, then the social organi-

sation will be strong. And all this, finally, rests
upon the psycho-physical constitution of the indi-
Tidual. The quality of a nation is obviously the
average of the quality, good and bad, of all the in-
dividual men and women composing it. If the indivi-
dual quality is high, the national will be high also.
The individual psycho-physical constitution is
plainly the foundation of the whole national or
social structure. But, also, it is equally true that
the individual cannot develope properly unless the
social organisation is appropriate. The full truth
*
is thatindividual organisation* and social organi-
sation, a s h r a m
a and v a r $ a, interact with, act
and react, in all their details, upon, each other,
perpetually and inseparably, even as the osseous,
muscular, circulatory, glandular, nervous, etc., sys-
tems of the single living being do. Yet the indivi-
dual naturally comes up and most readily
first

for treatment. Manu accordingly concerns him-

self with his education and perfection first of
MANU] DEPARTMENTS OF LIFE 213
1
all. Apparently, from his standpoint, it is better not
to be born into this world at than to be born there-
all,

in and to live ill, pursuing some para-dharma,

4
another's vocation,' misfitted in society, ignorant
of one's own true nature and natural vocation,

swa-dharma, ignorant of those soul-truths

which not only make life worth living, but without
which indeed human Society would be impossible,
and suffers confusion exactly to the extent to
which it is without them. The West thinks the
standard of life is low in the East. It is so, to-day,

thanks, partly, to that West. Perhaps it was not

much higher in the past, physically. But the
standard of the inner, superphysical and spiritual,
life has always been high, until comparatively
recently perhaps, when a special concourse of
circumstances began to lower it, without in any
way making it possible to effectually raise the

other. The future will decide which is the more

permanent and more helpful standard and ideal,
plain living and high (spiritual) thinking, or high
living and plain (sensual) thinking. Many people

"
1
of psychology is now playing an increasing part
The study
in (education) ... Its chief concern is with the develop-
it
"
ment of personality," Enc. Brit., Ibid. Adler's individual
psychology," referred to before, seems to mean the same thing.
Ascertaining and developing to their fullest, the natural gifts
and the special vocational aptitude of the student, fixing his
v a r n a , so as to make him a useful and happy citizen, this
"
would be the complete significance of the development ef
personality," in the terms of Manu.
214 FAST LIVING OR SERENE THINKING ? [MANU
have begun to doubt if the modern phase of civili-
sation, based upon the principle of high and fast
living and materialistic and sensuous thinking,
is proving very much of a success and possibly
;

a reaction may set in. 1 Manu's type of civilisation

is based on the other principle, and the education

is regulated accordingly.

After the Great War of 1914-'18, living seems to have

1

become simpler in the towns and somewhat less hard in the

country -districts, than before, in Russia, Austria, Turkey, and
perhaps some other countries of Western Europe, out of the
" "
belligerents. But the life of the great cap.tal Babylons of
the other and victorious countries, seems to cont.nuo to be
lived as high and as fast as ever, or even more so though;

none of the victorious countries seems to have really profited

by, and bocome the r.cher for, the war, while most of them
have become nrich poorer and much worse indebted (vide,
"
Beard's Whither Mankind, pub. 1928, chapter on War and
"
Peace by Emil Ludwig). As said in a previous note, the
question is whether and how far such h gh and fast living is
possible without political and economic o repression and exploi-
tation of other and weaker masses of the populat on inside,
and whole " subject ''-peoples outside, the proper country ol
"
each such Babylon ". If it is, and to the extent that it is,
it is to be welcomed. As the Gita (vii, 11, 16) says, karaa
and a r t h a that are not opposed to d h a r m a are eminently
desirable. Manu's Aryans are worshippers in eqnal degrees,
of all three goddesses, SaraswatT, LakshmT, and GaurT, i.e.,
of Truth and Virtjous Learning, of Weal-th well employed
in Good deeds, and Beauty, health strength and Joy of life.
But where kama and artha become sensaous lust and
ruthless greed, and over-power all d h a r m a and righteousness,
there all three must crash down, all together, before long ;
witness prehistoric golden Lanka of Atlantis, and historic
Babylon and Nineveh, Thebes and Memphis, Troy and Athens,
ancient Rome and Jerusalem ; and witness in our own day,
St. Petersbirgh, renamed Petrograd, during the Great War.
Popular, influential, and able writers like H. G. Wells
MANU] THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 215

THE MAIN PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION

The outlines of the whole subject may be drawn

up under a series of headings, in terms of the
familiar interrogatives. 1
(i) What is education ; What is its nature ? (ii)

Why should there be any education ; What for ;

What is the purpose of it ? (iii) What is the scope

of education ; What are the things that should be

taught, (iv) Whom should education be given to,
and of what sort ; are they all of one type or
different, and is the same kind of education to be

given to all, or of different sorts to different types ?

(v) When should it be given, at what periods,
times, hours, of the life, the year, the day ? (vi)

Where should it be given, at what places, in the

home, in schools, colleges, universities, under
roofs, under trees, in the open air, under a residen-
tial system, or to day-scholars ? (vii) How should

have been prophesying that the other huge capitals are

*'
to keep up for much longer and must
'*
similarly impossible
follow suit before very long. But, of course, the God in man
fulfils himself in many ways, and they have a right to their
own preferences :

*'
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." I

See The Science of the Emotions, pp. 307-312.

1
These may be summed up in a Samskr t verse, thus :

% ^, %OTT \

: II
216 A THEORY OF LIFE [MANU
it be given? (This is the most varied and com-
plicated and troublesome item, like the head
" "
miscellaneous in every household's budget of ex-

penditure), (viii) Finally, Who should educate; Who

is the proper person to be entrusted with the work
of teaching and bringing up the new generation ;
What are the qualifications to be looked for in the
teacher?

A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE NEEDED

TO SOLVE THEM

All these questions are obviously intimately

connected together. The answers overlap therefore.
Behind and through them all, in the full and final
answer to them all, interlinking them all, lurks
'
and runs that fearsome thing known as a philo-
'

sophy of theorising about human nature and

life,'

other things,' without which they cannot be an-

swered satisfactorily at all. This philosophising
is a nuisance to many worthy persons who make
* '
a fetish of and regard themselves as
practicality
very 'practical'. Yet
so happens that sound
it

theory is the only guarantee of sound practice.

The only difference between medical science and
quackery is that the former has a systematic theory
behind it, while the latter has none. They who
shirk the thinking out of deep-lying causes and
distant effects, in their connection with the essen-
tial principles of human nature and with the final
MANU] THE ONLY MEANS OF SOLUTION 217
l
cause of all they, blind leaders of the blind, are
always leading themselves and others into blunders
full of grievous consequenees. As said before, the
root-concepts of all the most useful and practical
arts and sciences are purely philosophical and
' '

psychological. The metaphysical absurdities

which constitute the foundations of mathematics,
chemistry, physics, biology, make possible the
greatest feats of practical engineering, the most
marvellous mechanical contrivances, the most use-
ful achievements of medical art, as also, when

misapplied and perverted from their rightful uses,

the most monstrous happenings of infernal warfare.
The most practical economists and politicians are
constantly dealing with such psycho-philosophical
' '
concepts as mutual struggle,' mutual aid,'
' '
national consciousness,' racial jealousy,'
' l
territorial patriotism ', self-determination.' They
have perforce to take account of this impalpable
thing called human life, human mind, human nature,
and very curious appetites, cravings, sentiments,
its
' ' *

loves, hates, and its values in terms of pleasure,'

'pain,' 'joy,' 'sorrow'. The least little thinking

' '
1
In the Aristotelian sense, of the end/ the purpose/ of
life, and also the ordinary philosophical sense, of the ultimate
cause,
'
God/ the
'

Supreme/ the Self '. How the two

'

senses coalesce into ultimately, is shown by ancient

one,
Indian philosophy in explaining that the summum bonum, the
param-artha, the nis-shreyas, the highest good,
the purpose of all purposes,
' '
oksha ,
*
m
freedom/ is the
'
Self-realisation there is None-Else than Self to bind Me.'
218 MEANS VS. END [MANU
shows that the most grandiose, the most subtle,
things and words, of any and every science
and art, have really no meaning and no value at
bottom, apart from the simple and 'commonplace*
things known as human life, labor, affections,
thoughts, faiths, aspirations, ties and kin,
of kith
and human happiness, here and hereafter, which
alone they are all intended to subserve, directly or
indirectly, and apart from which they are as
naught to us.

MEANS vs. END

One would have thought that this was fairly
plain, and needed not to be said. Yet, latterly f

men have been hypnotising themselves and have

taken to worshipping the machines they have
themselves created. The machine has begun to
be regarded as more important than the man.
Steam-power, electricity-power, powder, ball, gas,
metal, and submarine and aeroplane are treated as
if they were greater than the mind-power, m a n a s ,

which discovers and invents and utilises them, and

the bread-power, the staff of life, a n n a m -
praijah, which nourishes and keeps up that
mind-power. Everywhere a glamour of
false
artificial glory envelopes the means, and an unreal

shabbine^s of fancied meanness the end. Every-

where is visible the tendency to exalt the public
servant above the public, the bureau and the
bureaucrat above the private citizen, the expert
If ANU] PROSTITUTION OF SCIENCE 219

above the layman, the specialist above the food-

giver, the professional as such above the house-
holder as such. Indeed, the public 'servant' has
'
become the public master'.
The kshattriy a -militarist, the domineerer,
the v a i s hya -capitalist, the profiteer, successfully
deceived persuaded, forced, with catchwords about
patriotism, the brahmaija- scientist, in every
one of the belligerent countries in the late Great
War of 1914-'18, to become his slave, and
induced or compelled him (the brEhma$a-
scientist) to follow his (the kshattriya-
militarist's and the v a i s h y a -capitalist's) dictates,
subserve nefarious and ruthlessly selfish
his
purposes, and prostitute science to the sword,
instead of controlling that sword by wisdom, and
keeping it back from wholesale murder. Yet more,
even within the educational department of each
national life, the executive element is manifesting
a and over-
disposition to aggressively overbear
power the instructive and patriarchal element, and
in this again, the expertist details of the
last,
'how' thrust into the background the main
to
purpose, the 'what for'.
For such reasons has it been necessary to restate
what might otherwise have well been taken for
granted, and to call attention pointedly to funda-
mental philosophical principles. If we are to
understand and profit by Manu's Code of Life, or
to frame a new one for ourselves if we can, we
220 THE NATURE OF EDUCATION [MANU
have axiom that a philosophy of life,
to accept as

i.e.,metaphysic and psychology (and the two are

inseparable *), should govern the theory and practice
of education, as also of all other departments of
human endeavour.

(0 WHAT is EDUCATION?

(a) In the larger sense

In the larger sense, Education may be said to

include all Sams-kara-s, 2 consecrations, sacra-
ments, initiations, purifications, all refining ex-
periences which make for high culture. In this
broad sense it is a lifelong process, indeed, a
process extending life after life, identical with all
' '

upward evolution. The numerous sacraments

* '
of the Vedic scheme of life or religion extend
3
from birth to death, and before and after.

1
This is being again recognised in the west, after a
strenuous endeavour to disconnect the two by the methods of
experimental psychology, an endeavour which has left good
"
results of its own however. Thus Psychology cannot
: . . .

be wholly divorced from philosophical thought. The . . .

psychologist is continually on the verge of metaphysical

issues/* Enc. Brit. (14th edn ), art :" Psychology ". In
Samskrt, Metaphysic or Philosophy is Brahma-vidyaor
" "
Atma-vidya, the Science of the Infinite Self
"
and
Psychology is Adhy-atraa-vidya, the science of the
individualised, finitised, self ".
" "
2
Samyak-karanam, making good," making
better/* improving.
3
See An Advanced Text-Book of Hindu Religion and
Ethics, Pt. (published by the Central
II, ch. i Hindu College
of the Benares Hindo. University).
MANUl THE GENERAL SENSE 221

Plato (thinks) that the aim of education is to develope

in the body and in the soul all the beauty and all the per-
fection of which they are capable. . J. S. Mill includ-
. .

ed under it everything which helps to shape the human

1
being.
These are but echoes of the perhaps more full
and precise ancient idea, which Manu states thus :

By the consecrations, the holy rites, enjoined by

the VegLas, the outer and the inner envelopes of the soul,
the grosser and the more ethereal sheaths of the living
being, the body and the mind of the person, the physique
and the psyche, are freed and cleansed of the impurities
which are difficult to separate otherwise from earthly
seed and womb. By ennobling studies, by the observance
of high vows of chivalrous, virtuous, ascetic conduct, by
pious works of charity, by the rearing up of worthy
children, and by acts of small and great self-sacrifice,
may the earthly human body be perfected, and transfigur-
ed into fit temfcle of celestial divinity. 2

1 "
Enc. Brit. (14th edn.), art. Education," pp. 964-5.

: II Manu, ii, 26-28.

"
Another way, Plato's, of describing this thought is that the
great concern of man, a concern not limited to this earthly
life, is the development of a rational moral personality".
" "
Enc. Brit., Ibid., Art. Plato," p. 53. The Bible says Ye :

are the living temples of God." The Sufi-s say: Qalb-ul-

"
insan bait -ur- Rahman ; The heart of man is the home of
God." It becomes so, consciously, when the individual self
has realised its oneness, in essence, with the Supreme Self,
explains the Vedanta. This becomes possible only when the
mind and body have been duly purified and refined by the
sacraments, especially brahma-charya, enjoins Manu.
222 WHAT IS EDUCATION [MANU
The specific ideals of beauty and perfection and
shape by Plato and Mill will differ from
referred to
time to time and place to place. But the funda-
"
mental general idea of making better," refining,
making the tenement worthier and worthier for the
dwelling therein, and the outward manifestation
thereby, of the divine element of the soul, is un-
*' *'
changeable. The adage Live and learn ex-
presses the same idea more familiarly and less

profoundly. Every serious experience has an

educative value ; lessons are, or at least can be
and ought to be, drawn from it.

(i) WHAT is EDUCATION?

(b) In the Narrower Sense

In the more limited sense, Education is the teach-

ing, disciplining, training, specially given to the
younger generation, during the earlier years of its
life, by members of the older generation, to fit them
to bear burdens, to face the dangers and
the
difficulties, and to secure the ends, of life.
definitions have been given of the word Edu-
Many
cation, but underlying them all is the conception that it
denotes an attempt, on the part of the adult members of
a human society, to shape the development of the coming
generation in accordance with its own ideals of life.
1

" "
It is a pleasure to meet the word ideals so
often, in recent writings, in such connections. We
J
Enc. Brit.. Ibid., p. 964.
MANU] THE PARTICULAR SENSE 223

have come across it before,

1
and hope to do so
again. What those ideals are or should be,
is left

rather vague by these writers, and the practice of

the west is also correspondingly vague, unsteady,
changing, as may be said from one standpoint,
or vigorous, living, taking ever shapes, striking new
out ever new
paths, from another. As everywhere
else, so here, there are two sides to the question.

Over-emphasis, exclusive insistence, on either,

exaggeration and excess, the one prime sin of all
sins, to be always guarded against and rigorously
a
avoided, breeds conflict here as everywhere else.
One set, of martinets, would leave nothing to

nature, but would prescribe study and behaviour

minutely for every minute of the day ; they might
as well put the children into strait waistcoats, or
Chinese women's shoes, or strangle them straight
off. Another set, of libertarians, would leave
every thing to nature, especially in matters of

religion ; then teach them even the other three

why
r's ; why even feed and clothe and suckle them
at all should they not be left to do all that too
;

for themselves why restrain liberty and check

;
"
spontaneous activity in these matters ? Follow
"
the middle course and shun extremes this is
2
the solution of this as of all other problems.

1
In the extracts from the writings of a living psychologist
of note, Adler, pp. 203-'4, supra.

\
224 INEVITABILITY OF RELIGION [MANU
Compromise allays all conflicts. The World-process
is one vast compromise between endless opposites,

and reconciling ideals are the heart of Religion.

Besides the adherents of warring creeds, there are
many ...
who would teach morality without
religion, because they hold religion to be a spiritual
disease or at best an illusion of the childhood of humanity
which should disappear from modern life (They) . . .

would exclude religious instruction upon the principle

which would normally be thought to make its presence
in a school essential for they deny that it represents a
factor of vital and enduring value in the life of nations
. (Yet) even these intransigeants live by a faith
. .

which sees supreme value in certain ideals, recognises

that these ideals demand service, and has some influence
'
in cleansing the inward parts '.

be granted that any such faith must be called

If it

religious because it is of the essence of all true religion,

then the doubt, whether the general principle of the
curriculum applies to religious instruction, disappears ;

for it must be admitted that religion in this wide sense is

one of the cardinal factors in the maintenance and
development of human communities, and therefore that
religious instruction must necessarily be a factor in the
school society. 1

Happy indeed were humanity if religion were

only an illusion of its childhood. Unfortunately it
is only as little or as much an illusion as pain and
'
and when
'
death. If adult
humanity, in its
4
modern life,' becomes clever enough to abolish
these, or thought-ful fear of these, then it will prove
clever enough to abolish religion also. Healthy
animals do not, or at least do not seem to, need or
have any religion, it is true. But neither do they
1
Enc. Brit., Ibid., p. 966.
MANUl BROAD IDEALS NEEDED 225

seem have any science, art, philosophy.

to need or
They are not thought-ful, they do not look before
and after and pine for what is not If we must I

have libraries and laboratories and studios, we

must have temples and churches and mosques too.
And the intransigeants who would teach morality
without religion, have to remember that morals
are now no more, or no less, immutable and
indisputable than religion, and that the only firm
foundation for morals is metaphysics, which is
the essential basis of religion, and, forsooth, of
all science, too.

We have seen before that the modern psycho-

logist sensibly recommends l that the national or
social ideals should be so broad as to be able to ac-
'
commodate all variations of fashion,' of superficial
forms, conventions, ways of living, rites, ceremonies*
But he has not tried to specify any himself. Yet,
if the elder generation is to shape the development

of the younger in accordance with its own ideals,

it ought to visualise these as clearly as it can.
The ancients seem to have specified them, in
Greece rather indistinctly perhaps, in India more
precisely and in such a way as to fulfil the condi-
tion of accommodative breadth and all-compre-
2
hending elasticity also, at the same time.

1
Page 204, supra.
2
See Indian Ideals of Women's Education, by Bhagavan
Das, pp. 5-11 (Adyar Pamphlet Series).
15
226 EASTERN AND WESTERN NAMES [MANU
NEED TO VISUALISE IDEALS, VALUES,
ENDS EASTERN AND WESTERN TERMS

We have discussed these ideals, ends of life,

' ' '
subordinate good-s and the greatest good,' the
summum bonum, in the first chapter. The Greek
philosophers seem to have apprehended them, from
a slightly different standpoint, as Truth, Beauty,
and Goodness, or the True, the Beautiful, and the
Good. The corresponding well-known Samskft triad
*s Satyam, Priyam,Hitam, orShantam,

Sundaram, Shivam. The highest good is 3

described by Plato as, not pleasure, nor knowledge

alone, but the greatest possible resemblance to God,
the absolutely Good and the Beautiful also per se
;

according to him, eternal. We have seen before

*
is,

that a living modern psychologist also believes

that the goal of all goals is to be like God. An-
s
other living veteran philosopher says :

discussing intrinsic values, we are endeavour-

In
ing answer the old question, What is man's
to
chief end ? The general conclusion
. . .
may . . .

be summed up in the statement that intrinsic Value

is found in the creation of Joy through the appre-
hension of Truth by means of Power; and the per-
sistent effort to help in doing this is Goodness. In so

usually arranged as Shan tarn,

1
This second triplet is

Shivam, Sundaram; it sounds more musical thus ; bat

the correspondence with the other is disturbed.

'See203, Supra.
p.
3
Mackenzie, 'Fundamental Problems of Life (pub.
J. S.

1928, in The Library of Philosophy series), pp. 76, 82-3.

MANU] TRUTH, GOODNESS, BEAUTY 227

far as this is in some degree achieved, it is Beauty.

Whatever helps in realising it has instrumental Value.
Goodness has supreme Worth. Beauty has supreme
Value. Goodness cannot be effectively realised without
Power. Beauty yields Joy which is its subjective aspect.
Nothing has value that has not some degree of Reality.
Reality, rightly apprehended, is Truth. These would
seem to be the fundamental Values. All others are, in
various degrees, instrumental The complete or
. . .

ultimate Good would thus be found in apprehending the

Truth that Love and Power give Reality to Beauty and
Joy. Thus all the six aspects of Value would be included
in the conception of a cosmos.

This extract is only illustrative. Hundreds of

philosophers in the west have discussed the three
main ideas, of the True, the Beautiful, the Good.
They have said more or less good things. But
all

obscurities seem to be left behind. Approaches are

made, but the central fact is not grasped. The
highest Good, the goal of all goals, is to be like God,
the absolutely Good ; but how, why ; and what is
the absolutely Good ? Why are there three Values,
or six. Why not more or less ? And why these
particularly and not others ?
Does the old Indian way of thinking throw light
upon the dark places and help us to grasp the
central fact ? Let us see.

Always, in the last analysis, speaking most

generally, only that is valuable which is desirable,
and only that is desirable which is pleasurable, and
only the voluntary, play of the Self, Notchecked
free,

by any-Other than the Self, is pleasurable. There-

fore the only Value Ideal, End, is Joy, Happiness,
228 SATYAM, HITAM, PRIYAM [MANTJ

Pleasure however we may call it. To the man

on the point of death with starvation, an ounce
of life-preserving nutritive liquid food is in-

finitelymore valuable than millions upon millions

of gold coins and gems and jewels. If given the
choice, he would certainly choose the former
above the latter, and instantaneously. The moment
after he has taken this ounce of food, the next
ounce becomes reduced to its market value, and
the man will probably prefer even a single gold
coin, which could buy many such ounces, to that
next ounce. The economists recognise this fact,
and yet is it not very ir-rational ? Reasoning starts

from, is based upon, facts, premises, which are non-

rational, psycho-physical, facts arbitrarily created
by the Self-willed wilfulness and lordliness of the
universal, meta-physical, Self, which is the One,
the Only, the Absolute God, ab-solved-ly, eternally,
infinitely Good and Beautiful and True, and yet is
sensed by every one of us who can self-consciously
utter the word? 'I' and 'We'. This Universal
Self, Param-atma, when individualised as j I v -

at ma, manifests three aspects or functions,

knowing, desiring, acting, which are recognised, in
varying terms, by western psychology also. The
object of knowledge is Satyam or Shantam,
True or real or steadfast as discriminable from the
false or unreal ; of desire, PriyamorSundaram,
the loveable, the lovely, the Beautiful as contrasted
with the undesirable, the ugly ; of action, S h i v a m
MANU] SH3.NTAM, 8HIVAM, SUNPARAM 229

or H i t m
the peaceful, the beneficial, the sym-
a ,

pathy-promoting, the philanthropic, the Good and

right and righteous. Joy, anan(Ja, bliss, is the
fulfilment of the Self s desire, therefore of the Self
itself ; is, as it were, expansion, aggrandisement,
magnification, multiplication of It ; it corresponds
with Beauty. So Reality corresponds with know-
ledge and truth. So Power with action and good.
That which is distinguishable by the individual

self asthe good, or the beautiful, or the true, is

all-One in the Supreme Self as Omnipresence-
Omnipotence-Omniscience, Sa t- A n a n d a-C h i t *

1
in the Supreme Self.

1
For detailed exposition of these matters, especially the
significance of the thought, I-Not-Another, see The Science
of Peace, The Science of the Emotions, The Science of
Religion, or Sanatana Vaidika Dharma, The Science of the
Sacred Word or The Pranava-Vada, and other works by the
present writer. Bat some brief Samskrt texts may be quoted
here, to support the text above, for the sake of the reader
who has not time to look into those books.

: I Yoga-sutra.

I Manu, iv, 160.

\ Glfa.

WRf RhWjfcWL I
MandVkya.
I
fl^STPft, ^iRfi:, 3$ft: II
Upaniahajs.
230 DHABMA, ARTHA, KlMA [MANU
Such is the why and the wherefore, the philo-
sophy, the s hast r a, of this triad of fundamental
and intrinsic values, ideals, desirables. But for
the practical purposes of vyavahara, daily life-
conduct, the triad has been put into other forms
and words. From this standpoint of practical
life-conduct, which combines,
oversees, occupies
and utilises other points of view, cognitive or
all

scientific, desiderative or aesthetic, and active or

ethical ( philosophical, religious, artistic, political,
economic, civic, domestic, etc., may be said to be
T
forms and aspects of these three ), the triad re-
appears as dharma,artha, and ka ma , and the
summation and fulfilled perfection of them all,

and yet also a transcendence and abolition of

them, as moks ha , which is emancipation from
all sense of smallness,
limitedness, separateness
and consequent fears and sorrows, o k s h a which m
is the goal of all goals, the summum bonum, the
realisation that the individual self is not only like
but identical with God, the Supreme Self, and
therefore one with all beings and with all the World-
Process which is the garment and the manifest
body of God.
P h a r m a -Virtue Truth in action, is the doing
is

of Good to others, the doing of good deeds, the

Mbh. Shanti.,
t ch. 62.
MANU] REALITY, POWER, JOY 231

doing of Justice, the performance of Duty, the

observance of Law, human and divine, i.e., natural,
based upon ascertained knowledge of facts, realities,
physical and superphysical, material and spiritual.
Ar t h a -Wealth is the means, the materialised
Power, of Goodness, which
the relieving of pain
is

and the promotion of pleasure all around. a ar K m

Joy, the pleasure of fulfilled desire, is the
achieving, the finding, of Beauty in the living form
as well as in the comparatively inanimate objects
of all the fine arts. Moksha
by recovery of the
,

lost memory of the oneness of the small with the

Infinite Self, is the finding of the Truth of all
truths, the Reality of all realities, the Beauty of
all beautiful things, the exhaustless treasure-house
of riches, the philosopher's stone, the elixir of
all

life,the horn of plenty, the wishing-tree, the magic

wand, all at once. All is in the Unconscious
Supra-Consciousness, the Universal Self and since ;

myself is one with that Self, whatever belongs to

any self belongs to me, belongs to each self. When
this memory has been recovered, all duty has been
fulfilled, life's work done, the final peace found.
1

More Joy of the embodied life,

concisely, (i)

subserved and by the Wealth produced

refined
by science and art, and governed and guided by
Duty prescribed by Law, and (ii) Joy of the Spirit,

I flFF sfiH if

\ etc., Gita.
232 FACULTIES-FACILITIES [MAKU
born of the assurance of immortal absolu-
tion from all limitations these are the ends of
human broad enough to include all variations
life

in the ways of living and the forms of civilisation.

Such, then, are, or, according to the ancient
thought, ought to be, the fundamental values, the
ideals, the ends of life life individual and life

social. Therefore, the two ought to be so planned

and organised as to provide the greatest facility for
each individual to attain them. And the system of
education should especially be so constructed as to
develope in the new generation the faculties (which,
*

etymologically, are the same as facilities/ abili-

ties) for attaining them,
As another western writer,
1
repeating the Greek
ideas, says :

There are three great questions which in life we

have over and over again to answer, Is it right or wrong ?,
Is it true or false ?, Is it beautiful or ugly ? Our education
ought to help us to answer these questions.
Not only to answer them, we may add, but also
to secure the right, the true, the beautiful, to the
best of our own capacity, for ourselves, and help
others to do the same also.
Since individual and society are related as part
and whole, individual life and social life are
obviously interdependent, and the education of the
young should necessarily keep in view the nature,
the structure, and the ideals of the society in which

1
Avebury.
MANU] EDUCATION-FOB LIFE'S NEEDS 233

the younger generation has to play its part when

adult. The intense appreciation, of this inter-
dependence of the two, by the ancients, shines out
in their reverent and urgent recognition of the three
congenital social debts of the individual, and their
emphatic insistence on the due discharge of them
by each individual. Glasses in the form of modern
language may help to throw into relief the signifi-
cance of the old words, now grown dim with the
dust of millennia, for those who might not other-
wise see it readily.
So far as any conception of education (of the indivi-
dual) can give guidance to the actual process (of the
perfect of life) it must be relative in every way to the
state of development of the society in which it is given
. . .Educational theory must always be more or less
paido- centric that is, must focus its attention in the
first place upon the single child and upon the gifts and
powers which make him educable but in its recent trend
;

it goes beyond that, and tends to regard the perfection of

the individual as the proper end of educational effort.
This does not imply a disregard of social claims or point
towards social disintegration the view is that the best
;

forms of communal life will be fostered by an education

which regards social relations as a necessary medium for
the development of the higher stages of individual life
rather than something to which the claims of individual
development must be subordinated. Comparative
. . .

psychology . .
anthropology and the psychology of
.

primitive races .
bring into relief
. . the . . .

necessity of relating instruction to the actual needs and

conditions of life of a people, and the influence of
differing mental backgrounds upon the attitude of men
towards their fellows and towards nature. . Edu- . .

cation aims at conserving and perfecting the life of the

community, but that life is nothing other than the life of
its individual members. In an ideal community there
would be complete identification between the interests of
234 1SHRAMA AND VARNA [MANU
every unit and the whole but history records no ideal
;

communities. In practice there are always divergences,

leading to exploitation here and sacrifice of develop-
ment there. 1

It seems that all that such writers wish to say

(and a not very clear way, perhaps, may we
in

say?), and more besides, and in a more explicit and

completed form, is contained in the details of the
Sshrama-dharma and the varna-dharma,
and in their interweaving as warp and woof.
'
Western history may record no ideal communi-
ties,' nor even, perhaps, any which had at least
placed before itself a definite ideal. No doubt, it
has been said, as by Hegel, that Judaism was a
religion of sublimity, a cult of wisdom and might ;
the Greek religion, of beauty ; the Roman, of

expediency ; but it does not appear that these were

consciously held ideals, and deliberately tried to be
lived up to, to and by the peoples concerned the ;

philosopher them, reads them into their

infers
civilisations. Indian history, on the other hand,
patently records a community which has not only
evolved and defined clear ideals, but has also tried
to live up to them consciously, and, more, is con-

tinuing to do so, to-day, under our eyes, in profession,

however much it has, in practice, perverted and
distorted them, and forgotten their intimate connec-
tion with the philosophical and psychological

J
Enc. Brit., Ibid., pp. 965, 968. The extracts from Adler
at the end of the preceding chapter are to the same effect.
MANU] PRINCIPLES AND DETAILS 235

principles of l.tma-vidya and Adhyatma-

vidya which underlie them and without which
they can never be justly understood.

UNCHANGING PRINCIPLES AND CHANGING

DETAILS

Some, even very thoughtful persons, sincerely

"
believe that it impossible to
is read Manu for
practical guidance to-day". This opinion is easy
to understand in view of the current practices of
Hinduism and their perversion and distortion of
Manu's injunctions. The opinion is true also, in
another sense, viz.^ that in view of the greatly
changed ways of life, exactly the same forms and
details cannot be followed as are contemplated in
the available recension of Manu. But because we
' '
cannot read him for practical guidance, in respect
ofchanging details, it does not follow at all that we
cannot read him, and very profitably, for theoretical
guidance, in respect of permanent principles. The
fundamental facts and laws of human nature form
the permanent skeletal system of his Code ; details
of forms are as the changing surface tissues. Obvi-
ously, there is nothing said in Manu as to how we
should behave on a railway train, or a steamship,
particularly ; but the principle, which is mentioned,
that certain observances may be relaxed on journeys,
will apply, whether the journey be by bullock-cart
or by luxurious railway-saloon. The daily cleaning
236 IDEALS AND REALS [MANTJ

of the teeth is a necessary item of personal hygiene ;

but we may substitute a bristly tooth-brush for the

if city-life makes it
old-fashioned twig of tamarisk,
more convenient. Some geography and history,
itihasa-purSija, must be learnt as part of
general education but new text-books may well be
;

used they are up-to-date, accurate, more interest-

if

ingly written. The four aims of life must be pur-

sued in all ages ; but the details of the ways of
pursuit may well differ, from age to age. The fine
arts must be cultivated ; but music may be drawn
from the vl$a or the piano, at option. Society
must be organised main classes but they
into four ;

may be, and indeed now had better be, called by

other appropriate names, for the old names have
acquired very bad and almost inseparable associa-
tions of rigid heredity. So with the other triads
and quartettes of essential human facts mentioned
1
before. They constitute the unchanging elements
which manifest in ever-changing forms.
A western critic, wide
of exceptional power of
observation and generalising grasp, in his day, has
said of Manu t

does not represent a set of rules ever actually

It
administered in Hindustan. It is in great part an ideal
picture of that which, in the view of the Brahmins, ought
to be the law. 2

J See pp. 85-87 supra.

a
Maine, Ancient Law, p. 17, It may be noted here, in
"
passing, that because this ideal which . .
ought to
. . . .

"
be the law is based on the Soienoe of the Self, and has been
MANU] RELIGIOUS UNITY OF INDIA 237

But this is only very partially true. The

scheme was law under the Hindu kings of India,
was altered in part by some Buddhist and Jaina
kings, and was restored imperfectly by subsequent

taken to heart all over India, together with the Samskft

language in which it is embodied, therefore have the Indian
People possessed, from time immemorial, that peculiar spiri-
tual, religious, cultural, and social Unity (of which the unity
of the very diverse races of Europe, in the medisBval ages,
under the so-called Holy Roman Empire, may be said to be an
example also) which, invisible to the careless, or the biassed,
interested, and prejudiced, view, amidst the vast superficial
diversity, is yet an undeniable fact, and a far stronger fact
than mere artificial political unity. This is being recognised
more and more clearly by the more thoughtful foreign
observers. Manu's Ideal is to the ever changing individuals
and families, tribes and clans, castes and sub-castes, nations
and sub-nations, races and sub-races, speaking a dozen main
and hundreds of minor living languages, who make up the
vast body politic of the Indian People, even as the soul is to
the cells, tissues, organs, systems, and limbs of the living
organism. For a historically unknown number of centuries,
nay, millennia, it has been absorbing and assimilating and
Aryanismg the raw material that has always been coming in,
by assigning to its components their proper places in the great
Social Organisation of the Four natural Estates of the Realm
of Civilised Humanity. That living soul, that Ideal, had, It
seems, lost much of its vital power by the time the Arab and
Afghan invasions began. Since then the process of assimilation
has been giving way more and more to a process of consump-
tive disintegration and steady loss of weight because of the
loss of digestive power possessed by the philosophical
principles of the scheme, which principles have for
long been neglected and cast away, while the dead and
therefore disease-breeding forms have been retained and clung
to, with the addition of a suicidal touch-me-notism and
exclusiveness in place of Manu's inclusiveness. If these
principles are duly taken again into the body-politic, like
ozone and medicinal spring-waters and alterative medicines, a
nature-cure will be effected, the assimilative power will be
renewed, the whole system rejuvenated, and all the races of the
238 MANU'S SCHEME AS ACT-UAL LAW [MANU
Hindu kings. Even to-day some small and more
or less deformed parts of it are law. The practice
or enforcement of it must, of course, have always
been imperfect, and is now very greatly so. But
the practice of which law the most modern and
up-to-date is perfect ? No ideal can ever be actu-
ally reached and grasped by the real. It is much
if it is clearly visioned and even distantly appro-

ached. Knowledge is power. Vision of the Goal is

half attainment. The varija-ashrama scheme
"
is an ideal which completely identifies the
"
interests of every unit and the whole and thereby
"
makes true, that the life of the community is
nothing more than the life of its individuals," what

otherwise is not exactly true for a whole is some-

;

thing more than a mere addition together of parts ;

it not only a collection but also a collecting

is

power, a connecting thread or link, not only a mass

of some billions or trillions of cells and tissues,
each with its life, but also an organising soul,
thread-soul, group-soul, over-soul, with an indi-
viduality of its own. The ideal is that each human
being should be in rapport with the whole state or
community, and reflect the larger life in his smaller
one, as each ray bears and each dewdrop wears
the image of the whole sun.

earth could be taken into it and assigned their appropriate posi-

tions with all their creeds practically undisturbed, and only
their educational, political, economic and industrial arrange-
ments comparatively slightly modified and largely regularised.
MANU] EGO-ALTRU-ISM 239

EDUCATION AS RECONCILER OF EGOISM AND

ALTRUISM
"
The focussing of attention upon each single
1 "
child,' upon the gifts and powers which
and
"
make him educable," the perfection of the
individual," is the evolving and fixing of his true
var$a, his natural vocational class, is the as-
certaining of his swa-dharma, l
his natural
aptitude and duty, and is the giving to him of the
fullest opportunity of the best self-expression in the
"
successive ashrama-s, stages of life. The
best forms of communal life," or rather the
form which includes all the best forms, is, it is
suggested here, the v a r EL a scheme of social
organisation of Manu, which gives to all gifts and
capacities their proper place and their best chance.
"
The actual needs and conditions of life," in their
best and most ideally desirable form, are enunciated
by Manu in his four ends of life, four stages of life,

four classes or types of human beings. The noblest

**
mentalbackground," clearly spread out behind
his laws by the Primal Lawgiver, is the a b h e d a -
b u (J h i the ever-present sense of the Transcend-
d ,

ant as well as Immanent Unity and Fatherhood

of the Self, of the organic unity and continuity
and Motherhood of all Living Nature, of the
solidarity and Brotherhood of Mankind and, indeed,
of all living things and beings, because of their

, ii, 31, 33 ; iii, 35 ; xviii, 47.

240 ORGANISATION FOR PEACE AS FOR WAR [MANTT

Sonship to that Father and that Mother. Science

and philosophy, in the west, are approaching ever
more closely, this greatest of all facts. When it

has been clearly recognised, then the significance

of Manu's injunctions will shine forth of itself. }

1
nay mutually quite contradictory, as are the
Conflicting,
reports in India, through the English press, as
received
regards what is taking place in Russia, some decrying
wholly, some praising greatly, it is naturally difficult for one,
without other and more reliable sources of information, to make
up his mind as to what the truth is. Still, the general rule,
that the truth is in the mean between extremes, may be
presumed to hold good here as anywhere else. To illustrate
how the Oversoul of Humanity is endeavouring to develope
'

abheda-buddhi,
'
the sense of solidarity, non-separate-
ness (which is, philosophically, more accurate and significant
'

than unity/ because it indicates diversity as well as trans-

cendence of it by, subsumption of it under, unity), in civics
and politics and economics, though probably with many
errings by excess as yet, the following may be quoted from a
recent writing (October, 1930) by Mr. C. E. M. Joad, an
author of some note on politics and philosophy, published
after a personal visit to Russia :

"
The achievement of the Bolsheviks is that they have been
able to mobilise an enthusiasm for peaceful endeavour and
the work of construction, which, among all peoples, both
past and present, has hitherto been aroused only by fighting
and the work of destruction. In England, on the whole,
young people work and play because they must, only for their
own hand in Russia, they feel that they are engaged in
;

business which is not only their own business, but which they
know to be the business of all Russians, and which they hope
and believe will one day be the business of the whole world"
rights in ashrama-dharma are one's own business ;
' '
The
the duties in varna-dharma are the world's business '.
'

Thus are egoism and altruism, competition and co-operation,

individualism and socialism, driven in team, by the Old
Scheme. The modern world may also, by true socialism, like
Manu's, organise for peace, as it has been doing for war.
MANU] THE GENTLEMAN 241

EDUCATION AS MAKER OF THE GENTLEMAN

What Jowett and James l

and other western
philosophers of note have said, about the object of
education being to evolve a man into a gentle-
man, so that he reacts and responds rightly to every
demand made on him, in any and every situation
all that is contained in the single word d v i - j a ,
"
twice-born/' which James also uses, and which is
2
naturally known to Christianity also, as to every
"
great religion, in some form or other, as re-genera-
tion," the fruition of "conversion". The Samskrt
word y a has the same connotation as the
a r

English word gentleman, with an added touch of

" "
seniority ", nobility ", in various respects.

BEHAVIOURISM

Even at the risk of over-laboring the method, we

may illustrate the old ideas by quoting the views
of yet another distinguished educationist and
philosopher of the far west.
Thought an organ of response, it is an instrument
is
of behaviour Thinking begins not with premises,
. . .

but with difficulties and it concludes not with a certainty

;
'
but with an hypothesis that can be made true only by '

1
Talks to Teachers.
2 "
Verily, I say unto you, except ye be born again ye
"
cannot enter the
"
kingdom of heaven Bible. Another:

reading is Except ye be converted and become as little

children ".

16
242 PHYSIOS HAS OUTRUN PSYCHICS [MANU
the pragmatic sanction of experiment The . . .

Spencerian definition of education as the adaptation of

the individual to his environment must be replaced by
the practice of education as the development of all those
capacities in the individual which will enable him to
control his environment and fulfil his possibilities , . .

Since the individual is to live in a society, he is to be

studied as a citizen not as a solitary self or soul
. . .

. Faith in Education as the soundest instrumenta-

. .

lity of social, political, and moral reconstruction, is

justified by this . . . illimitableness of human growth
. . . Our to-day are the difficulties of a
difficulties
chaotic adolescence, and the disproportion between our
powers and our wisdom. Physical science has for the
time being far outrun psychical With tremendous . . .

increase in our control of nature, in our ability to utilise

nature for human use and satisfaction, we find the actual
realisation of ends, the enjoyment of values, growing
unassured and precarious, 1

The words italicised in the above quotation

furnish points of contact with the ancient
the
thought. All knowledge, says the Mlmamsa system
of philosophy, without contradiction by any other,
but only an important supplementation by the
Vedanta, is intended to be utilised for action.
Theory is tested by practice ; scientific hypothesis

"
1
Enc. Brit., Ibid., art. Dewey, John". Prof. John
Dewey to-day, the leading philosopher of the U.S.A., and
is

head of the Department of Philosophy in Columbia University.

At the present time, there can scarcely be too much mutual
transfusion of mental blood between east and west ; scientific,
from west to east, to relieve the latter's anaemia ; spiritual,
from east to west, to replace some of the latter's unhealthy
liquids toxicated with the poisons of excessive sensuosity.
Translation of the best thoughts of each into terms familiar
to the other, and thus creating conduits, as numerously as
possible, would help that process of transfusion.
MANU] DEEDS PROVE WORDS 243

by correct prediction. An ounce of good practice

is better than a ton of barren theory. They who
do rightly also, are better than those who simply
know rightly. The proof of the pudding is in the
eating. By their acts are men judged. Martyrdom
witnesseth The above quotation is only
faith.
comment on these aphorisms. Education should be
purposive, pragmatic, directed to the achievement
of the four ends or values, which achievement is

possible inand through social life. Therefore edu-

cation should develope the student into a good
citizen, with an appropriate vocation, var$a.
'
The individual is not only a self, a soul, an I,' but
also a 'we'. Education comes first in the scheme
of life/ A good education is the indispensable basis
of all other good things. If prevention is better
than cure, promotion of virtue is better than pre-
vention of vice. Moral culture is far better than
penal codes. Inner law, implanted by right educa-
tion, makes outer laws unnecessary. Psychical
science, psychology, philosophy, must ascertain the
ends, the values, and, thereby, govern education and

1
famous Poet, Rabindranath Tagore, has recently (in
India's
October, 1930) declared this ancient Indian belief
"
to a great
audience in Moscow, as the papers report I believe that
:

all the problems of humanity may be solved by education.

Our poverty, epidemics, industrial backwardness, and mutual
struggles which make our life so difficult are explained by the
pitiful condition of our education. I came to your country to
see how you are trying to solve this problem. The little I
saw convinced me that you have worked miracles in a short
"
time.
244 OBEY GOD TO BULB HIS NATURE [MANU
1

all other activities. Dewey's attempt to controvert

Spencer is uncalled for. He does not really mean
anything different. Reconciliation of views is
always possible to persons who do not answer
to the German student's definition of his professor
"
as a man who is of a different opinion". One
must obey nature's laws to be able to control her.
One must adjust oneself to the environment a good
deal, before one can control it somewhat. The
culmination of this idea is thus stated anciently :

He who identifies himself, his individual conscious-

ness, with Me, the Universal Consciousness, all s i d <J h i s,
all powers over nature, wait upon him obedient.-
Such western writings, thus, are only com-
mentaries on Manu's few but deeply significant
words, and all that is of value in those writings

ffff^f:

The view of Prof. Kilpatrick, head of the Department of

Education in the same Columbia University, has been quoted
in Indian Ideals of Women s Education (Adyar Pamphlets
"
Series) Tell me what sort of civilisation you want, and I
:

will tell you what sort of education you should give." In

" "
other words Make your ends clear."
: Only a science
which is directly related to life is a science," said William
James; "and to the life after life" might be added on
behalf of Manu.
2

II Bh&gavata t XI, xv, 1.

MANU] THREEFOLD EDUCATION 245

will probably be found to be either explicit or

plainly implicit in them, together with much else,
in the shape of extensions of legitimate conse-
quences to distant reaches, and supplementations
and completions with final conclusions of far-
extending character.

EDUCATION AS TEACHING-DISCIPLINING-
TRAINING

In the more limited sense, then, Education, s h i k -

s ha teaching, adhy-ayana, study, a d h y -
,

apana , the process of teaching-

instructing, is

disciplining-training, intellectual-moral-physical or
cognitional-emotional-actional, whereby a member
of the new generation developes to the fullest extent
possible to him, his natural varria, and becomes
fit to take his proper place in the life of his society,
and go through the remaining three ashramas
successfully in accordance with his true var$a.
Connected words are upa-nayana, guru-
kula-vasa, vrata-bandha, and b r a h m a -
c h arya .
They will be dealt with in due course.

SHIKSHA-ADHYAYANA

Shiksha comes from the ro

learn, and also to teach. It is 1

1
Quite possibly the English word
shiksh through the German zeigen,
docere, to teach.
246 DEVELOPEMBNT OF ABILITY [MANU
s h a s and s ha m s, to teach and to inform. But the
root of the root seems to be s h a k to be able, to
,

have power, ability, might (might do, may do, can

do, has the might to do a thing also, can, can-ning, ;

con-ning, cun-ning, knowing how to do

'
knowledge ;

ispower'). Shiksh, in the sense of 'to learn,'

" '

would be to wish to have ability in the sense of ;

* '
to teach,' would be to cause to have, to develope,
'

ability '. The English word educate,' from e,

forth, and ducere, to lead, has the same sense

of leading bringing out, ability. Adhy-
forth,
4
ayana , (from a d h i + i) means going very near,'
'approaching very close'. The English words
' ' '

under-standing,' grasping,' com-prehend-ing,'

' '

ap-prehend-ing (prehendere, to seize), per-ceiv-ing

(capere, to take), are all similar words. So too the
'
other Samskrt words, u p a-1 a b h,' to gain, to
obtain, a v a-g a m
come up to, to find, n i-g a m,
,
to
to go up to very close andwith certainty, which
all now mean to know, to perceive, to ascertain,
to become sure of. 1 Things and thoughts, re-als
and idea-Is, concrete and abstract, outer and inner,
mental processes and material processes, body and
soul, define and give shape to each other.
2
A d h y-
ayana may be more fully and specially inter-
preted thus :

I
Nyaya-sutra.

: \ Yoga-bhashya.
MANU] ACHIEVEMENT OF ENDS 247

That course of study, discipline, training, which

developes the power to first understand and then attain
what is good and desirable and what is best and most
desirable that is true Education. Virtue, riches, enjoy-
ment these are good and desirable inner freedom of
;

spirit from all doubt and all fear, moksha, wherein

selfishness and the sense of separate individuality are
annihilated, and at-one-ment with all and universal love
and performance of philanthropic duty reign supreme
that is best and most desirable fear is from and of
;

another, to be small is to be unhappy, therefore to be the

only One-Without-Another, to be the Greatest without a
greater, to feel that all is I, is Bliss without compare, is
best and most desirable and that which enables the
;

human being to attain these that is true Education. 1

<jw*|p!:

"
A Christian writer has well said : The battle of the mind
[intellect] is great, of the emotions greater, of the will greater
still, bat the battle of the self is decisive. Do we hold to it
or do we let it go ? Let it go, let in God." In Samskft thought
m
we would say, the will is the a h a - k a r a the essence of
"
,

the small self, the separate individuality, My will, not

Thine"; moksha is, on the contrary, "Thy will, not
248 THE SACRED THREAD [MANU
DPANAYANA-VRATA-BANDHA

The significance of upa-nayana, at which

the X.rya boy receives the yajiia-upa-vita,
4
the triple sacred thread,' magnetised, protective, re-
minder of many vital triads, may be expounded thus :

The impressive rite, prescribed by holy scripture, in

which the child is ceremoniously conducted (n a y a n a), by
the parents, near (u p a) to the teacher of known wisdom,
virtue and learning, in order that he may be led by that
teacher near to Brahma, the Supreme the rite wherein ;
4
the child says to that teacher, 1 offer myself to you
reverently (u pa - p r a - n a y a m
i) that you may cherish
me as a father, and lead (n a y a) me to the Supreme '

Knowledge,' and the teacher promises to him, I will do

mine" the will of the Universal Self, not my individual self ;

it is let go the small self and let in the Infinite Self.
to
Another Christian contrasting n i s h k a
*'
a and love, m karma
says One is bad psychology and poor religion the other
: ;
'

is good psychology and supreme religion. For the greatest

of theseis love.' Nishkama karma has the framework
. .
.

of making others suffer, the battlefield (vide Gita) love has ;

the framework of suffering for others, the cross." Such

views are not unnatural. The writer, probably, has judged
not merely by the letter but by the spirit shown in the practice
of the professed Vedantists also. That practice is undoubtedly
the reverse of what it ought to be, and the selfish spirit
' '
behind it has led to rationalisation (in the psycho -analytic
'
sense) and perverse interpretation for the wish is father to
the thought'. But, then, Christianity has been similarly
"
misjudged. By their fruits shall ye know them." The
Great War of 1914-18 was many times worse than that of the
Olta, and every belligerent quoted the Bible and appealed to
God, and the priests of each blessed him. The Vedanta
provides for both, the Sword and the Cross, each in its place ;
the defensive (and not offensive) Sword for the kshattriya
and the householder, the Cross for the brahmana and the
s a n n y a s T-anchorite.
MANU] THE MUTUAL VOW 249
'
so ; that v r a t a -b a n <J h a, mutual vow, is known as
upa-nayana. 1

BRAHMA-CHARYA

Brahma-chary a is a most deeply signifi-

cant and comprehensive word. It is the technical
name given to the first a s h r a m a or stage of life, ,

devoted to education. It has also come to mean

*
a course of study and discipline,' and especi-
'

ally '. Etymologically, it means the

continence
chary a, the 'pursuit,' of B ra the course hma ,

' '
of conduct which accords with the finding, gather-

ing, storing, realising of Brah m a. And Brahma

S*t: 3^3

The Upanishats contain such expressions as ^T c3T

" "
etc., all in the sense of approaching a teacher to ask for and
receive knowledge. Upa - n -
sh a t
i
*
so to say, the climax
is,
*

of upa-nayana; it means sitting very close to the

teacher to hear the final secret. HT-STT^'T is constant attend-

ance, worship.
 "
250 THE BRAHMA-CAREER " [MANU
means the Supreme, Eternal v Infinite Self, (ii)
(i)

the Veda, Holy Writ, the Science of the Infinite Self

and of the principles and laws of that pseudo-
infinite World-process, World-order, which is includ-
ed in that Self, (iii) the seed of life, the sperm-

germ, wherein is the potency of infinite self-

multiplication. B rh means 4
to expand
'

infinitely,
1
to be vast.

He who has accomplished brahma-charya,

completed education, successfully, wbo knows the heart
of the Ve<Ja, the Secret of the Supreme Self, he is the
person fit to lead armies, or guide the rod of justice, or be
the sovereign ruler of nations, for in him the individual
has become one with the Universal, wherever he may be,
whatever the walk of life he may be treading.
In him has been achieved, in the words of one of
"
the western writers quoted before, identification
"
between the interests of every unit and the whole ;

Katha and Glj&.

i sr^9<n ifti^M^f^i ^3^ i

Chhdndogya.
I
Sayana, Atharva-Bhtlshya,
Kanda XI, Ch. iii, sakta 7, mantra 1.

U Manu, xii, 100, 120.

MANU] THE "STORING" OF BRAHMA 251
"
in him has the, dewdrop slipped into the shining
" "
sea in such a way that the shining sea is in the
dewdrop held 'V Such is the perfect ideal of
Education.
For practical purposes, we may say that the
answer to the question, What is Education ?, is
that education is the educing, developing, and
training to good uses, the natural powers of the
head, heart, and linbs, i.e., the cognitive (sensor
and intellectual), emotional, and actional (volitional
and muscular) faculties, of the educable, in such a
way that they may become able to take care of
themselves and their families and dependents, and
to serve their society, spiritually and materially,
so as to secure for themselves and help others to
secure, as far as possible, the greatest happiness
here and hereafter, by achieving the four specific
2
ends of life.

1
Compare the Sufl-s :

Ilm-i-Haq dar ilm-i-sufi gura shawad

In sukhan kai baware mardum shawad
Ilm-i-Haq nuqt-ast wa ilm-I-SufT khat,
Az wnjud-e nuqt bashad bad-i-khat
Maulana Rumi, Masnawi.
I.e. f The Omniscience of God is held confined
Within the vision in the Sufi's mind.
Who will believe this marvel ? But few can !

He who knows, it, he is the perfect man !

God's Consciousness is an Infinite Point ;

Man's is a Line of points, joint after joint.

*
Herbert Spencer, in his essay on Education, has emphasised
this aspect of Education, as enabling persons to help them-
selves as well as others which is only another, and very
252 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION IMANU
(it) WHAT FOR is EDUCATION?

" "
The next question, the What for," the Why,"
the purpose, aim and object, of education, is an-
swered already by what has been said above. The
nature of a thing, its d h a r m a its characteristic
,

constitution, includes its purpose, its karma, its

'

duty, its final cause, its destiny '. The end is

already present in the beginning the final cause is
;

also the first cause the alpha and the omega are
;

one the seed-root becomes the seed-fruit and the

;

seed-fruit becomes the seed-root. All interrogatives

are answered when the What is answered. Even
the Why of the World-process, the World-order, is
answered, when the What, the Nature, Sva-bhava,
Prakrti, of Purusha, Param-Atma, Brahma, wherein
the World-process lives and moves and has its
being, has been explained. The Why is the
stimulus which leads to the understanding of the

simple and useful, way of indicating the inseparable connec-

tion between the individual and society, chatur-varnya
and chatur-ashramya. Miss M. P. Follett, in The
Modern State, has caught a good glimpse of this idea, (which
is indeed a fact plainly visible to even the eyes of flesh, if
we would but see), of the inseparability of each self from all
other selves, and has tried to apply it to practical politics.
Much that is " confessedly embryonic " and very vague in that
book will be cleared up if Manu's scheme is studied in the right
spirit. That Miss Follett has not been uninfluenced by eastern
thought, may be inferred from the fact that the Samskrt word
i o h o h h a, will, desire, is used, just once, in the book, which,
" "
she also says in one place, came by wireless to her, what-
ever that might mean.
 ABILITY TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS 253

What. In the What are contained all other ques-

tions and answers, and out
they proceed. of it
To repeat : The purpose
Education is to teach
of
the educable how the Material and the Spiritual
Happiness of Mankind, the Abhy-udaya (or
dharma, a r t h a, and k a m a) as well as the
Nis-shreyas of Humanity, individually and
1
collectively, may be achieved.
Such the great purpose of Education. And
is

Education is also the best, finest, and most effective

instrument for achieving the purpose. It not only
gives the knowledge, but developes the will and
the skill. As already said, prevention is

better than cure ; and promotion of good is far

better than prevention of evil, for it does all the
negative work of the latter and super-adds a positive
beneficence. Manu attaches far greater importance
to the ministrant or promotive functions of the
State, and herein again to educational ministration,
than to the so-called and miscalled constituent or
preventive functions.
The ruler within whose state the wise, virtuous,
learned educationist, looked up to by many students,

Isha and other Upanishats.

"
Froebel, a notable western educationist, says : Education
should lead man to clearness concerning himself and in him-
self,to peace with Nature and to unity with God ; hence it
should lift him to a knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a

knowledge of God and of Nature, and to the pure and holy life
to which such knowledge leads." Education of Man, p. 57.
254 THE EDUCATOR [MANU
suffers want for lack of due support, and therefore sound
and useful scientific and moral Education starves and
decays, that ruler and his whole state will also starve
spiritually and materially, and decline and perish before
1
long.
Is it not plain that if science and righteousness
are not fostered and spread throughout the country
diligently, the people must stagnate, and degenerate
'
into barbarism, and thence into savagery, and reel
J '
back into the beast ?

5
tifcff: sfcft 31 1

tffcft n Manu, vii, 134.

The word shrotriya may be explained thus,

*
Physical scientists themselves are beginning to realise the
vast danger of science divorced from morals. To quote just
one or two as samples, out oi scores of expressions of the same
"
opinion in, e.g., a journal like the Scientific Monthly : The
very advance of physical science has become a menace to our
oivilisation if our present low social standards persist. We
must have more tested social knowledge, more social intelli-
gence, and more agreement regarding social problems*';
"
Professor Soddy. The use of the products of science in war
is a monstrous perversion of the purpose of science. ... To
"
bring about right action is the end of science ; Dr. W. P.
"
Taylor. Sc. Monthly, April, 1925. With all our boasted
ingenuity and science we are almost fundamentally ignorant
of the character of our civilisation and of its trends. do We
not know where we are going. The goal, if there is one,
. . .

"
seems to be somewhere the other side of nowhere ;
Dr. W. D. Wallis, Ibid., May, 1929. The patent goal of
modern western civilisation is artha-kama,
"
money and
sense-gratification, to-day, now, at once, eat, drink, and be
"
merry," meals, motors, movies," at the expense, with ruth-
less exploitation, of the weaker.
MANU] THE OlVILISER 255

When the virtuous scientist and teacher is lovingly

honored and cherished by the ruler, then, by the due per-
formance of his duty of gathering and spreading know-
ledge and righteousness, the health and wealth and
prosperity of people and ruler alike increase, and the
average of their lifetime is prolonged. Many clans and
tribes of Arya warriors (kshattriya- s) like the
Paundrakas, Oudras, Dravigias, Kambojas, Yavanas,
Shakas, Pc-ra^as, Pahlavas, Chinas, KirjJias, Dara<Jas,
Khashas fell into barbarism because they wandered
away into distant regions, taking no learned elders
(b r a h m a a - a) with them, lost communion with wise
men and touch with civilisation, and so gradually dropped
and forgot the Aryan conventions of society and rites
of conduct and civilised ways of living. Study of the
wise scriptures, and acts of self-sacrifice, prevent or cure
all sins, even the worst. The man of the b r a, h m a n a type
is so named because he is verily born with the mission,
and for the sole purpose, of realising the Universal Self,
Brahma, in his own individual self, of identifying his
individuality with the Universal, and, thus personifying
the highest d h a r ma in himself, of leading all others to
righteousness-cj h a r m
a also. With vows, vigils, and
fasts and self-denial of all sorts, to gather elevating know-
ledge, lay and sacred, open and secret, exoteric and esoteric,
overt and occult, with incessant diligence, and to give it
to all the deserving with equal assiduity this is the
high calling, the mission, and the t a p a s-asceticism, of
the b r I* h m
a n a. He who, being qualified congenitally
for the status and calling of the twice-born, pursues any
other, and from a missionary becomes a mercenary or a
pleasure- seeker, he degrade th himself, and becometh
worse than a once-born unregenerate s h u <J r a ; he
becometh degenerate together with all his descendants.
But he who answereth to the calling of his natural birth-
right and birth- duty, he becometh verily as a father to
the whole people, and the divine wisdom that dwelleth in
and with him becometh their mother. 1

f|
256 SPIRITUALITY AS BASIS [MANU
Therefore does Manu
insistently brahmanise his
civilisation, on Brahma- vidya and the
found it

brahmaija, on Education in b r a h m a and

d h arma science and virtue, in inseparable
,

ft^l^Hlf^TT:

: WTF:

fqfR^^T

fl ^f^gc^t ^P^R ^^% II

: I

f|

fTTcTT ^TTfMt f^lT

Manu, vii, 136 ; x, 43, 44 ; xi, 245 ; i, 98 ; ii, 165-'6-'8, 170-1.

Some of the tribes mentioned in these verses are recog-

nisable to-day, bearing the same names still others seem to ;

have disappeared or changed names. The ancient Greeks

and Romans who spoke of the contemporaneous Persians and
Carthaginians as barbarians (and Gibbon in his History of the
Roman Empire has faithfully copied them) seem, even in
Alexander's time, to have thought of the India of their day
with less scorn. But after the successful Arab and Afghan
'
invasions, she fell into contempt, and the epithet of bar-
'
barian has recoiled upon her from all sides,
MANU] PRIESTCRAFT AND KINGCRAFT 257

combination, on wisdom which is knowledge plus

philanthropy.
But, alas the evil selfishness, inertia, and
I ,

excess inherent in human nature have, in east

and west, time after time, clime after clime;
made the priest and the king slip insensibly from
their high duties into priest-craft and king-craft,
one main infernal device of which is to stultify
and stifle intelligence by studiously withholding
education of the right sort instead of spreading
1
it, and spreading demoralising notions, disunion,
mutual distrust, selfishness, cowardice, enslaving
and spirit-crushing superstitions, and ideas of the
4 '
divine rights and privileges of priests and kings
and capitalists, instead of extensively inculcating
their far more divine duties and responsibilities,
diligently curing false notions, and uprearing
an intelligent, brave, industrious, free, united people.
How the shifting of the basis of the social organis-
ation, by abuse of power, false propaganda, false
2
education, exploitation, from duties to rights, from
responsibilities to privileges, from public servant-
ship to public lordship, from k a r m
a- vocation (by
to j a n m a-heredity,
*

spontaneous variation ')

turns the economic (caste-) class-system and the
political governmental system from a blessing into*

1
Western history contains many examples ; as also the
history of India in the past and under the British regime and
in the Indian States.
8
See the extract from the Enc. Brit, at p. 233-4 & 241-2 $upra*
17
 "
258 VARIOUS CRACIES" [MANU
a curse, and produces, turn by turn, such monstro-
sities as brahma$a-rajya, theocracy, sacer-
dotalism, ecclesiasticism, popery, orkshattriya-
ra j y a, aristocracy (autocracy, bureaucracy),
militarism, feudalism, or v a i s hy a-r fi j y a, pluto-

cracy, capitalism, mammonism, or shudra-

r a democracy, mobocracy, laborism how this
j y a,

happens will be dealt with later. Each of these is

an abnormality, an excessive exaggeration of one
element in that which, when all the elements are
rightly balanced, is the ideal Manava-rajya,
Nomocracy, the rule of the wise man, the philo-
sopher-king, in the sense of the philosopher plus the
king, i.e., legislation by the man of philanthropic
wisdom, the b r ah m a $ a, and execution by the
man of philanthropic valour, the kshatt^iya.
The book, the sword, the purse, the plough all are
indispensable the book to guide the sword, the
;

sword to guard the purse, the purse to cherish the

plough, the plough to feed the custodians of all

four. But when any one of the^e shoots beyond its

mark, and begins to emphasise its rights and shirk

its duties, then the balance of power between the

natural classes which make

every civilised up
society is disturbed, and evils begin. Right edu-
cation is a prime factor in maintaining this balance
and keeping the evils at bay. Therefore Manu
brahmanises his civilisation, but with many safe-

guards against the teacher-scientist-priest-legisla-

tor developing self-righteousness, spiritual pride,
MANU] THE SCOPE OF EDUCATION 259

hypocrisy, luxuriousness, vice, and treason to his

high mission.
Such is the way of education.

(Hi) WHAT is THE SCOPE OF EDUCATION

The third question is, What is the scope, the

subject-matter, of Education ? What should be
taught ?

It may be dealt with in two aspects, the

subjective and the objective ; that is to say, with
reference to (A) the subject, the child and youth,
the (a d h y e t a, vid y-a r t h I, the pupil, who is
to be educated, and (B) the objects of study, the
things to be learnt, the a d h y e y a, the v i d y a.
'
As regards (A) e-duca-tion being the leading
forth,' the developing, the shikshaija, the
'

shakti-sampadana, the en-abl-ing,' mak-

ing abler and more powerful, of the natural faculties,
we have to consider, (a) what are these faculties,
and, (ft) whether we have good from
to discriminate
bad among them, so as to nourish the former and v

eradicate or at least emaciate the latter.

(A-a) The Faculties which should be developed

As to (a), we find that man is made up of three main

s h ak t is, faculties, powers, abilities, of jiiana,
ichchha, kriya, knowing, desiring, acting.
1

For other names of these three, see the present writer's

1

The Science of Religion, or San&jana Vaidika Dharma, p. 31.

260 TRIPLE SHEATH OF SOUL [MANU
We can distinguish various systems in the
physical body, f.i., the nervous, the nutritive, and

the muscular. And there are sub-systems under

each, f.i. 9 the afferent or sensor nerves, the central
cells,and the efferent or motor nerves in the
nervous system. So we
1

may broadly distinguish,

in the man as a whole, the triad of physical body,
2
emotional body, and mental body or, in more ;

current words, the physique, the feelings and

emotions and will, and the intellect. All these
need to be duly educated, developed to the fullest
extent of the limits set by the natural constitution
of each individual. Mens sana in corpore san~>--
sane healthy mind in sane healthy body to create
such is the scope of education. The time-old say-
ings of the nations embody the quintessence of the
wisdom of thousands of years of experience ; new

1
More and more minutely detailed knowledge is being
gathered daily by the admirable industry of western scientist-
rshis in physiology as in other sciences. But the termino-
iogy is constantly changing. The latest terms, in neurology,
seem to be 'neuron* for the nerve-unit, consisting of a
' *
'deudrite' (afferent, sensor, in-bringing knowledge), an axon
(efferent, motor, out-carrying volition and action) ; and the
central portion, which will probably be found to be the locus
of desire, seems to have been called periokaryon sometimes ;

knowledge is probably translated into action in this centre.

2 These
may be said, very broadly, to correspond with the
body, soul, and spirit of St. Paul the sthfila, sukshma,
;

and karana sharlras, or anna-prana-maya,

mano-maya, vijfiana-maya koshas of Veda nta ;

the karmendriyas, sharlra, and jflanendnyas of

the Nyaya and body, heart, and mind, or limbs, heart, and
;

head, of popular language.

MANU] COINCIDENCES OF THOUGHT 261

discoveries are always proving to be only re-

discoveries ; and growing science writes anew, fuller
and fuller commentaries on those same ok] sayings.
Health of body and mind, freedom from disease of all
kinds, is the one condition of the achievement of all the
four ends of life. 1

There is no dispute that the physical body of the

student should be so trained as to grow up well-
nourished, healthy, shapely, strong, hardy, active,
elastic ; and probably none that his mind should
also grow up worthy of the same adjectives. But
while, in the case of the body, the sense of the

Charaka.
How truth is common property and not to be copyrighted
may
"
be illustrated by the following coincidence of thoughts :

That body is without doubt the most strong and healthful

which can the easiest support extreme cold and excessive heat
in the change of seasons, and that the most firm and collected
mind which is not puffed up with prosperity nor dejected with
"
adversity Plutarch, Lives, The Comparison of Timoleon with
;

Emilius Paulus ". And

*Jl*f[H+fii<q l: I

T: II

U xii, 18, 19 ; ii, 56.

"
Equable, to friend and foe, under honor and insult, in cold
and heat, in pain and pleasure, unelated by joy and praise,
undepressed by sorrow and slander, detached, contented, uc-
harried by loves and hates, fears and jealousies such is the
steady-minded sage, lover of the Self."
262 BODY, CHARACTER, INTELLECT [MANU
adjectives is fairly plain, it is not quite so clear in
the other case. It may become so as we proceed.
The reason of the
comparative vagueness is that
here we have to deal with two aspects which seem
to be more closely intermixed with each other than
with the body, though, as a fact, all three are inter-
dependent. The two are intellect and character.
The individual trinity is made up of body, character,
and intellect. Character is the comparatively per-
manent resultant of the emotional forces which
sway the individual. It is the nett will, the ruling
passion. The business of disciplining is to make this
permanently beneficent. If we may make such
distinctive use of the words, we may perhaps say,
that the body has to be trained, the character
disciplined, the intelligence taught,
1
so that the

of sharlra, vi-nayana of sva-

l
Vya-yamana
bhava or prakrti, adhy-apana of budti h would
'
i ,

be corresponding words. Shikshana would cover all.

Spencer, in Education, has discussed whether there is any
'

difference between 'knowledge-value' and training- value,'

and has decided that the two cannot be separated. "If we
give our pupils the knowledge which is of most worth, that is
the knowledge which has indispensable practical value in
regulating the affairs of life, we shall at the same time give
them the best possible mental training for it is incredible that
;

the pursuit of the best kind of knowledge should not also afford
the best mental discipline." Of course this also is true, if we
give a broad sense to the word knowledge. How to keep the
body healthy and strong, how to check evil emotions this
has also to be known, and known by undergoing the appro-
priate training and disciplining. But this only means once
again that nothing in the world is single, but that all things
intermingle; and that yet distinctions are also possible, useful,
and necessary, within limits.
MANU] GOOD AND BAD 263

resultant alumnus may be intellectually strong,

and physically strong, and morally strong and
benevolent also. Then his intellectual and physical
strength will be rightly used and be socially use-
"
ful. Some details may be attempted under How ".
(A-b) The Tendencies which should be attenuated

As to (6), the question of good and bad, right

and wrong, arises principally in connection with
the desires and emotions. Ethics is concerned
with these; as logic with intellect, and athletics
with the body, while aesthetics may be said, in
1
its broad sense, to cover all. In connection with
intellect and body, good and bad take on the form
of and useless, healthy and unhealthy,
useful
pleasant and unpleasant. With reference to these
distinctions, it may be enough to bear in mind that
as "dirt is matter in the wrong place," so "bad
and useless " are desire-emotions, intellections,
actions, in the wrong time, place, and degree, and
3
directed to wrong objects. Anger is ordinarily
From another standpoint, Logic is the Science of Truth ;

^Esthetics, of Beauty; Ethics, of Goodness.

2

tier

"
There
is no vowel or consonant which has
not a magical
property as sound-force ; nor any substance whatsoever which
has not a medicinal value ; nor any man who is not
good for
264 ARYAN CHARACTER [MANtJ

bad, but there is such a thing also as righteous

and noble indignation against abuse of power. Fear
in the wrong place is cowardice in the right, ;

caution ; of the evil man is bad ; of offending

against God's Righteous Laws, dharma-
bhiru-ta,is very Jealousy is bad; but
good.
jealous guarding of public rights and properties is
very desirable and honorable. When well-instruct-
1

ed intelligence, well-disciplined character, and well-

trained body combine to make a regenerate ary a,
gentleman, he knows and carries out unerringly
what is the appropriate emotion and action with
which to respond and react to any given stimulus
in any given situation in short, he always knows
;

what is right to do and does it. As said before,

principles are proved by conduct, words by deeds,
science by application to art, education by life. 2 The
only tendency to be starved is the one to extremism.

(B) The Sciences and Arts which should be taught

Next we have to find out more specifically what is

the subject-matter of the education of the intellect,

at leastsome one thing. But he who knows the property, the

value, the goodness, and how to utilise it is very difficult to
find. Duty with occasion what is lawful for one is
differs ;

unlawful for another, or even for the former himself in other

circumstances."
1
See The Science of the Emotions, pp. 99-101.
3
Nay a and char a, shastra and prayoga, si d-
d h a n t a and vyavahara, j fl a n a and karma, dharma
and a c h a r a brahma and dharma, are corresponding
,

Samskj-t pairs.
MANU] SCIENCES AND ARTS 265

what are the objects of study, the sciences and arts,

in which instruction should be given side by side,
of course, with the training of the body and the
disciplining of character.
Many classifications of the sciences have been
put forward in the west. Herbert Spencer's seems
the best known and practically holds the field still.
Briefly, the main divisions are, (a) Abstract, i.e.,

Logic and Mathematics, (6) Abstract-concrete, i.e.,

Mechanics, Physics, Chemistry, (c) Concrete, i.e.,

Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Psychology, Socio-

logy. The reason why, as explained by him, does
1

not perhaps come quite home; still it helps to

facilitate knowledge by arranging the sciences into
some sort of orderly system, and, as doing this, is
useful. It will be noticed that the arts are not
touched by it. The latest tendency in the west
seems to be to think less of such classifications.

r
J. Introduction to Science (H. U. L. Series
A. Thomson,
"
recently reprinted) says The five great fundamental
:

sciences are (1) Sociology, (2) Psychology, (3) Biology,

(4) Physics, (5) Chemistry. There is much need fop
. . .

Metaphysics to function as a sublime Logic, testing the

"
completeness and consistency of scientific description
(pp. 106, 166-7). A. Herzberg, The Psychology of Philo-
"
sophers, (pub. 1929), says Primitive science showed
: . . .

a steady tendency to divide itself into independent branches

firstly mathematics, then astronomy and physics, later
chemistry, then biology, and finally psychology and sociology.
..
Philosophy (is) ... the synthesis of all sciences ... a
.

sort of quintessence of all sciences the science of the . . .

widest problems in all fields, and of those problems which

"
affect mankind most closely (pp. 8, 12, 13).
266 ORGANISED KNOWLEDGE [MANU
At a certain stage of development, much attention
was given to methods of classification, and much emphasis
laid on the results, which were thought to have a signifi-
cance beyond that of the mere convenience of mankind.
But we have reached the stage when the different streams
of knowledge, followed by the different sciences, are
coalescing and the artificial barriers raised by calling
those sciences by different names are breaking down . . .

Science is in reality one, though we may agree to look on

it now from one side and now from another, as we
approach it from the standpoint of physics, physiology,
or psychology. The whole problem which mankind has
to face undoubtedly includes an inquiry into the ultimate
nature of reality. But that inquiry lies in the province of
metaphysics . . . Metaphysics uses the results of natural
science, as of all other branches of learning, as evidence
bearing on her own deeper and more difficult questions. 1

All this only repeats in new words the ancient

declaration that the Veda, Science, is one continu-
ous whole with an infinite number of parts, like
the World-process which it deals with, and that all
vidya s, sciences and arts, are a n g a s limbs, mem-
,

bers, organs, or u p-a n g a s , sub-organs, s h a k h a s,

branches, pra-shakhas, sub-branches, of it, be-
ing named after the predominant feature or subject ;

the heart, the root, of the whole being the One

Reality of realities, the Supreme Self, as expounded
"
by the V e d - a n t a-tfpanishats, the crown and
finality of knowledge, the Secret of all science
J
V
"
1
Enc. Brit. (13th edn.), Art. Science".
2
F: t

I crlff I ^TT^F: I SRTFsTT: \

The word Veda comes from the same root a vidya.

*

Originally the two meant the same thing, science-art '.

This is plain from such usuage as phanur-veda, the science
 "
MANU] THE LORD VEDA " 267

Yet classifications are plainly convenient, help-

ful, and desirable, nay, necessary. We have only
to avoid excess, and always to remember that
abheda non-separateness, the connecting thread
,

of metaphysical unity, runs through all the seem-

ing separateness of the classified sciences. It is only

when men emphasise the differences too much and
shut their eyes to the samenesses, s a m a - 1 a that ,

errors and quarrels begin, in the sciences, as well

as in social,political, economic, and domestic
relations between human beings, individuals, fami-
lies, tribes, nations, races. Therefore the ancient
Indian thought, while distinguishing between, and
classifying the sciences and arts, at the same time,
poetically conceives and pictures the Veda-Bhaga-
van, the Lord Veda, the Veda-Purusha, the Science-
Man, the God of Science, as one anthropomorphic
and art of the Bow, i.e., of War Ayur-veda, the science and
;

art of Medicine Gandharva-veda, the sconce and art of

;

Music Shilpa-veda, the science and art of Crafts in general

; ;

Sthapatya-veda, the science and art of Building and Architec-

ture. Gradually, the word came, in the course of the general
degeneration that seems to have set in, to be confined to the
four collections of sacred, mystical, and mysterious hymns that
now go by the name, while most of the sciences and arts of
daily utility were forgotten. But wonderful books are now
and then being brought to light, which help to justify belief
in palmier days of Indian science and civilisation, e.g.,
Bharata's Natya-shastra (on the Drama), Kautalya's Ar\ha-
shas^ra (on Government), and various works on Engineering
summarised by K. V. Vaze, in his valuable series of articles
"
on The Philosophy of Ancient Indian Engineering," which
appeared in The Vedic Magazine (of the Gurukula, Kangri, near
Hardwar), and which, unfortunately have not been reprinted
in book-form so far, though they ought to have been long ago.
268 CLASSIFICATION (MANU
1
organism with sensor and motor organs. It ia only
right and natural that the Veda should reflect
Nature. Nature is an organic unity and conti-
nuity ; because the God of Nature is One, and His
Universal Consciousness holds together all the
infinite parts of Nature-Matter in a perpetual
Unity. Man's limited mind proceeds by analysis ;

Nature is always a limitless synthesis. Classifi-

cations are mostly a matter of practical convenience,
for special purposes. But, also, science is largely
classification.

Vidyas, Sciences, have therefore been classi-

fied ways, from different standpoints,
in different
in the old books. The oldest, and deeply signifi-
cant, divides them into two, the higher and the
lower, the transcendental and the empirical, the
Science of the Infinite, Eternal, and Changeless
Self, Spirit, or Subject, and the Sciences of the
Finite, Fleeting, Changing forms of the not-Self,
2
Matter, or Object. Sub-dividing the last into two,

SJTO 3 %^T, Jpf

11
Chhandah is the feet, Kalpa the hands, Jyotisha the eyes,
Nirukta the ears, Shiksha the nose, Vyakarana the mouth of
the Veda."
2
| fa3j %f^{s3t, TO ^farSTO 1 \ Mundaka. Metaphysics
and Physios would not be a bad pair, if Physios could
mean all material sciences.
MANU] SIMILARITY IN DIVERSITY 269

we have the division into the idhy-atmika,

1
idhi-4aivika, and the 1-dhi-bhautika
or the Sciences of Spirit, of Energy, and of Matter.
These three may be said to broadly correspond with
Herbert Spencer's triple division. For the educa-
tion of the future ruler, they have been classified
into (a) the group of logic, psychology, philosophy,
(b) and jurispru-
ethics, (c) economics, (d) politics
dence. 2 But the most purposive, pragmatic, and
permanently useful division is into four, correspond-
ing with the four permanent purposes or ends of
life, and in the same words, (a) Dharma-
s h a s t r a (b) Artha-shastra,
, (c) Kama-

shastra, (d) Moksha-shastra, in other

words, the Sciences (a) of Righteousness, of Law,
human and divine, (b) of Wealth, (c) of Enjoyment,
(d) of Emancipation of soul and Spirit. Moksha-
shastra is the same as Para-vidya, the trans-
cendental Science of the Self. Apara-vidya
includes the other three. All possible sciences
may be grouped under these. They may be broadly
equated with (a) the Legalities, (b) the Realities,

I
Shukra-Mti.

For details of other current classifications, see An Advanced

Text-Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics, Introduction,
(pub. by the Central Hindu College of the Benares Hindu
University).
270 FOURFOLD DIVISION [MANIT

(c) the Humanities, and (d) the Divinities ; or, more

specifically, (a) Ethics, (6) Economics, (c) Esthetics,
(d) Metaphysics. If it is remembered that sciences

are for life, and not life for sciences, and that
therefore the applications of the sciences for the
service of life, i.e., the arts, may be regarded as
included in their respective sciences, then we may
easily see that all sciences and arts may be
grouped under these four, as subserving the
four ends of life. All the material sciences
may be regarded as helping to produce Wealth;
and all the fine as well as the useful arts
(the distinction is artificial) as subserving Enjoy-
ment. The sciences of psychology and sociology
minister to that Law and Righteousness which
upholdeth and exalteth nations by organising them
firmly. Metaphysics brings Emancipation. But
this, again, only by predominance. In fact, all

the sciences and arts are interdependent and

inseparable, as the ends are.
It is only to subserve these four euds, that the
Knowledge which Education deals with, is organis-
ed into four departments, and Education is through-
out made culture-vocational, combining science and
corresponding arts. Religious, Moral, Emotional
instruction with
Pharma-shastra
corresponds ;

Technical, Vocational, Intellectual, with Artha-

shastra ^Esthetic, Physical, with Kama-shastra
; ;

all interwine. Spiritual education is the work

of Moksha-shastra. Liberal culture means the
MANU] SUBSERVIENCE TO FOUR ENDS 271

combination of the first four ; I in the completeness

of that culture is spirituality achieved.
Some slight detail may be attempted.
The subject-matter of education divides, first,

into,
A. Material Science (Skt. Apara-vidya ; Persian-
Arabic, UlUm-i-Dunya, Ilm-i-Saflna).
B. Spiritual Science (Skt. Para-vidya ; P.- A.

Ulam-i-pin, Ilm-i-Slna).
Material Science, the Science of Matter, the
Science of the Finite, includes, as its three main
sub-divisions,
A. I. The Sciences (Skt. Shastra-s P.-A. UlUm
plural of Ilm) and Arts (Sk{. Prayoga-s or Kala-s,
P.-A. Funan, Fun) which make possible (a)
pi. of
the Organisation (Skt. VyGhana or Sangraha^a, 1
P.-A. Tanzim) and (b) the Preservation (Skt. Rak-
sha$a, P.-A. Hifazat) of Society ; i.e., Dharma-
shastra, (P.-A. Ulam-i-Tanzim-i-Jamaat, Fiqah).
Those subserving (a) Organisation include (i) as
preliminary, the four R's
(Reading, Writing,
'Rithmetic, and Religion) and
the Vedangas
(Language and Linguistic Sciences, Grammar, Philo-
logy, Exegesis, Rhythm or Prosody, the elements of
Mathematics, Astronomy,
1
etc.) ; (ii) the principles

S, 32l \

Mundaka.
For discussions of the significance of these, see the present
writer's The Pranava-Vada, or TJie Science of the Sacred
Ward.
 272 DHAEMA-SHISTRA ARTHA-SHASTRA
;

of Psychology, Psycho-physics, Psychical and

Superphysical Science (being the mystical element
in the Vetfas and other Scriptures) ; as directly con-
cerned, Sociology (Skt. Samaja-shastra, P.-A.
(iii)

Ijtima-lyat), History (Skt. Puraija-Itihasa, P.-A.

Tarlkh), Politics-Civics (Skt. Raja-dharma, Raja-
shastra, or Raja-nlti,P.-A. Siyasiyat or Madan-lyat);
(iv) Ethics (Skt. Sadachara-niti, P.-A. Akhlaq-lyat) ;

(v) Law and Jurisprudence (Skt. Vyavahara-(Jharma,

P.-A. Mamilat-i-Fiqah).
Those subserving (b) Preservation include (i)
Medical Science and its subsidiaries, Biology,
Physiology, Anatomy, etc., (Skt. lyur-Veda, P.-A.
Tibb), General Hygiene and Sanitation (Skt.
Shaucha-vidhi, Irogya-raksha, P.-A. Safai, Hifz-i-
sihat (ii) Military Science (Skt Phanur-veda, Per.
;

Ilm-i-Jang) and its subsidiaries.

A. II. The Sciences and Arts which make possible
the lawful Enrichment of Society, i.e., Artha-
shastra, (P.-A. UlUm-i-Daulat).
These include (a) Chemistry (Skt. Rasayana-
shastra, P.-A. Kimiya) and its subordinates, Minera-
logy, Metallurgy, etc., (b) Physics (Skt. Bhnta-
shakti-shastra, P.-A. Ilm-i-Tabal), (c) Mathe-
matics (Skt. Ga^ita, P.-A. Ilm-i-Riyazl) and its
application to Engineering in all its branches, (d)
Geology (Skt. BhU-garbha-shastra, P.-A. Ilm-i-Ard),
(e)Economics and its subsidiary Arts of Agriculture,
Bearing of Domestic Animals, Trade and Com-
merce, and all Applied Science generally (Skt.
 KAMA-SHISTBA 273

Kjshi, Go-raksha, Vaijijya, or, generally, Varta-

shastra and Shilpa-Veda, P. -A. Ultlm-i-Iqtisa<J),
i.e., Science applied to the production of Wealth

which makes possible the securing of Necessaries

as well as refined Comforts and rich Public
Possessions of common use, for the Families that
make up Society.
A. III. The Sciences and Arts which make pos-
sible The Refined Worldly Happiness of Society,
i.e., Kama-Shastra (Per. Ilm-i-Khanadarl).

These include the Science of Domestic and Social

Life, and all subsidiary Arts that refine and
ennoble the individual, the family, the race, f.i., the
Science of Eugenics, Sex-physiology and Sex-
Hygiene, and all the Fine Arts, Poetry, Drama,
General Literature or Belles Lettres, Music, Paint-
ing, Sculpture, Massage, Perfume-making, Savor-
making, Ceramics, Jewel-work, Metal- work, Ap-
parel, Furniture, Architecture, Gardening, Town-
planning, Gandharva-Veda, S^hapat-ya-
etc. (Skt.
Veda, Kala-shastra, P.-A. Ilm-i-Majlis, FunUn-i-
' '

Latifah). Sixty-four Kala-s, arts, are mentioned.

B. or IV. Spiritual Science, Moksha-shastra,
which explains the ways and the workings of the
and expounds the rature, meaning,
Infinite Spirit,
and purpose of life and of the universe, i.e., the
universal World-process. It unifies, co-ordinates,
organises, and supplies first principles and founda-
tions to all the Sciences of the Finite ; and it

makes possible the Realisation of the deepest

18
274 MOKSHA-SHASTRA [MANTJ

Spiritual Happiness. It is Moksha-shastra (P. -A.

fasawwuf, Ma'arifat)-
It includes principally, (a)
Metaphysics or Philo-
sophy (Skt. Darshana, P.-A. Falsafa, Ilah-iyat),
and as subsidiaries, (b) Higher Psychology and
applied Psychology, the Science of Attention, of
controlling and directing the mind, (Skt. Adhyatma-
shastra, Yoga-shastra, Chitta-shastra, P.-A. Nafas-
lyat, Sulttk), (c) Logic, the Science of Right Think-
ing, Right Reasoning (Skt. Nyaya-shastra, Tarka-
shastra, Prama^a-shas^ra, P.-A. Mantiq), and (d)
Comparative Religion (Skt. Dharma-tattva-samik-
1
sha, P.-A. Ilm-ul-Adyan).

(iu) WHOM TO EDUCATE, AND

IN WHAT WAY?

Our fourth problem is Whom to Educate ? Who

are the educable ? And what sort of education
should be given to each pupil the same sort to all,

or different sorts to different types ?

In the broad sense, of "live and learn," referred
to before, every living being is learning, ill or well,
and also unlearning, throughout life. Who knows
but that even the amoeba learns, in its sub-con-
sciousness, to use its pseudopodia better and better.

1
Some aspects of this Organisation of Knowledge were
discussed a little more detail, by the present writer, in a
in
series of papers published in March-April, 1919, in the then
daily New India of Madras, conducted by Dr. Annie Besant.
Possibly the papers may some day be reprinted in book form.
MANU] WHO ARE EDUCABLE 275

But in the special sense we have in view, only

those children are educable who have the possi-
bility in them of developing the higher con-
sciousness,and becoming twice-born, regenerate,
and who have also the capacity to differentiate
out and specialise into one or other of the three
types of the twice-born, man knowlege, or man
of
of action, or man of (wealth-producing, wealth-

acquiring-and-accumulating, and wealth-managing-

and-distributing) desire. The remaining children,
who have no congenital natural potency to take
the second birth, and have to remain once-born, in
the present life, have to be given such training

and instruction as are suitable for their limited

grasp, and will make them better qualified, as
' '
far as possible, for their comparatively unskilled
' '
1
or little-skilled labor.
Of course, these are only broad divisions. There
must always be many degrees and grades of ability
and differentiation under each just as persons ;

speak of the social middle class and then go on

to it into the upper middle, middle
sub-divide
middle, and lower middle ; or, in a school, of the
primary, and then upper primary and lower
primary, classes ; or of the waking, dreaming, and
slumbering states of consciousness, and then of the
(a) watchfully, alertly, and all-sidedly wideawake,
the normally wakeful and engaged in work, the

1
Be distinction of skill from intelligence, see p. 301, infra.
 276 MAIN TYPES AND SUB-DIVISIONS [MANU
reverist, (6) the dog-dosing, the dreaming, the
somnambulant, and (c) the deep-sleeping, the slum-

bering, the dead-sleeping or tranced, cataleptic,

syncopic.
It is being established more and more definitely,

even in the go-ahead and democratic far west, by

methods of technical scientific investigation and
experiment applied ascertainment of the
to the
quality and measurement of the quantity of the
intelligence of each pupil, that in every society
there is a fairly large percentage of children who
are congenitally unfit for higher studies while ;

other children are well-endowed with special

capacities, and should be specially educated.

A pupil who does not have an I. Q. (Intelligence

Quotient) as high as 90 is practically certain to fail in
high school and most of those with I. Q.'s less than 105
fail in colleges. No matter how hard these students
work and no matter how good opportunities they have,
they are foredoomed to failure from the day of their
birth by the low intellectual capacities with which they
are endowed .Counselling the obviously dull not to
. .

attempt what is clearly beyond their reach may be

conducive to happiness, may prevent the heart-rending
struggles that are foredoomed to failure The . . .

unsuccessful attempts to reach a higher level will leave

no net result except waste of energy and much pain and
unhappiness. What is important for our purpose is that
ability should be discovered wherever it is found. This
is precisely one of the things that those in charge of
vocational guidance seek to do Compulsory edu- . . .

cation, whereby ...

a child is compelled to attend
school until he reaches a certain age or until he finishes a
certain grade does discover in a systematic way
. . .

as nothing else in the history of the world ever has done

heretofore, the inborn capacities of all the children. This
MANU] COMPULSORY EDUCATION 277

is an interesting incidental result of an undertaking

which was made, not for this purpose, but for the purpose
of providing an education which should be of use to each
'*
individual in his station in life" and which was also
believed to be necessary in order that he might discharge
1
his public duty as a citizen.
" "
This is not only interesting
incidental result
but vitally important, if it be duly developed, by
testing and ascertaining, not only he degree of
intelligence, but also the temperament, the character-
istic disposition, the vocational aptitude, of each
child, youth, adult, for the purpose of guiding him
to his proper natural vocation, his true varna*
and his appropriate place in society. In Japan
they seem to have developed this result successfully
and achieved its natural and legitimate purpose in
a manner and to an extent which has not been
achieved even in the near and the far west, and
which, seems, requires only to be placed only in
it

the setting of the principles of the V a r n -

ash ra ma scheme of Social Organisation to be-
come a perfect Educational Organisation. Tt seems
to be thoroughly worthy of imitation in India, and

1
N. J. Lennes, Whither Democracy? (pub. 1927), pp. 99,
100, 126, 131. This is a noteworthy book which makes curious
approaches to ancient Indian thoughts and conclusions, along
utterly different paths ; and diverges from them also, now
and then, in very important respects, because of difference of
standpoint and non-cognisance of various matters which Indian
thought takes account of. Either way, the book throws
light upon what has become obscure in the ancient thoughts
and ways with the lapse of ages. For meaning of I.Q.
see p. 302, infra.
278 SIFTING AND SHUNTING [MANU
amidst such a setting, for the revival of a self-

dependent, self-complete, civilisation.

In Japan, it seems, they have done far better and in
a far shorter time for the patent reason that the People,
a noble, patriotic, self-sacrificing, and united People, and
their Government were of one mind, one heart, one will,
one interest. Between them they have reorganised the
whole life of all the people, completely. So far as edu-
cation is concerned, we may roughly and briefly describe
the scheme by saying that there is one main road which
runs from the three R's to the peaks of learning. All
the educable children and youth, girls and boys, of the
nation some five millions or so in each generation
must travel on the earlier parts of the road, the
elementary, primary, and secondary schools. Then they
are subjected to a process of sifting by appropriate
examinations. Those who are fit to travel further on the
main road are sent forwards. The others are shunted on
to side-lines of manual work, industrial training,
technical education in special schools of agriculture,
commerce, mechanics, applied chemistry, navigation,
electrical engineering, art, veterinary science, seri-
culture, dyeing and weaving, embroidery, artificial
flower making, silk reeling, pottery, lacquer work, wood
work, metal work, etc. remember, regular schools are
provided for teaching these thinigs according to their
capacities and aptitudes. And this process of examining
and and passing onwards or shunting sideways,
sifting,
is repeated again and again. Naturally, only a compara-
tively few complete the courses for the purely learned
professions but none of the others is left to shift for
himself. Practically every youngster of the nation is
given some definite training for some definite occupation.
And this is what ought to be done in India also,
either by state agency, or by private organisation as
may be decided by the powers that be, amidst the con-
flict of thosewho favor state- management, on the one
hand, and those who favor individualist struggle on the
other unless indeed the people of to-day grow wise and
;

can see fit and find a way to revive in its genuine form the
ancient reconciliation of the two, in the shape of a just
MANU] '

EXPERTIST EXCESS 279

social organisation, evolved by the people and main-

tained by the state-authorities as servants of the
1
people.

Further observations will be made, from time to

time, on this subject, in connection with the
discussion of the When, Where, and How of

Education, which will be now taken up for

discussion, partly separately, and then more or less

together, because of their unravelable connection.
The answers to them form the subject-matter of
what is becoming a very technical Science of
Education in the hands of western experts with,
it is to be feared, the usual tendency to excess, and

the consequent danger of the end being suffocated

by the plethora of the means.
Lastly we will discuss the question, Who should
educate ? On
the Educator depends the solution of
all the other problems. If the right Educator is
found, then, and then only will they all be solved
rightly.

1
This is taken from a note written by the present writer, on
the basis of Baron Kikuchi's book, Japan (pab. 1909), for The
Central Hindu College Magazine (of Benares), which he was
editing at the time. It was written to compare the extreme
mismanagement of the educational problem of India by the
British regime, and the great economic and manifold other
distress brought upon the land thereby, with the successful
handling of that problem, and the consequent national pros-
perity, in Japan the reasons being obvious, conflict of interest
between ruler and ruled in the one case, identity in the other ;
the impact of western civilisation with political domination,
in the one case, without, in the other.
280 WHEN TO BEGIN EDUCATION' [MANTJ

(v) WHEN TO EDUCATE?

The time for the commencement of regular edu-

cation is fixed differently for different types of

boys. The earlier years were

purely to physi-
left
cal activity and play, in recapitulation of the life
of the earliest races. Those in whom the quality
of wisdom (s a 1 1 v a), predominates, who have to do
the work of Brahma^as, of storekeepers and
purveyors of knowledge and good-will to all ac-

cording to their needs and capacities, begin

their education early they need not spend so
;

much time on physical games, nor let their

consciousness run so much into muscle. Those
in whom that quality is distinctly colored
by activity (rajas), who are to do the duties
of the Kshattriya, to rule and guard and fight
for the defence of the people, they begin a little

later, spending more time on muscle-work. Those

whose intelligence is largely tinged by steady
attachment (t a m a s), who cling to the land and the

cattleand commercial possessions, who have to

do the plodding work of trade and agriculture,
and steadily gather and spread wealth in the
nation, who are be Vaishyas, they begin
to
a little later still ; not that their physical vehicle
can or may attain greater soundness than those
of the Kshattriyas, but because their powers un-
fold more slowly in consequence of their clinging
"inertia".
MANUJ AGES FOR DIFFERENT TYPES 281

The brahmana type should be led up to the teacher,

and invested with the sacred thread in the eighth year,
the kshattriya in the eleventh, and the vaishya in the
twelfth. But if the boy shows exceptional promise and
desire for the qualifications of his vocation the shining
aura '
and the special (moon-white) color of wisdom, if a
brahmana the (rich red) glory of vitality and the might
;

of thew and sinew, if a kshattriya the (golden yellow),;

magnetism of commercial enterprise, if a vaishya then

should he commence his studies in the fifth, the sixth.
the eighth year, respectively for the three types. Such
commencement should not be delayed beyond the
sixteenth, the twenty -second, and the twenty-fourth
year, in the three cases. For S&vitr', 'the daughter
of the Sun/ the chief of mantras and of the laws of

i
The words
etc., seem to have been used with reference to
distinctively,
the separate class-castes, formerly.have become
They
mixed up latterly. The first word is used generally in the
' * '

sense of glory,' with an implication of blazing/ burning/

' '

compelling also. The second is used almost exclusively

for the calm, serene, lustre of wisdom and holiness. The-
next four mean valor of heart, virile vigor of body, en-ergy,
and dash, repectively, and are used mostly in connection with
the soldier. The last means sumptuosity, and may be used
with reference to the possessor of wealth, the maker of festivals*
Every characteristic quality, in marked degree, produces its
peculiar tinge in the aura of the person, and a spiritual-
minded teacher, if gifted with intuition or clairvoyant vision,
as he should be, would be able to see it and discern the pro-
bable true v a r n a of the child, at once, and guide his studies
accordingly. Re colors of psychical qualities, see Man, Visible
and Invisible, and Thought-Forms, by Mrs. Besant and
Mr. C. W. Leadbeater.

Padma Pur ana Swarga-khanda,

, ch. 27.
"
White the color of the brahmana, red of the kshattriya,
is

yellow of the vaishya, dark of the shudra."

282 PRAYER AND INTROSPECTION [MANTJ

nature, the bringer of the introspective consciousness

and the power of the higher reason, without which
life remains un-understood that Savitri waits no longer
for the embodied soul after those periods, and may not
be found again in this life. 1

INTROSPECTIVE PRAYER

Savi t a etymologically means the Progenitor, the

Creator ; S a v i t r I derived from that word, means
,

His daughter. The Vedic mantra, in-cant-ation,

' '

musically chanted with the whole soul placed in

tune with the Infinite by harmonious mood of devo-
tion, adoration, love, prayer by which the blessing
and the guidance of the Father of All, the Supreme
Self, the Central Spiritual Sun, is invoked, is called
Savi t r 1. It is also called Gayatr I, because
'*
gayantam t r ay a t e, it gives protection to
him who chants it". The word mantra also
*'
means, that which being revolved in mind, gives
protection," m a n a n a t trayate. A pure mind,
fixed on God, which fears only to displease Him,
fears nothing else. It is always God-protected,

II Manu, ii, 36, 37, 38.

MANU] SAME IN ALL GREAT RELIGIONS 283

Self-protected. The meaning of the words of the

great Prayer is :

"
We meditate, we fix our minds, upon the effulgent
radiance of the Supreme Self, the One Progenitor of all
the Universe, in order that He may illumine and inspire
these minds of ours." l

The collective plural, ive, our, ours, philanthropic,

congregational, communistic,
socialistic, in the
highest sense, be noted specially.
is to
The Christ's Prayer is the same :

Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy

name. Thy Kingdom (rule, guidance, inspiration) come.
Thy will be done (by us). Lead us (away from and) not
into temptation and deliver us from evil.

The Prophet Muhammad's Prayer is the same

too :

Lord of Mercy and Beneficence Thee do we serve !

and Thee beseecb for help. Show us the straight road.

Teach us the right path, the path of rectitude, on which
Thy favors are showered (walking on which, the Inner
Self rejoiceth ever, and greatly, even though, and how-
ever much, the outer body may suffer) (let us) not ;

(stray erringly on to the path) of those who go astray,

on whom Thy wrath descends, (the greatest wrath being
a gnawing conscience). 2

Other Vedic mantra- s expressly pray to be

guarded from evil temptations together with the

ftpft aft if: SFJfaJTC I &> II

4
Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahlm 1
lyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka
nasta'in. Ihdi nas sirat-ul-mustaqlm, sirat-al-lazTna an amta
a'laihim, ghafr-il-maghzub-i-a'laihim wa la-azzallin. (Quran.)
284 RIGHT INTELLIGENCE AND WILL
1
wish to be shown the path of virtue. Obviously
the two are obverse and converse aspects of the
same mental mood, abhyasa and vairagya,
" "
approaching near the good, and turning away
" "
in distaste from the evil. The Gayafcri combines
the two in one.
The intelligence to see, and the will and the
power to do, the right this is all that a human
being needs, in the smallest matter as well as the
greatest. The prayer for these is the highest
prayer. The whole purpose of education is to
ensure these. Therefore the principal, the most
important, rite in the ceremony ofupa-nayana,
explained before, wherewith the pupil received

3 ft fflr PWT ^i M

Shvetashvatara.
"
The Lord of all the worlds, the All-reaching, who is the
Creator and the sovereign of all the gods, who created the sun,
who is also the Destroyer of all May He endow us with the
benign and beneficent intelligence."

*RT gWT ^T 3JOTR f^Jffr ^ 33f ift

II Tsha.
" =
O Sacred Fire (agre nayati
I
agnih, that which
leads onwards, as a pillar of light), lead us to prosperity by
the best road, Thou that knowest all knowledges. War Thou
against the sin and the evil in us that is trying to overpower
u. Wholly do we surrender ourselves to Thee and bow
*'
before Thee ! which are almost the same words as those of
the Quran.
MANU] SOLEMN CEREMONIAL 285

admission into the Guru-kula, the Teacher's

Family, the residential school or university, is the
deeply affectionate and impressively solemn whisper-
ing into the ear of the pupil, by the preceptor,
of this holy mantra. It puts the soul-life of the
child in touch with the Infinite Life, and lights
therein a tiny spark of All-Self-Consciousness, to
be carefully fostered into strong and steady flame.
The outer ceremonial, freed from false accretions,
has import. Though it is not essential, it is not
useless either. To the frivolous, the flippant,
the shallow, all things are such. To the earnest of
mind and pure of spirit, some of the commonest things
of life become holy. But the frivolous too will some

day become earnest, when their turn comes to be

caught by the appropriate cog of the cycling
Wheel of Life. In the meanwhile we may bear in
mind that just as all the wonders of science are the
results of the manipulations of a few chemicals, so
it is at least possible that psycho-physical research

may some day prove that some genuine Vedic rites,

which too deal with similar materials, also have
their own results.
The Gayatrl-prayer has to be practised daily,
by the pupil, after receiving it from the preceptor,
as part of the s a n d h y a-ritual, at fixed times, in
the mornings and the evenings. The benefits of the
practice reach very far, and all through life.

They begin with the training in the observance of

regular hours and fixed good physical and psychical
286 FAR BEACHES OF PRAYER [MANU
habits on gradually into the gain of the
; pass
introspective consciousness, and the capacity for
1

self-examination and self-control, which constitutes

the second birth ; and culminate in the identi-
individual self with the Supreme
fication of the
Self in yoga-samadhi. The invocation may
be said to embody, in practice, the chief law of
nature, the law of the conservation of energy, viz.,
that all minor energies psychical and physical,
mental and vital, chemical and biotic, luminous
and thermal, etc. of, are forms are derived from,
and merge back into, the One Central Reservoir of
all Shakti-Energy, the Self. Praying with concen-
trated mind, heart, will, in terms of theGayatri, re-
garding the visible Sun as, for us, the most glorious
embodiment of the Spiritual Sun, is the drinking in
of fresh energy, as the lungs breathe in fresh air, on
all the planes of existence, bhnh, bhuvah,
s vah physical, astral, mental, with which
,

the human soul is in contact through its triple

body, sthnla-stlkshma-karaija, dense-
8
subtle-causal (or, again, physical-astral-mental;.

I
Yoga-sutra. '"By prac-
tice of j a p a , internal litany, the introspective consciousness
is gained and also conquest over distractions.*'
?
More precisely, the sthula-sukshma-karana, or
waking-dreaming-slumbering bodies and states of consciousness,
may be said to correspond with what has been glimpsed by
Freud and his followers and secessionists as the conscious, the
pre-oonscious or fore -conscious, and the unconscious. Schopen-
hauer and Van Hartman in the west may be regarded as
MANU] AGE-LIMITS 287

More will be said about the Gayatriand the

s a ndhya later.

AGE-LIMITS OF ELASTICITY

Age-limits are prescribed for the commencement

of education, and especially for the initiation into
the practice of the G a y a t r I, because, after those
limits are passed, the mind and its vehicle, the
nervous system, lose the needed elasticity ; and the
finer the nervous system the sooner such loss
and degeneration begin, if its natural functions are
left un-exercised.
Modern thought and practice are, perforce, more
or less in accordance with this rule of Manu's.
Education must come in the earlier years of life.
Thus Prof. William James says 1
:

Outside of theirown business, the ideas gained by

men before they are twenty -five are practically the only
ideas they shall have in their lives. They cannot get
anything new. Disinterested curiosity is past, the
mental grooves and channels set, the power of assimila-
tion gone ... In all pedagogy, the great thing is to
strike the iron while hot, and to seize the wave of the
pupil's interest in each successive subject before its ebb
has come, so that knowledge may be got and a habit of
skill acquired a headway of interest, in short, secured, on
which afterward tbe individual may float. There is a

precursors of Freud, but the merit of the special technical deve-

lopment is his. Freud recognises the work of Schopenhauer
(whom he had not read till recently) in his The Problem of
Lay Analyses (pub. 1927), p. 295.
1
Principles of Psychology, ii, 402.
288 SIXTEEN TO TWENTY-FIVE [MANU
happy moment for fixing skill in drawing, for making
boys collectors of natural history, and presently dissec-
tors and botanists then for initiating them into the
;

harmonies of mechanics and the wonders of physical and

chemical law. Later, introspective psychology and the
metaphysical and religious mysteries take their turn ;

and last of all, the drama of human affairs and worldly

wisdom in the widest sense of the term. In each of us a
saturation-point is soon reached in all these things.

If the psychological moment is passed by, the

chance of gaining the desired habit is practically
lost for the rest of the life. Thus, as Prof. James
goes on to say :

a boy grows up alone at the age of games and

If
sports, and learns neither to play ball, nor row, nor sail,
nor ride, nor skate, nor fish, nor shoot, probably he will
be sedentary to the end of his days.

More recent pronouncements of western science

are:

(The brain) has reached its maximum size by the

twentieth year. After the twentieth year, or even a
little before, it begins to lose its weight.
1

It is generally agreed that the kind of mental

growth which is measured by these tests (for determin-
ing the I.Q., (i.e., the intelligence quotient) ceases at an
early age, varying no doubt in different individuals, but
on an average at about sixteen . . It is safe to say
.

that by sixteen nearly all the very inferior children are

eliminated from schools ... It is always found
that, in a school system, the majority of those measuring
high in intelligence are in school grades in advance of
their years . .
Surely one not capable of formulat-
.

ing and using general or abstract ideas cannot go very

1
Keith, The Human Body (Home University Library
Series), p. 87.
MANU] DEGREES OF INTELLIGENCE 289

far in influencing his fellows in leadership except as

the proverbial leader of the blind . Belief in the . .

inequality of native endowment is practically universal

among those 'who have given the question serious and
significant thought . . . The words brilliant, bright,
slow, dull, stupid, are in current use, carry definite
meanings, and reflect practically unanimous opinions.
. That the minds of all classes but the very lowest
. .

( the classification is with respect to inborn intelligence,

and not with respect to social or occupational status ) are
susceptible of far greater training than at present, both
intellectually, emotionally, and Apathetically, requires no
argument. We will admit freely that few, if any, actually
reach (under present conditions) the highest possible
limit fixer' by their inborn capacity for growth. But it
is beyond controversy that this capacity varies greatly
in different individuals, and that it does set definite limits
beyond which growth is impossible. Mention should also
be made occupations also which require native
of those
gifts what is regarded as the highest
that constitute
genius. Those who enrich the world with great literature,
paintings, statues, scientific discoveries of the first order,
or who lead nations wisely in times of crises, seem to
transcend the ordinary rules of human development. '

Compare with this what has been said before

about the Japanese system of education and the ;

following proverb of Samskrt,

Indulge the child for five years discipline him for ;

ten from the sixteenth, treat him as a friend and equal. 2

;

The mentioned in the above extracts should

ages?
be compared with those mentioned by Manu.

1
N. J. Lenues, Whither Democracy ? pp. 91, 146, 98, 80,
67, 65, 62-3, 48 (pub. 1927).

STTH3
19
290 FITTING MEANS TO ENDS [MANU
Differences as well as agreements are observable.
There is some reason to believe that the agreements
will increase as the interpenetration of the science
of education by psychological principles increases
"
in the west, under the guidance of Metaphysics
functioning as a sublime Logic ".

How far modern solutions, or experiments towards

solution, of educational problems, succeed, and
how far they fail, to achieve the purpose of Edu-

cation, and satisfy the needs of society, is observable

all around us. Whether the ancient ideas will help
to cure the failures, remains to be seen.

CHIEF DIFFICULTY OF MODERN EDUCATIONISTS

The chief difficulty of modern educationists is

that of fitting means to ends. It is obvious that

the process of education is not an end in itself
but a means. But a means to what ? The modern
educationist, would seem, does not know that
it
'
what exactly. Hence his perplexity. He will
'

not, before starting on his work, take the trouble

to clearly formulate to himself the ends of life, as
the ancient educationist does. And not formulating
the ends, he inevitably neglects the appropriate
means. By one of those paradoxes, which nature
has invented to maintain the balance of tragedy
and comedy, the modern man while laying all the
stress he can on differentiation as the prime factor
in, and as the very spirit of, evolution, in all
MANU] EVOLUTIONARY DIFFERENTIATION 291

departments of nature, yet objects to it in human

'

society, in the shape of class-' castes and types

of men, but would make them all homogeneous, all
equal. The degenerate descendant and represent-
' '
ative of the ancient man, on the other hand*
recognising, orally at least, the oneness of Spirit,
is inclined to treat each individual as a separate

caste by himself. In the lands of the separate-

seeing sight (b h e d a-b u d d h i) we have too much
outer intermixture. In the land of the oneness-
seeing sight (a b h e d a-b uddh i) there is too much
separativeness, at the present day though it was
not so in the past.
The modern educationist is not yet ready to act
upon the recognition of ready-made main types of
boys. Nor indeed can he do so very easily, in the
present confusion of caste, though he is beginning
to admit that there are different types of boys. And
so far as the ends of life are concerned, he only

vaguely thinks of leisurely occupations whatever

that might mean for the well-to-do, and of bread-
studies for the rest ; in other words, of only pleasure
(k a m a) and (a r t h a), and of these too
profit
without clear definition. And with the increase of
egoism and of the struggle for life, study is
becoming ever more and more bread-study for the?
great mass of studentsand the bread-study too is
;

pursued blindly, in the dark, without any knowledge

of which particular kind of such study, out of the

many (even broad, to say nothing of the innumerable

292 EXCESSIVE SPECIALISATION [MANU
minute) kinds of such is most suitable for which
particular student. To-day, the higher professions
have become so specialised, and preparation for any
isso exacting, so exhausting of vital and intellectual
energy, that if, after entering one, the person finds
he has made a mistake in choice, and cannot
succeed in he cannot turn to any other it is too
it, ;

late he must simply be flung out on the rubbish-

;

heaps of life. If this goes on unchanged, the result

will be that the foundations of these bread-studies,
the sole means of social cohesion, oiz.^ the humani-
ties, the d h a r m
a-studies to say nothing of the
means of liberation (m o k s h a-studies) will
some day be neglected entirely, and then the
whole social edifice will tumble down in great
catastrophes, as it has done over and over
again, ever to be built up anew, in the unending
Drama.
Not till the ends of life are systematically studied
and understood ; not till Duty
clearly (d ha r ma j is

recognised as the foundation of the social polity

and insisted on in all education, and constantly
demonstrated to the students and to the public

generally to be such foundation of Profit and

Pleasure and not till the future vocation of the
;

child can be at least broadly decided on by the

elders beforehand, with approximately scientific

accuracy of fitness not till then will the modern

educationist succeed in solving his difficulties.
The extent to which he succeeds at all is precisely
MANU] AIMS AND IDEALS 293

the extent to which he can fulfil these conditions,

1

consciously or unconsciously.
"
1
It be interesting to compare the following
will : What
education is, and how the young should be educated, are
questions that require discussion. At present there is differ-
ence of opinion as to the subjects which should be taught, for
men are by no means in accord as to what the young should
learn, whether they aim at virtue or at getting the best out of
life. Neither is it clear whether education is more concerned
with intellect or with character. And the question is brought
no nearer solution by reference to the actual practice of
contemporary education : no one knows whether the young
should exercise themselves in those studies which are useful
in life, or in those which tend towards virtue, or in those
of essentially theoretical interest. All these opinions have
found supporters. Furthermore, there is no agreement as to
the means of cultivating virtue for different people, starting
;

from different conceptions of the virtue which all respect,

naturally differ as to how the practice of it should be culti-
vated." So wrote Aristotle more than two thousand years
ago, and in our own day his remarks are as truly descriptive
"
of current opinions as they were in his own. Now, as then,
there is no general agreement as to what is meant by educa-
tion, for there is no agreement as to its aim" Welton, What
Do We Mean by Education^ p. 1 (pub. 1918).
Compare the italicised words with Mann's purush-arthas
(aims of life), dharma, artha, kama, and m o ksh a
(the culmination of theoretical interest), and see whether
Manu has or has not successfully solved the difficulties men-
tioned by Aristotle, by substituting and for his or, by showing
how virtues and duties vary with circumstances, but all withia
broad fixed unchanging limits, and how the prime means of
cultivating them is the guru-kula life, in the Teacher's
Family-Home. "Live the life, to realise the Truth.
A yet more recent writer, Bertrand Russell, makes a similar
"
start :The education we desire for our children must depend
upon our ideals of human character, and our hopes as to the
part they are to play in the community ... I propose,
in what follows, to consider first the aims of education the
:

kind of individuals, and the kind of community, that we may

294 ANCIENT VIEWS AND MODERN [MANU
BUREAUCRACY IN EDUCATION

So long as the future vocation remains unsettled,

and the orderly succession of the stages and the
ends of life unrecognised, so long the preparatory
education must inevitably remain unsettled also ;

reasonably hope to see produced by education applied to raw

material of the present quality. I ignore the question of

improvement of the breed, whether by eugenics or by any

other process, natural or artificial, since this is essentially
outside the problems of education. Bat I attach great weight
to modern psychological discoveries which tend to show that
character is determined by early education to a much greater
extent than was thought by the most enthusiastic education-
ists of lormer generations 1 distinguish between education
of character and e ducat on in knowledge The dis-
. . .

tinct.on is usel'il, though not ultimate: some virtues are

required in a p_r:>il who
to become instructed (in knowledge),
is

and m n.ch knowledge required for the successful practice of

Is

many .mportant virtues .Education is the key to the

. .

new worlvl." On Education, pp. 10, 11, 12, 66 (pub. 1926).

The student of Manu will find that all that is right in such
v.ews is contained in h's injunctions together with correction
of what is wroijg thcre'n. Thus, Manu's education Ka a- m m
s h a s t r a would not exclude, but include all that is true in,
modern notions of eugenics, and would suporadd the far more
necessary truths of sp:rit-ial and ethical eugenics to those of
intellectual and physical eugenics. (Sec the present writer's
Eugenics, Ethics, and Metaphysics, Adyar Pamphlets Series).
Man is a tr.-unity, a triple body, as said before, and all three
have to be educated together, intellect, character, and body,
which last Russell does not mention here (though he
refers to physical education at p. 48). His chapter on the
Aims of Education " is brilliant, but whether it has corres-
*'

ponding substantiality and enunciates facts and principles and

clearly defined ideals of balanced, comprehensive, and perma-
nent value, is doubtful. For the still more recent views of
Prof. Kilpatrick, head of the Department of Education, in
"
Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. Tell me what
:
MANU] OFFICIAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 295

and all other discussions and controversies over

details of text-booksand syllabuses and specialisa-
tions and generalisations and options and methods,
are mere self-deception and futile waste of time.
Nay, they are worse. They divert attention from
the main issue, and mislead the mind of the people
with a false appearance of clever fencing, away
from the vital point which needs most guarding. 1

sort of Civilisation you want, and I will toll you what sort of
"
Education to give see the present writer's Indian Ideals of
Women' ^ 77 location (Adyar Pamphlets Series).

Munu us what sore of civilisation we should warn.

tells
because the Oversoul of H ^inanity wants it supra -consciously
and he also tells us what sort 01 Education we should
therefore g.ve.
1
To illustrate, a quotation may bo made from a speech
wh ch the present writer had occas'on to make, some ten years
;

ago, as a member OL the governing body of a L iv. \-orsity :

"
The official system of education, which has been in force
for about seventy years now, has outlived its usefulness, and
whatever its benefits in the first decades, it is now doing far
more harm than good. The official tyoe of mind has its vices
as well as its virtues as have all other tyoes, the priestly,
;

the scientific, the professorial, or the commercial, or the

workman's. Each type is desirable, b it in its proper place, and
with due limitations. In India, latterly, the merits of the
official typo have boon getting more and more overpowered

by its defects too much red-tape, expertism, technicalities

:

and formalities, too much multiplication of offices and office-

bearers, too much self-importance, vested interests, grabbing
of honor and power and emoluments, too much concentration
of power in the hands of central cliques, too much neglect and
contempt of the opinion, the needs, and the welfare of the
public, too much display of authority and prestige, too much
shuffling of paltry details and juggling with trifles with show
of immense diligence, too much neglect of fundamental
principles and diversion of attention from the real issues and
296 TOO MUCH MEANS [MANU
They are like repairing the
upper stories of a
crumbling house with material dug out from the
foundations. Such methods will only precipitate
the final catastrophe the sooner, after a temporary
lullwhich is the result of the diversion of the
destroying forces in other directions, and the
consequent false appearance of great prosperity
and intellectual activity.
In the old scheme, the ends of life were clear, and
the future vocation was foreseen, in a broacl sense. 1

the radical evils, too much decrease of the people's efficiency,

too much increase oi' the official's efficiency, too much waxing
of the servant, too much waning of the public, too
public
much means, too little end such are the consequences of
those defects. There are four to five scores of bodies, like
the Court, the Council, Senate, Syndicate, Faculties, Boards
of Studies, of Examiners, of Appointments, Committees, Sub-
Committees, etc., in the University but little corresponding
work is to be seen. The atmosphere and the ways of the
home of SaraswatT, of a Gura-kula, a Family-Home of Teachers
and Students, should be different from those of the homes of
Lakshml and
A wandering sannyas! told the present writer that, in
]

former times, there used to be a n i r-v a r n - a n a ceremony,

as a preliminary part of the upa-nayana ritual, for the
purpose of tentatively postulating the v a r n a the vocational,
"
aptitude of the pupil, which was finally fixed at the convo-
"
cation or sama-vartan a-ceremony, in accordance with
the net result of the student's whole educational career. But
learned Pandit-friends whom I have requested in this behalf,
have not been able to find mention of it in the available Grhya
Siitra-s. The word etymologically means '' determining the
" "
color," thence scrutinising by clairvoyant sight, referred
to in a previous foot-note, or by more common methods of test-
ing intelligence (such as experimental psychology in the west
has latterly been trying to evolve) and temperament. Apart
from clairvoyance, and tests, there is the ineradicable belief
MANU] FULL COURSE OF EDUCATION 297

Therefore the appropriate education was easy to

decide on, also in the same broad sense. Any
further specialisation that was needed, within the
limits of the main types, was provided for as the
student's faculties developed and manifested in
special ways, in the course of the studies. The
student's life was not made miserable by the perpe-
tual nightmare of a pale-faced phantom called
"
Success in a final examination as a necessary
condition of a future living". The well-beloved
and widely trusted Teacher's sanction and testi-
mony that the student had acquired and attained
to the extent possible to and needed by his nature
and his future vocation, was enough. And because,
when the Code of Life was properly working and
duly observed by the people, health and a full span
of life could be safely counted upon, therefore the

period of study was made fairly long, but yet again

with adjustment to the various types, longest for
the brahmaua and less for the others.

THE FULL PERIOD OF EDUCATION

The ideal and full period of education is stated
to be thirty-six years, from the beginning to the
"
that the body is the soul made visible," "the face betrays
the mind," and that if we could read the physical body rightly
and fully, we should be able to read the soul also. Phrenology,
palmistry, cheiromancy, astrology, may be wholly or partly
wrong. Bat the instinct behind them is right. Some day a
true science of psycho-physics will be developed anew. (See,
"
e.g., Keith, The Human Body, ch. xii, Bodily Indexes of
Character," H. U. L. Series.
298 SMALLER COURSES iMANTT

end of the residence with the Teacher. The

whole circle knowledge, indicated by the word
of

Trayi, the three Vedas, the all-comprehensive

Trinity of Sciences, the Science of the Trinity, and
all their subsidiary sciences, can be encompassed

in this period. The next best is eighteen years.

The minimum, nine years ; or the important
principle is added till the desired knowledge is

acquired.
After having spent the first quarter of life with the
Teacher, undergone the discipline which alone produces real
knowledge, and refined and consecrated his soul in the
ways prescribed after this preparation only should the
twice-born man take a wife unto himself and dwell in
the household. 1

Persons who hadpassed through the full course

' '
would be practically omniscient and able to cope
with the difficulties of any situation in life. They
would know the relation of causes and effects in
every department of life. They would be fully
aware of the immediate consecauences of a single

: 3: \

3<T: n

Manu, iii, 1 ; iv, 1 ; ii, 164.

MANU] CONTINENCE OF MIND 299

happy or unhappy word in a conversation between

two persons, as also of the distant and many-sided
effects on the life of future generations of a legis-
lative measure taken to-day. They would be more
than the mere ready-debaters and makers of apt
retorts who are able to speak at a moment's notice
on any and every subject, without any preparation
and without any qualification either. They would
have successfully completed that b rah ma-
chary a which means not only the conservation
of the body, but the more important maturation
of the mind also, with self-control ofthought
and speech and vows of reverent and silent
listening (s hus hrUs h a), pondering, digesting,
and assimilating, not incontinently and immaturely
creating an over-abundant progeny of rickety
thoughts and books to accelerate the general
degeneration. They would become the centres of
happy homes and bear the burdens of the household
lightly ; would also become the centres,
they
radiating love and wisdom, of happy communities,
and bear the burdens of the larger household of the
nation lightly, as the guides and counsellors of
kings. Such would be true Teachers (Brahmaijas),
Sages and Saints, combining self-denial and over-
flowing compassion and the irresistible power of
knowledge (t a p a s and v i d y a), the men of wisdom,
of knowledge, of science, of following the
high art,
learned professions in the spirit, not of the merce-
nary but of the missionary. They would be the real
300 COURSES AND TYPES [MANTJ

Patriarchs of the race, God's blessings incarnate

1
amongst men.
Persons who had passed through the next degree
of training less in the details of knowledge and
super-physical powers and continuous sacrifice on
the higher planes, but greater in strength of body
and fitness for sudden and extreme sacrifice on the
physical plane, and equal in spiritual wisdom such
persons would be fit for the work of the Warrior
and Ruler (Kshattriya), the men of action, of
valor, of virile might, of chivalry, of heroism, the
defenders of the weak from oppression by the
strong, the managers of great organisations, the
governors, the leaders of armies, the holders and
wielders of power and authority in the spirit, not
of the autocratic proprietor, but of the trustee and
watchful defender.
Those who had passed through the third degree
of discipline equal to the other two in the spirit-
ual wisdom which makes them all twice-born,
equal in continuous and steady but not extreme
sacrifice on the physical plane with the others, and
less than them in the other respects such would
take up the work of the merchant and agriculturist
(Vaishya), the men of acquisitive desire, the
gatherers of wealth, the distributors of necessaries
and comforts, the founders of great and small chari-
tiesand pious public works, the managers of great

1
Manu, i, 92-101.
MANU] THE NON-EDUCABLE TYPE 301

business-concerns in the spirit, not of the private

owner and enjoyer, but of the public treasurer and
almoner.

THE NON-EDUCABLE

The fourth type of child, incapable of the higher

self-consciousness in this life, would also receive
such instruction as he might be able to imbibe.
s h u d r a type cannot commit any de-grading
The
act, because he is congenitally unfit to receive culture
(being un-moral and un-intelligent). He has therefore
no right or duty, no ^ h a r a incumbent on him. But, m
also, if he should show an inclination for $ h a r a a m ,

wish and a capacity for receiving culture and exercising

rights-an-d -duties ( d h a r
1
m
a ) he must not be forbidden,
either.

"TT^fi

d qflsfel, * Wferfa^wq; II Manu, x, 126.

"
It requires considerable skill but very little intelligence to

swing an axe well. A moron can learn to do it if given suffici-

ent time, bat he can never learn to keep a set of books. . . .

By far the most comprehensive data bearing on the distribu-

tion of intelligence among occupational classes came as a
by-product of intelligence-rating in the Great War. Over
one million seven hundred thousand men in the U. S. A.
1*
were tested. ." "Four or five percent were i'ound
. .

" "
to be of (1) very superior intelligence" ;" (2) Eight or ten
"
per cent of superior intelligence (3-a) fifteen to eighteen
;
" "
high average intelligence (3-b) about twenty-five
;
"
average"; (3-c) " "about twenty low average "; (4) about
"
fifteen inferior (5 a and b) very inferior the rest with
; ;

I. Q. that of balow ten years in mental age" "The . . .

results indicate that if one thousand common laborers

. . .

taken at random had boen given every possible opportunity in

302 PLACE OF EDUCATION [MANU
(vi) WHERE TO EDUCATE?

The Ancient Ideal

The ideal, indicated by the old books, seems to be

that all genuine brahmai^a-homes should be small

their youth, and all had set themselves the goal of receiving
if

a degree ...except forty-one would have found it impos-

all
sible .." . Lennes, Whither Democracy 1 (pub. 1927), pp. 55,
296-'7-'8, 301. The "intelligence quotient" should be
"
explained. A
set of questions was arranged and by trial on a
great many chJdren it was found that a chJd of s^x could
normally answer some of these and not the others. In this
way a standard was determined for children of six, and those
who reach it are said to have a mental age of six years.
Similar standards were bailt for children of seven, eight, and
so on up to sixteen years of age"; Lennes, Ibid., p. 91.
"
A child who passes the ten-year old standard test and is ten
years of age has an I. Q. of 100 p.c. The child who passes
only the nine-year test and is ten years of age has an I. Q.
of 90. The child who passes the eleven year test and is ten
years of age has an I. Q. of 110" Enc. Br.t., 14th. Edn, (pub.
;
"
1929), Art. Education," Vol. VII, p. 969a.

Literature on Pedagogy is increasing in volume every day,

in the west, and there is evident much eager and energetic
effort at discovery, invention, of ideas, facts,
originality,
laws, principles, experiments, and especially words.
tests,
Undoubtedly there will have been something gained, when
things settle down ; bat, in the meantime, while on the
onward march, there is much confusion of tongues. And
there is good reason to believe that, when the settling down
has been done, the new state will be found to be on the whole
not very different from the old state, except in the words !

"
fashions came and go," the general fact of
While^" particular
dress goes on for ever ". So the main ideas of philosophy and
psychology are always reappearing, dressed in ever new term-
fashions, now fuller-skirted, and then very imperfect and in-
sufficient. Protests against over-development of technique
MANU] TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE 303

or large guru-kula-s. Thus the children of

parents following the brahma^a-profession would
ordinarily begin their studies within their parents'
homes, while the children of parents following other

the usual mistake of raising means above end in all depart-

ments of have not been wanting from among the re-
life
"
searchers themselves. Thus While the teacher tried to
:

cultivate intelligence, and the psychologist to measure it,

"
nobody seemed to know precisely what intelligence is and ;
"
A string of raw facts a little gossip and wrangle about
;

opinions a little classification and generalisation on the

;

mere descriptive level ; not a single law

. . . not a . . .

single proposition from which any consequence can causally

be deduced" (Ballard and William James, quoted by
C. Spearman, The Nature of Intelligence and the Principles
of Cognition, pp. 15 and 29 (pub. 1923).

The tests and gradations of intelligence, described in such

works, see:i3 to proceed on the assumption that intelligence
is all of one kind, and that only degrees of it are discernible.
In a certain sense this is true but for practical vocational
;

purposes, different kinds or types of it need to be distinguish-

ed ;and the fact is so patent that it cannot be altogether
overlooked by any one who tarns his attention towards the
matter at all. Thus Welton, The Psychology of Education t
"
has a chapter, V, Variations in Mental Endowment/' in
"
which he discusses the various temperaments " bat he does ;

not seem to utilise them for determining vocation. Lennes

"
(Ibid., p. 79) quoting Thorndike's view says He believes
:

that there are three main types of innate intelligence,

namely intelligence for words and abstract ideas motor ;

intelligence, or skill with the use of the hands and social ;

intelligence, or the ability to get on well with one's fellows."

This confusedly approaches and then wanders away from
Manu's clear and distinct classification of men of knowledge,
of action, of desire (always by predominance, of course). And
it is not made use of for vocational guidance, which subject
is repeatedly, but indirectly, referred to in the work. More
may be said on it here, later.
304 LOCATION OF GURU-KULA-S [MANU
professions would come over from their own homes
and, distant, dwell there for education. Preferably,
if

such, educational homes would be located on the

outskirts of towns, amidst woods, so that the
children and youth may live in healthy surround-
ings ;have opportunities for exercising muscles
and acquiring endurance by doing useful work for
the large educational household, and for developing
courage and enterprise by adventurous excursions ;
and be also in touch with the realities of rural
life, on the one side, and of urban, on the other,

thereby discovering and developing their individual

temperamental and vocational predilections and
capacities.

THE OLD PRACTICE

In practice, it would seem that in the times of

the Upanishats and the Pura^as, the larger
"
university "-g uru-kula-s, to which grown-up
youths resorted, used to be combined with the t apo -

vana-s of yshi-s, "places of ascetic practices,

and psychical, mystical, spiritual training ; and
that they were placed at some distance from the
crowded towns, amidst thick woods or even deep
"
forests. Smaller school "- gu ru - k ul a-s, for
younger boys and children, were, on the other hand,
mostly located in the town or village itself. Some-
times, a quarter of the town was exclusively as-

signed for such, and was called the brahma-puri

MANU] A LIVING ANCIENT UNIVERSITY 305

of that Sometimes, a whole town be-

town. 1
came, predominantly, such a brahma-purL
"
The seven pavitra-puri-s, holy cities,"
Ayo<Jhya, Mathura, Maya (modern Hardwar),
Kashl (Benares), KanchI (Conjeeveram), Avanfcika
2
(Ujjain),Pvaravatl (Pwaraka)," may be regarded
"
as having been such university towns".

A LIVING EXAMPLE

Only Kashl (Benares) perhaps the oldest living

historical city on the surface of the Earth, before
which Athens and Rome and Alexandria are infants
of yesterday Kashl, where Veda-Vyasa, the com-
piler and editor of the Vedas, and the author of the
Maha-bharata, various Puraijas, and the Brahma-
sfttra-s, spent his last years with a great concourse
of students, five thousand years ago where;

Parshva-natha, the last but one Tlrthan-kara of the

Jainas, was born and preached nearly three
thousand years ago where Bucjdha and the first
;

Shankar-acbarya began their missions of Mercy

and Wisdom twenty-five hundred years ago where ;

1
There are such brahma-puri-s in Benares to-day.
The Samskrt works on Ancient Indian Engineering, and some
other works like Shukra-nTti, have useful hints to give on this
when they deal with town-planning.
subject,

l: II
306 ITS SUBJECTS OF STUDY [MANU
King Divo-dasa promulgated the Science of Medi-
through his most eminent disciple,
cine, 5.yur-Veda,
Sushruta, centuries earlier; where Kablr, five
hundred years ago, tried, and not altogether with-
out success, to liberalise and reconcile Hinduism
and Islam, by expounding the mystical philosophy
common to both where Tulasl Das, three hundred
;

years ago, rewrote the Primal Epic, the 5. d i -

k a v y a, the Samskjt Ramat/aria of the very
ancient sage Valmiki, and made it the Bible
of all the subsequent generations of Hinda-s,
counting many thousands of millions up to
the present day to which the most famous sons
;

and daughters of India have always come to pay

komage, in their respective generations this
"
Benares continues to be such a university-
town," of the comparatively ancient type, on a
fairly large scale, even to day. It has, at the present
time, between two and three hundred Paijdit-homes,
scattered over all parts of the town, but located
mostly the thickly crowded portion on the
in

Gaijga-bank. In these homes, partly the ancient,

Vaidika, and mostly the medieval-scholastic, post-
PaijiniSamskrt learning is taught to between two
"
and three thousand vi d y-arthi- s seekers of
,

knowledge ". These students come from all, even the

most distant, parts of India, and are provided with
food and clothing, from day to day and season to
season, by the daily private charity of the citizens,
and, mostly, by some scores of large and small
MANU] BUDDHIST AND OTHER UNIVERSITIES 307
anna-sattra-s," places of the sacrifice of food-

giving," permanently endowed and maintained

by Indian States or wealthy merchants. 1 Conjee-
veram too keeps up, on a limited scale, principally
*
Vedic studies. The other sacred cities' have
largely lost their educational character, but re-
tain a religious, or pseudo-religious, aspect.

THE BUDDHIST AND MODERN PERIODS

In and near the Buddhist period, many other

great university-towns, both Brahmaflic, like
Taksha-shila, and Buddhist, like Nalanda, sprang
up and spread their fame afar. They have all
been swallowed up by Time, while Kashi continues
the old work. But the traditions are weakening
with growing rapidity, and the learning is decaying
because of greater and greater separation from
the realities and the requirements of the nation-
al life as changed by the times. This divorce is
chiefly due to the inelasticity of the orthodox
Pandit-mind, and its inability to assimilate the
'
new scientific material from the modern west
'

l These
Pandit-homes and vidyarthis are entirely
separate from the dozen big schools 'and three or four colleges
of the modern style, which have grown up during the last
sixty years with one or two exceptions which are older, e.g.,
the Government Samskrt College which was founded in 1791,
when the French Revolution was convulsing Europe, and the
great new Benares Hindu University, into which the Central
Hindu College, founded in 1898, expanded in 1916, when the
World War was raging.
308 "EDUCATIONAL HOME" [MANTJ

into the 'spiritual organism' of the ancient east,

as ought to be done. Other new Guru -ku la -s ,

under the general name ofVidya-pitha-s, have

grown up in post-Buddhist times, within the
last fifteen hundred to a thousand years, as in
Kashmir, Mithila, Nava-dvlpa, and some Temple-
towns of the south. They have been and are carried
on on lines more or less similar to those of Benares.
The Jainas also have their own centres of learning,
connected with their more important Temples and
places of pilgrimage, and a few of these have kept
their light burning and made great collections of
manuscripts, notably in Kathiawar, for very many
centuries. The Musalmans have created some
centres of orthodox learning, in a few towns, in
recent times.

GURU-KULA OR VlDYA-PITHA ?

The difference of the name Vidya-pitha,

"seat of learning," from the older names, guru -

kula and tapo-vana, "the home of the

spiritual teacher and the woodland place of the

"
ascetic life carries its significance clearly on its

face. The new name marks a lowering of the high

spiritual standard of ethico-emotional purity and
family-affection, and
a disproportionate increase
of emphasis on the merely intellectual and verbal
' '
department of education. University is a good
name, if it be endowed with the sense which,
 "
MANU] OR SEAT OF LEARNING " ? 309
"
apparently, it is not, at present of an edu-
*
cational institution turning round,' vertere, the uni^
4
One,' central idea, end, aim, of Self-realisation."
The corresponding old name is Brahma-kula.

WHAT is PRACTICABLE IN MODERN CONDITIONS ?

Under modern conditions, the nearest practical

approach to the old theoretical ideal seems to be
*
that school '-homes should be placed, wherever
possible, between town and agricultural farms ;

and, in crowded towns, amidst available open spaces,

at convenient distances, so as to be able to serve
two to three hundred children, each, of the neighbour-
"
hood. The university "-g uru-kula-s should be
located in the suburbs of great cities, whence centres
of all kinds of occupations, agriculture and dairy-

farming and cattle-breeding, as well as factories, in-

dustrial works, commercial institutions, markets,
banks, houses of business, army-camps and "fields
of Mars," law-courts and arbitrational panchayats,
river-traffic or sea-traffic, etc., may all be within

easy reach of the students, for observation, test of

inclination, and study by active part-time appren-
ticeship. Schools, colleges, universities, devoted to
special industrial, technical, or other education,
like colleges of forestry, mining, geology, may also
be established at spots which offer special facilities
for the studies and training desired. All such
schools, colleges, universities, should be conducted
312 DISPUTED DETAILS [MANU
often being only the last climax of frantic effort
preceding complete exhaustion and break-down
for the rest of a miserable life. Another, and
larger set of disputants insists that we cannot get
on without them, for they provide the only practi-
cal test of such fitness as is needed by the present
competitive life of society. How to develop
character, and what sort of character to create, is

another very important subject of perennial

discussion. If the need for physical education is
more generally admitted, the forms cannot be
agreed upon shall it be games or shall it be drill,
;

shall it be exercises with apparatus or without,

hard gymnastics or light play, costly cricket and
foot-ball and base-ball and tennis and hockey, or

inexpensive dips and hops and strains ? And where

means for all this elaborate modern way
to find the
of education that is the last straw on the back of
the poorer nations.
All this is the natural result of the unsettled
condition of the whole socio-economical organi-
sation ; of the inchoate and uncertain nature of the
extant knowledge on many subjects ; and mainly, as
said before, of the inability of parents and teachers to
decide what vocation a particular child is best fitted
forand what place in the nation he would fill best
in the second stage oflife. Because of the excessive

competition for the good things of the world, on the

one hand, amongst the few, and for the mere
minimum bread and salt, on the other, amongst the
MANU] EDUCATION FOR LIVELIHOOD 313

many, there is not the leisure, not the freedom from

care, not the inclination, which alone could make
possible for all, or at least the majority, the studies
which promote and enhance the finer forms of life,
the thought, of science, of art for their own
life of

sake, as is said for the sake of the life of the

;

astral, the mental, the higher bodies, and for the

life ofthe nation, as is really unconsciously meant.
It cannot be repeated too often, that the education
of the young has to be governed by considerations
of his future means of existence, and that therefore

predetermination of vocation is the only secret

of the successful solution of all educational

problems :

Having generated and brought up the sons, the

father ought to find means of living for them. The king,
the ruler, is the true father of the people, because and
when he (1) educates them, (2) protects them from
external and internal ills, (3) provides them with means
of livelihood and befitting employment as is the duty of
every father to do for his children and the fathers ;

become only mechanical means of giving existence to the

new, generation, when they fail to do so. 1

When those future means of living are uncertain,

the present process of education must also be
very doubtful and very anxious, with endless

PffiT %*f ifrf Sf^^ I Smrji.

SRffit

Kalidas, Raghu-vamsfia, ch. i.

 " "
314 NOT ONLY "
BUT ALSO " [MANU
harassment and ill-health of mind and body to
parents, teachers, children, as the inevitable result,

" " "

NOT ONLY," BUT ALSO

Of course, all this has its own place in the evolu-

tion of the race. It will enable us, compel us, to go
back on the higher level of a deli-
to the older plan,
berate assent with full knowledge of the reason
why. In the meanwhile, it forms a commentary,
by contrast, on the simple rules of the class-caste
and life-stage polity of Manu (Varij-ashrama
m
P h a r a), and provides relieving background for
the suggestion that the war of opinions and methods
may be brought to an end by avoiding exaggera-
tion, excess, extremism, by pursuing the middle
course, by diligently sifting out from each and
every opinion the element of truth therein, by
"
assiduously saying to one another, Your opinion
a/so, to this extent,and in this respect, and not
mine only in all respects," by synthesis and com-
promise and reconciliation, and not by insistence
on distinctions and differences, in short. As said
before, Manu does not attempt to force and re-create
Nature, but accepts Her ambi-valence, duality,
polarity, with all reverence, recognises Her psycho-
physical laws, and tries only to regulate human life
in accordance with them, deliberately and volunta-
rily, instead of being forced by Her to follow them
unwillingly and painfully. Men made sick by
MANU] CERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE 315

intemperance, also live on, externally compelled to

abstain, by their physicians temperate men live, in
;

health, internally compelling themselves to abstain.

SECRET MEANING IN THE VEDA

According to the Vanj-ashramaDharma,

fourmain types of mind and body not of Spirit,
which is casteless, sexless, colorless, creedless, age-
less, raceless were distinguished as having gradu-
ally differentiated out of the primal homogeneity, as
different cereals have developed out of the primitive
wild grasses. And therefore the work of adjusting
the course of education to the needs of each became
comparatively easy. Also knowledge was not in a
hazy condition, undergoing correction and modifica-
tion and swinging to and fro between extremes of
opinion, every day. Even to-day there is no such
difficulty as regards arithmetic and geometry and
'

mensuration, as there with regard to the grow-

is

ing' sciences of chemistry and physiology and

history, etc. It is undisputed that the three R's
must form part of every education. If we could
become equally sure of our knowledge of other
matters, and if we could spare the necessary time,
then the difficulties we now suffer from would
mostly vanish. This ideal condition is indicated
by the Ordinances of Manu as possible always, and
by the Puraijas as having been real in the past.
The Vedas and their subsidiary and derivative
316 REAL MEANING OF THE VEDA [MANTJ

sciences, as seen and revealed by Seers, IJshis, (and

duly interpreted, must be added) were a mass of
it
l

ascertained facts and laws about the accuracy of

which there was not any serious dispute, and which
the student had only to absorb and assimilate to the
utmost of his capacities of memory and reasoning.
Wherever and whenever he was able, and found
' '
himself moved, to ask why ? the appropriate
' '
because was forthcoming, ready to his hand.
An enormous saving of time and energy was thus
secured, without any stunting of intelligence for ;

enquiry was constantly insisted on, at the same

time that the spirit of reverent affection for the
elders and of corresponding tenderness for the

1
See The Secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky, on this point.

I
fgpf:

I) Mann ii, 140.

*TT*Rf Sffif^lfcl I) Mbh., idi., i, 293.

11 Nirukja.
"
He who can teach the meaning of the Veda, is
secret
known asLcharya . The Veda should be expound-
. .

ed in the light of universal history the Veda feareth the ;

man who knoweth little he will cheat me of my true mean-

;

ing so it thinks of such an one. He who commits the Veda to

memory, and knows not the true meaning, he is but as a block
of wood set up to hold dead burdens. The knower of the true
meaning, purified by knowledge, attaineth heaven."
MANU] AMENITIES 317

youngers was sedulously educed and evoked with- ;

out which interplay of reverence, on the one hand,

and tenderness, on the other, the life of the teacher
and the studeut becomes, not life, but the deadness
of machinery ; without which, even if the sympathy
of equality could by any chance remain, still the
life of the race would lose almost all its grace and

poetry.

METHODS, MANNERS, AND HEART-RELATIONSHIPS

Manu says :

When beginning the day's study, the Teacher should

ask the student to begin, and throughout it also, from
time to time, should instruct him to understand before
proceeding further, and at the end of the study he should
1
say Let us stop now.
:

The word here used for study (adhy-ayana)

does not mean memorising only. It means under-
standing also. The etymological significance, in
addition to the
explanations given before, is
1

approaching a subject from all sides,' therefore

understanding it in all its bearings. Perhaps the
* '
nearest English word is com-prehen-sion,' grasp-
ing completely '. It is clearly said :

fo =3RJft I) ii, 73.

"
a This adhlshva
" "
corresponds with the modern teacher's
"
:

Do you follow ? Do you understand ?" Is my meaning

clear ? ", etc.
318 QUESTION AND ANSWER {MANU
Enquiry is not disbelief. 1

And we have already seen that :

Only he really knows the cjharma, who has

2
grasped the reason of it.

Nay, intellectual curiosity was stimulated, in-

terrogation and discussion were positively encour-

aged, and the method of question and answer
preferred to that of set lectures, apparently :

As the seeker for water finds sweet water by delving

deep into the earth with a spade, even so the listener
delving industriously, with questions, into the mind of
the teacher, finds the stores of knowledge hidden therein. 3

Food should be given only to him who is hungry

and calls for it. Only then is it taken with relish,
with interest, is enjoyed, is easily and fully
assimilated, and conduces to health and waste ;

of good edibles and of labor is saved to giver and

receiver ; nay, the dangers, to the receiver, of
surfeit and indigestion, or creation of harmful
habits of shallow, conceited, dilettante 'tasting'
of lectures and lecturer, and, to the giver, of verbose
are avoided. The secret of clear and
self-display,
keen understanding and of retention in memory is

I
Matsya Purana.

: I) Manu, xii, 106.

ft?IT gmtfipl-egft (I Manu, ii, 218.

MANU] THE SECRET OF MEMORY 319

attention ; the secret of attention is interest ; the

secret of interest is pleasure-pain, like-dislike ; the
secret of that is the very undesirable (but in ex-
ceptional cases unavoidable) 'birch,' or the very
desirable, nay indispensable spiritual relationship
of reverent affection on the one side and tender

compassion on the other between pupil and teacher.

The responsibility for establishing this relation-
ship obviously rests on the teacher, as the elder, as
in loco parentis. That the responsibility is the
elder's, Manu enjoins in great words :

The elder prospereth and exalteth the family or he :

destroyeth it. The elder who behaveth as an elder, he is

even as father and as mother. 1

No greater words can be found than father and

mother to express reverence and love. God is
*'
Our Father in Heaven ". Nature, God's Nature,
is theBenign Mother of all. The teacher is
enjoined by the Manu to make no distinction
between his own sons and his pupils. The pupils
are enjoined to look upon him as their father.

The first birth is from the physical mother; the

second takes place at the investiture with the sacred
thread ; the third at the y a j n a -initiation (which secures
admission into the Spiritual Hierarchy). For the second
birth, whereby the pupil glimpses Brahma, the

: II

Manu, ix, 109, 110.

320 THE RIGHT SPIRIT [MANU
Supreme Self, the Ac bar y a- teacher is the father and
theSavitri, the mantra, is the mother. 1

So if it was made the duty of the student to ask

'why?' and of the teacher to answer 'because,'
if enquiry was not allowed to be treated as dis-
belief as is unfortunately done so often in these

days of degeneration of knowledge in the custodians,

in India it was also made their duty to ask and

answer in the right spirit.

Let not the knower answer until asked nor may he ;

answer if not asked in the right manner. He should

behave as if he knew not anything amidst men (who
2
are not ready to learn and ask not in the right spirit).

The Upanishafs show how the teacher usually

began his explanation of a difficulty brought up by
a pupil, with some endearing epithet, like s o m y a,
'

gentle one '. All C/pa/?ts/ujf -studies begin with

prayers. One of these is specially worthy of note
in this connection :

May the Supreme protect us both, may He love and

rejoice in us both, may we grow in vigor and vitality
together, may our joint studies prove bright and fruitful,

TRIT ST%ft fq^T c^TO 3^% II II, ii, 169, 170.

2 x .
f \

\\ Manu, ii, 110.

MANU] CHARACTER IS THE TRUE SELF 321

may never any trace of unpleasant disagreement come

1
bet-ween us.

Katha.
" ' *
There must not be aroused any fatal antagonisms or
"
unnecessary conflict of wills (between pupil and teacher) :

Fynne, Montessori and Her Inspirers, pp. 206, 251.

Here are some more illustrative though long extracts from
western writings they are made to establish bridges between
;
"
the old and the new Even with adults there are few who
:

are really moved to action by abstract ideas and principles,

and when they are, the action is commonly wanting in vigor.
With children the moving force is always dyed with emotion.
In the formation of character the emotion of se//-respect
plays an indispensable part. A child's character, therefore,
is not trained by leaving him to do as he likes, but by evoking
in him, by sympathetic suggestion, the desire to obtain thorough
se//-mastery . Character is the true self
. . Charac- . . .

ter is se//-developmeDt and implies seJ/-knowledge and self-

control . . Communities which offer many inducements
.

to deviation from purpose, and which furnish few opportunities

for se//-commumon, are unfavorable to the development of
"
strong characters J. Welton (Professor of Education in the
;

University of Leeds), The Psychology of Education (pub.

1914), pp. 477, 479, 481.
"
The ultimate aim (of the task of co-ordinating and
organising the spiritual life) is the perfect organisation of life
under one great purpose which finds its meaning in one great
ideal. To these ( this?), in many ranks of extent and im-
portance, other ideals and purposes are related, so that the
entire life becomes a community of forces covering the whole
of human nature and aiming at the perfection and completion
of that nature. Such a dominating ideal would be
. . .

a true and complete picture of the highest good possible to

man, and that is found only in a relation to that highest good
and true personality which we call G-od. This is the ideal
towards which a perfect education would strive ; and educa-
tional progress can consist only in drawing continually nearer
to it. But the possibility of such approximation depends
21
 322 PERFECTION OF SPIRITUAL NATURE [MANU

As the Glta indicates, it is necessary to put the

mind of the listener into the placid, unruffled,

before else on reaching as true a conception as is possible

all
of meaning and purpose of human life
the (Our) theory
. . .

of education assumes that the activities of life should be

. . .

evaluated according to a spiritual standard which finds the

highest good of man in the perfection of his spiritual nature
1

in nobility of heart and mind, in reverence and awe in the

contemplation of the divine perfection, in love of all that
is great and good, in hearty acceptance of duty, in strenuous

endeavor, in earnest longing for truth, in appreciation of

beauty, in an estimate of the things of life consistent with
the view that what a man is far outweighs what he has,
"
whether of material or of intellectual possessions Welton, ;

What Do We Mean by Education? (pub. 1918), pp. 91, 93.

At first glance, especially at the italicised words, it would
almost seem as if the writer was describing Manu's views.
Yet a look through the rest of the books from which
the above extracts are taken will dispel the notion and it ;

will appear that his description is as that of a man describing

by mere touch in thick darkness an object which Manu
describes by sight in broad daylight. The self he mentions
is only the smaller individualised self, without identity with
*

the Universal Self, and the God he refers to is only a per-

'

sonality and not the Supreme Impersonality which is

identical with all personalities. He does not seem to see that
self-respect, self-knowledge, etc., are compatible with other-
respect, other-knowledge, etc., as they ought to be, only when
the self is identified with the Self.

It does not appear that, to him, the highest good, the

perfection and completion of man's spiritual nature, the ideal
towards which a perfect education and the whole life should
strive, is realisation of his identity with the Supreme Self,
and, hence, moksha, emancipation from all doubts and
fears and fetters of the soul that the other related and
;

subordinate ideals are dharma, artha, kama, social

lawfulness, riches, enjoyment of life ; that the perfect organi-
sation of life, individual and social, is anything like the
var^-ashrama system.
MANU] THE PLACID MIND 323

receptive mood, before that mind will take and

reflect correctly the image of the mind of the
speaker :

When the mind is happy and peaceful, then the

intelligence is steady and placid and lucid, (and the
means of curing sorrows are discovered) and sorrows
1
fall away.
Manners have degenerated in these latter
also

days, side spiritual knowledge and

by side with
spiritual and what we see but
mood of mind ;

too often is, that a question is a mental and verbal

blow and the answer a return blow.

CERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE

As to whether this claim of the ancients to cer-

tain and indubitable knowledge was or was not

justifiable this is a question which cannot be dealt
with in a few pages, and by one who has no such
knowledge and no power to demonstrate. This can
be done only by the true b r a h m a ij a.

He is the true and well-instructed and venerable

shishta brahman a, who has mastered the secret of
the Ve<Ja by means of the indispensable austerities and

u u, 65.

See also The Science of the Emotions, pp. 260-262, as to

the need to eliminate unpleasant and disturbing emotions
from conversation intended to lead to mutual understanding.
324 CERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE [MANX!

self-denials, and can demonstrate the powers of that

1
secret to the eyes of the laymen.

If the western scientist of the highest type could

add spiritual science to his material science
and develop the ceaselessly compassionate and
philanthropic heart which is only another aspect
of genuine spiritual science, then he would become
a true brahmar^a.
But one fairly clear consideration is open to all
of us. The foundation of the ancient knowledge is
Consciousness, Self-consciousness, the Self. The
absolute solidity of this foundation can be verified
by anyone for himself, with a very little trouble.
But if someone is unwilling to take this trouble

even, and prefers to take his opinion from modern

science, and that alone, then, for him also, the same
opinion is to be found there. Many modern scien-
tists, who have turned their attention to the subject,
have clearly recognised that the only certain fact in
our possession is the fact of consciousness, and that
all other facts whatsoever, the existence of sense-
objects, which appear so solid and certain, are all
dependent on the testimony of that consciousness.
Indeed the sense-organs which prove to us the exis-
tence of this solid-seeming world the existence of

F=r: II Manu, xii, 109.

See the Pranava-Vada, or the Science of the Sacred Word,

by the present writer, for an endeavor, by the IJshi
"
Gargyayana, to justify this claim of the ancients ".
MANU] HOW POSSIBLE 325

these senses themselves isproved to us only by our

consciousness of them. They cannot prove them-
selves. On this basic fact of consciousness, the whole
of cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis, all the sciences
of evolutionary astronomy, chemistry, biology,
physiology, psychology, etc., have been built up
1

" '
by the ancient Seers and built up by a deductive
;

process infinitely more logical than that of

geometry, for it makes no postulates, while geometry
makes at least three built up with the mortar of;

a close reasoning, which any really earnest student

can test and make sure of for himself, to such
extent as is possible without the help of super-
physical powers.^
Students know of the Sankhya cosmogony, which
is accepted by all the old Indian systems of
4 '
science as the psycho-physics of the individual
as well as the universal.
From Matter (P r a <J h a n a), inspired by
the Energy
of Spirit (P u r u s h a), arises Universal Ideation, (M a h a t,
(B u <J dh
thence atomic individuality (or individualised
i),

atomicity, Aham-kara),
thence the primal organs of
knowledge and action, the sense-qualities, and the
elements, (thence all the endless ever-moving worlds and
their inhabitants of countless individua, species, genera,
3
orders, classes, phyla, and kingdoms).

1
The various Ahgas and Upangas and Upa-vedas.
*
See The Science of Peace, by the present writer, for fuller
exposition of this also Krqhna, pp. 144-161.
;

T^ \

: 9*1*. II
326 REASONING FROM SURE DATA [MANU
From this rapid' consideration, we may get some
little idea, at least, that to the ancient knowledge
belongs that kind of certainty and orderliness which
' '

goes with absolutely sure data and deductive

reasoning based thereon while to most of the
;

modern knowledge belongs that other quality which

goes with fluctuating data and inductive generalisa-
tions based thereon.
this condition of comparative certainty
Assuming
of knowledge and of future vocation, and associated
leisure and peace of mind, the duty of teacher and
taught became simple, and teaching became
thoroughly practical and utilitarian as well as
cultural, liberal as well as vocational, in the best
sense, directly subserving the recognised ends of
life and loading the mind with immense
not
'

quantities of scrappy and disjointed information '.

PRIMARY ITEMS IN EDUCATION

Intellectual education, even of the highest order,
occupies, speaking comparatively, a secondary

: \

Sankhya-Karlka, 21-22.
"
Cf. Whenthe terra Energy substituted for force, the
is
Vedic scheme of development becomes identical with the one
which expresses the most recent developments of physical
research, viz., the Absolute, or Eternal Self -Consciousness
Mind Energy -Ether Matter." G. W. de Tunzelman, A
Treatise on Electrical Theory and the Problem of the Universe
(pub. 1910), p. 505.
MANU] PRIMARY ITEMS IN EDUCATION 327

place in the old scheme. The first and most

important items of education are others :

Having taken up the pupil, in order to lead him up

to the Highest, the teacher shall first of all teach him
(i) the ways of cleanliness and purity and chastity of
body and mind, and good manners and morals which
(ii)
make high and (iii) how to tend the fires,
character,
culinary, sacrificial, and psychical (corresponding to
physical, emotional, and intellectual energy) and, more
important than all else, (iv) how to perform his
S a n (J h y -devotions.
f,
1

All the three main aspects of Education are

indicated in a certain order of succession, as is
unavoidable in the use of language ; but strictly
speaking, all of them are inseparably mixed up,

and their functioning and refining proceed side by

side, in education, as in life. Also, really, they
are all equally important though, if it comes to a
;

choice at all, as it should not, then we would

rather have more purity and good character than
intelligence.

II Manu, ii, 69.

Many westernwriters on education also rightly place

"
'
character
'
and intelligence afterwards. Thus
first A :

community of men and women possessing vitality, courage,

sensitiveness, and intelligence, in the highest degree that
education can produce, would be very different from any-
1

thing that has hitherto existed* ; B. Russell, On Education,

(pub. 1926), p. 65. Pt. II of his book, covering one hundred
'*
and twenty pages, deals with Education of Character";
"
Pt. Ill, Intellectual Education," covers only half as many.
More will be said on this, later.
328 INSEPARABLE TRIAD IN EDUCATION [MANU

Of the four items mentioned by Manu, the first is

the essence of the training of the body ; the second,

of the discipline of emotion-, the third, of the in-
struction of practical and theoretical intellect ;

while the fourth is the summation and culmination

of all. To see the Highest is to have achieved
a very high degree of progress in all three, and
without keeping the Vision of the Highest before
one's mind as the goal, that progress is not possible,
genuinely.

TRI-UNITY OF EDUCATION

To illustrate how
the branches of threefold
all

education on together, though one

are carried
aspect must predominate at any one given time
and place Even while listening to a lecture on
:

some science, the correct posture of body to be

maintained is part of physical training and the
;

attentive and open-mindedly receptive mood of

mind, of the emotional. So, during a game on the
playground, the preservation and development of
the spirit of co-operative helpfulness, cheerfulness,
fairness, is emotional training and rapid judging
;

of distances and calculation of effects of moves

and strokes and counterstrokes, especially in wrest-
ling, boxing, fencing, etc., is intellectual training.
Detailed rules are given on all these matters.
The verse quoted not only shows what to teach
first, but also where the education must be carried
MANU] THE VOLUNTARY SLAVE 329

on. It is in the home of the teacher. The resi-

dential, or rather the house-master system, in a

very complete sense, is clearly enjoined, but under
conditions which retain all the benefits and all the
beauty of the life of the good home. Who taught
us first the ways of cleanliness ? The mother and
the father taught the little child how to wash
its hands, its face, its feet, its body. The teacher
continues the process. He is as father and as
mother, the willing and tender slave and relative
of the student. The difference between the two is
subtle as that between science and superstition.
The relative is the willing slave. The slave is an
unwilling relative. The difference is the difference
of spirit alone. But the spirit is everything. And
yet it neglected short-sightedly alike by elder
is

and younger, by those in authority and those

subject to it, in the present time, as unfortunately,
so very often in past history. The pupil, by the
ideal of the olden day, becomes, literally, part of
the family of the teacher. And Manu's brshmana
knows how to compel the gratitude and reverence
of his beloved pupil by unceasing offices of tender-

ness. The feeling on this point was so strong that

some Vedic mantra-s are common
upa-nayana ritual and the marri
will be said more fully later, Lf
/rff$$JCs not only^-
the wife physically, but is alr/><
"
mother and also the daughter c
j

she is adopted into her new 1 & jg wiQi* Iblemn

*cc.tf-
330 EDUCATION SUPPORTED BY PUBLIC [MANU
recitation of sacred words impressing these
spiritual relationships and affections upon all
concerned. The pupil adopted by the teacher
is

as his son with the same mantra, with the

"
significant difference that the Lord of Speech,"
"
Bfhaspati, is substituted for the Lord of Pro-
geny," Prajapati.
I draw thy heart into rapport with mine, to take up
the vows that I take up. May thy mind follow mine
with sympathy. May thou listen to my voice with
single-minded attention. May the Lord of Speech bring
thee close to meJ

EDUCATION SUPPORTED BY CHARITY

The pupil earns his, and, at times, also his teach-

er's meals, by going round a-begging in the neigh-
8
boring town. And the begging is to be done in a
fashion which, while it gives to the student the
training in poverty that is one essential part of a
full life, eliminates from it all humiliation, and in-

vests it instead with poetry :

At the first, he should beg from his own mother, or

sister, or the mother's sister, who would not put slight

Quoted in Paraskara's Grhya-Sutra from the Sama Veda,

Mantra- Brahmana.
2
The expression "neighboring town" shows that the
Gurukula is to be located in the open healthy suburbs, wooded
lands and garden places, not amidst crowded habitations.
MANU] BEGGING STUDENTS 331

upon him and from whom he would not feel shame and
1
shyness in taking.
But later

He should not beg among the family and relatives of

his preceptor, or of his own relatives or kinsfolk but ;

from the houses in the neighboring town, and only the

houses of the good and the dutiful householders, in
whose homes the sacrifices enjoined by the Ve<Jas are

Naturally, SaraswatT, the goddess of learning, dwells in the

suburbs, whJe Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and splend-
or lives in the urbs, the cities, and Gauri-Anna-purna-
Purga, the goddess of health and plenteousness, of cora
and m.lk, and also of fighting power, dwells in the rural areas.
As regards the begging, Europe had its bands of begging and

strolling students Ages and the pre-Reform-

in the Mediaeval
ation days, as it had its begging friars. There were many
points in common between the mediaeval civilisation of Europe
and that of India. Only the former does not seem to have
had a definite scheme and a recogn sed systematic philosophy
of life behind it though the theology \t had may well be
;

said to have been its philosophy.

Then :

T sttfaf 3

Manu, ii, 50, 183, 184, 185, 186.

332 MAKING HEARTS CHARITABLE [MANU
kept alive. Or, if need be, and he should not get food
elsewhere, or if there are no other homes available in the
vicinity, then he may beg from his relatives and kinsfolk
too. And having secured the needed food, and no more,
by begging artlessly, he should present it to his preceptor,
and then, with his permission, should eat it facing east,
after the customary mouth-rinsing (a c h a m
a n a) and
full purification.

WISE CHARITY DEVELOPED BY SUCH EDUCATION

Not very easy to revive in its integrity, all this

to-day, no doubt And yet, placing ourselves in

1

that distant condition, and reconstructing that old

world before our mind's eye, can we not see any
features therein to recommend ? There is the
freedom from excessive centralisation, with its
overcrowding, and its mechanisation of men and
of knowledge, and its loss of human kindlinesses
and home-emotions. There is the practice of true
socialism, where every mother and every sister
learns to look upon every dear student-beggar as
her own son and her own brother ; for if she gives
food to the hungry child or brother of another, is
not her own hungry child or brother being helped
tenderly at the same time by another? And so
the heart of every parent goes out to every child,
and of every child to every parent, and affection
reigns in thecommunity and love suffuses and soft-
ens every life. And burdens are proportionately
divided, and not felt but welcomed eagerly, for the
capacities of every family are known, and no more
MANU] ALL CHILDREN OF ALL HOMES 333

students any than can be conveniently

go to

provided for And, because the Great Father

by it.

Manu has said that students must not take their

food from the houses of the vicious and the sinful,
and therefore the children will not come to them
and do them the honor of accepting their food if
they are not virtuous, therefore every home, for the
sake of the children, strives to maintain its standard
of dutifulness high. By this simple device, of
every student begging food from every other home
than his own, the Great Progenitor binds together
in one the hearts of all the families of the commu-
nity, and consecrates the spirit in them, so that it

shines forth in the life of matter, and joy be-

comes duty and love becomes law. The dignified
matrons and patrons and the bustling mothers
would also have good opportunities, under such an
*

arrangement, of judging eligibles,' and planning

future while the coy damsels might
alliances,
strike up sweet boy and girl friendships full of that
spiritual brotherly and sisterly affection which is
the most happy and most lasting part of the future
married comradeship, and, when formed early, is a
most effective protection against all erring of heart
and body for both.
It is not quite sure that the current ways are
very much better, are even so good The most that
1

can be said in their favor is that taking into

account the whole present form of society, we could
not very easily do otherwise. But that whole
334 LOVE IN PLACE OF STRUGGLE [MANU
structure requires to be recast in a new spirit,
the spirit of love in place of the spirit of struggle.
In the educational systems of to-day too, as in other
departments of life, we see that the main ideas are
the same as the old ones, viz., that students should
reside near their colleges and schools, under the
supervision of their educators, and be supplied with
their needs partly by their parents and partly from
public funds ; which, of course, also means, ulti-
mately, the householders and breadwinners of the
1
nation. But the defects are in the details, over-
crowding, lack of the family-feel, disproportionate
expense, inability to give personal attention to
each individual student. And these defects are

1
It is also well known that a very large part of the perma-
nent endowments as well as the current income of educational
institutions, all over the world, comes from private charity.
In the U.S.A., such charity reaches its climax. Whole
universities have been established by single gifts or bequests
by persons who were compelled by their inner and higher self
to make such expiation for their awful sins of mammonism,
in deceiving and ruining thousands of homes to gather their
multi-millions of dollars. In India, education has always
been carried on with the help of private charity, and the
British regime, though taxing the people very heavily, spends
the bulk of its revenues on the army, the police, the very heavy
' '
salaries of the so-called higher services, and what are
'
known as the Home '-charges (spent in England on account
of India 1), and grudgingly makes comparatively very small
grants for education, and leaves them to be eked out by the
charity of the already over-burdened public. Bands of students
often go out during the holidays, from nationalist and semi-
nationalist institutions, begging and securing donations for
their alma mater-s thus reviving, on a larger scale, in new
form, the old tradition of begging students.
MANU] HYGIENE AND SANITATION 335

gradually leading public opinion in the direction of

private seminaries and an expansion of the house-
master system (especially for the earlier stages of
education) as distinguished from the large Board-
" "
ing-House or Hostel and the Latin quarter of
great University towns with their negative and
1
positive evils.

(i) Sh audio,) i.e.. Hygiene and Sanitation

Of things to be taught and educed, cleanliness

and chastity, hygiene and sanitation, which
make shuchi-ta, good manners and morals,
high aspirations, courage and firmness of will,

It seems that, as usual, there has been a reaction, latterly,

1

against the residential system of education, as tending, when

pressed beyond bounds, to make the students' and the teachers'
lives artificial, to put them out of touch with the realities
of life in the world, to deprive them of opportunities of
studying industries at close quarters and firsthand, and as
also likely to give rise to the evils of over-centralisation and
bureaucracy. Hence, town-universities have grown up within
the last few decades, like those of London, Birmingham,
Manchester, in contrast with the university-towns of Oxford
and Cambridge. In the U.S.A., many colleges are within
easy reach of great factories, and students, dividing their time
between the two, combine liberal and cultural with
vocational education, and not only learn to practise technical
'
industries but also earn their own upkeep, instead of begging
'

in the old way, or, in the new way-, of being supported by

their guardians or by public funds and charitable endowments.
' '
The sub-urbs as the locus of educational institutions, for
the adults especially, or even the adolescent, as distinguished
from the small children this is the reconciliation of the two
views.
336 ESSENTIAL HYGIENE SIMPLE [MANU
all which make up noble character, ary a -

t a come first, as said

, before. There is no dispute
that cleanliness is next to godliness. How, how
much, what, when, and
to eat, drink, bathe, sleep,

keep clean the body, the clothes, and the dwelling-

place these are to be taught, as ruled by Manu.
Works on Ayur-veda-Medicine supply needed de-
tails regarding dina-charya, hygienic conduct in
the day, ratri-charya, in the night, y t u -
charya , in the several seasons. Thorough clean-
ing of the teeth before and after every meal, and
before and after every sleep, is indispensable to
preserve the teeth.
But while books are loaded on the skulls of children

diligently, these all-important matters are largely or

wholly neglected in the educational institutions of
India to-day, for various bad reasons, which could
be mostly avoided or cured if the governmental
administration were genuinely and sincerely and
wisely of, for, and by the elect and select of, the
people, and the social organisation systematic. The
single word shaucham, Manu's verse, really
in
includes the whole science and art of hygiene and
sanitation. That science with its application or
art, is, practically co-extensive with medical science
and art to-day, and is as complicated, as unmanage-
able, as artificial, as expertist, and, therefore, in
many respects harmful by excess of expertism
rather than helpful by humanism. But in essential
principles, it is as simple as truth. Pure air
MANU] PURE FOOD AND DRINK 337

to breathe, pure water to drink, pure food to eat,

some degree of sunlight (i.e., the four tattva-s of
which the body is made up, a kasha being all-
pervasive), and pure thought this is the whole
secret of health and hygiene. How to secure them,
in the very artificial life and of
conditions of city
the subordinated and ruthlessly exploited village-
life provides? the occasion for the exercise of
endless ingenuity and expertism and brow-beating
' '
of the layman, by the bureaucracies of the sani-

tary departments of governments.

Parity of Diet and Continence

Because nine-tenths and the vices

of the diseases
of humanity by or connected with
are caused
errors of tongue and sex, and because the highest
reaches of the soul depend upon purity of food and
continence, Manu lays great stress on abstemious-
ness in diet and chastity in conduct, and Krshna
and other Rshis also do the same :

Let the student wash and clean his hands, feet, face,
and all the sense-organs, nose, mouth, eyes, ears,
thoroughly, before and after meals. Let him eat un-
hurriedly, slowly, with undistracted mind. Let him not
think ill of the food placed before him, but take pleasure
in it thankfully, and look upon it with honor and wel-
come. The food that is rejoiced in, always brings strength
of body (b a 1 a) and en-ergy of mind (S k t u r j Gr..
,

ergos, Persian urUj) if carped and cavilled at, it destroys

;

both. Let him not eat the remains of the food taken by
any other nor give his own leavings to any nor go
; ;

about without washing and cleansing his mouth and hand*

22
338 TEMPERAMENTAL DIETS [MANU
after a meal nor must he, on any account, over-eat,
;

nor between the fixed meals, nor eat again while the
previous meal remains undigested. Over- eating is the
very parent of disease and premature death, is the foe of
virtue and the friend of vice, is hated and despised and
ridiculed by the world, and leads to purgatory, therefore,
after the death of the body. Let him not take food from
the hands of the intoxicated, the arrogant, the choleric,
the the diseased, the dirty, the followers of evil
liars,
callings, the hypocritical, the cruel, the hostile, the
avaricious, or the bad kin^ or even the b r h a n a, if { , m
he be stingy and small-minded though he know the whole
of the Vedas. The gods once disputed over the question,
and decided that the food-gifts of the miserly shrotriya
(Vetja-knower) and of the generous -hear ted capitalist
money-lender on high interest, were equal in quality on
the whole but the Lord of Progeny appeared among
;

them and said, Make ye not those equal which are

unequal the gift of the generous money-lender is made
;

holy by his high aspiration and mood of eager friendli-

ness, while that of the miserly man of learning is befoul-
ed wholly by his meanness.

As is the food so is the man. Eat only after the

previous meal has been wholly digested and you feel
hungry says A trey a Be compassionate to living things
;

says Gautama Trust not overmuch says Brhaspati

; ;

Be gentle to women says Bhargava.

Persons of sLttvika quality, pure intelligence,
take and thrive best on stLttvika, pure, foods, soft
and moist, bland, non-volatile, and cordial (cardiac) ;

persons of restless activity, r j a s a like and take

,
,

corresponding foods, bitter, acid, salt, very hot, sharp,

dry, burning, etc., productive of ill-health, pain, grief ;

the inert and dull, t i, in a s a, take dulling foods, stale,

tasteless, ill-smelling.

When the food is pure, the intelligence is clear and

bright and then the mind is placid and lucid when the
; ;

mind is such then the memory is strong and certain ;

when the memory is clear and full, all knots of the heart
{all neurotic and other complexes) are loosened and solved ;

when all the impurities of the heart have thus been

MANU] FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES 339

washed away, the Lord Sanat-Kumara, who is also called

Skanda, gives to the human soul its last initiation on this
-earth, and shows to it the Light beyond the Darkness. 1

: II

. II Manu, ii, 53-57.

=51

II Manu, iv, 207-225.

etc., and the <7ffl, xvii, 8-10.

II Chhandogya, vii, 26.

340 WESTERN MEDICAL AUTHORITIES [MANU
For comment upon this, in modern western langu-
age, read these :

". Normal secretion (of the digestive juices)

. .

is favored by pleasurable sensations during mastication ;

unpleasant feelings, such as vexation, and some of the

major emotions, are accompanied by a failure of secretion
. . Not only are the secretory activities of the sto-
.

mach unfavorably affected by strong emotions the ;

movements of the stomach as well, and, indeed, of almost

the entire alimentary canal, are wholly stopped during
'
excitement. So you see that the proverb, Better a
dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and
hatred therewith,' has a physiological as well as a moral
"
basis Dr. Morton Prince, The Unconscious (pub. 1921),
;

pp. 429, 431.

(Samskrt works on medicine, Sushru{a, etc., speak
of fivekinds of pitta, or digestive juices, viz. t

rochaka, pL, chaka, ranjaka, b h r i. j a k a,

s i, r a k a which probably roughly correspond with the
,

salivary, gastric, biliary, pancreatic, and intestinal juices

and secretions.)
"
Over-eating and frequent eating clog and foul the
human machinery, making it sensual and lethargic.
Such people do not live to a ripe old age." Dr. H. C.
Menkel, Healthful Diet for India (pub. 1927), p. 64.
Western medical writers have often pointed out that
sex-vice is largely due to over-eating and wrong eating,
which set up unwholesome irritations and excitements.
Finally we have the Bible, practically translating the
words of the Chhandogya, combined with those of the
"
Gltn (ix, 27) Whether, then, you are eating or drink-
:

ing, or whatever you are doing, let everything be done

to the glory of God ... If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is
;

holy, which temple you are Know you not that

. . .

you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God
dwelleth in you. Having therefore these promises, be-
loved friends, let us purify ourselves from all defilement
of body and spirit, securing perfect holiness through the
fear of God."
MANU] THE SCRIPTURES ON FOOD 341
"
As the Christ prayed, Give us, O Lord !, this day
1
our daily bread/ and as good Christian priests say grace
before meals, to create the requisite healthy and benefi-
cent atmosphere, so, long before, the Vedic Bshis prayed,
and good b r h m a n a-s and brahma-chari-s pray
,

to-day, that the food' may be blessed, may produce physi-

cal, mental, and moral blessings :

"
Lord of Food give us food that may be free of
!,

vice and full of strength. May the bringer thereof be

happy and cross beyond sorrows, and may it bring health
and energy to us, the human beings of two feet, and to
our younger brothers, the helpful domestic animals of
four feet.
"
We
pray to the Shining Father, give us the food that
is best and most wholesome for us and for all, food that
is the one basis of all life-activities for such food,
;

intently do we pray to the Lord of all forces."

l

To the comparative few who suffer from over-abund-

ance of food, and from thoughtlessness, such graces and
prayers may seem worthy of only ridicule to the ;

many, who suffer from lack of sufficient food (as in India

to-day) the realisation is clear and constant that food is
the alpha and omega of life.2 If it were duly honored,
both would benefit and perhaps few would suffer from
either deficiency or plethora.

I)

Yajur-Veda, ch. xii

Rg-Veda, Mandala, vii.

2
See p. 47, foot-note, supra ; The Science of the Emotions^
pp. 283-286 and the Glta, ii,
; 59.

II Mbh.
342 MANNERS AND MORALS [MANIT

(ii) Good Manners and Morals

Good manners are also generally recognised as

necessary. But in modern days, in India, some-
how, no teaching is given on these
definite, regular,
matters either. The lack of good manners which
leads to so much friction and irritation and some-
times disastrous quarrels *
that blight lives is

Bhagavaja, XI, viii, 20-21.

"
These verses expand Glta, ii, 59: All human enterprises
and activities, however idealistic, all root back in, and arc for
the securing of, food. The strong-willed, who abstain from
food, conquer the other senses, but the sense of taste increase*
in rebellious strength against them. He who has not prevailed
over it has not gained mastery over any in reality he wha ;

has controlled it has subdued all others." The Prophet

Muhammad also, when asked what "was the most dangerous
thing, touched his tongue, and said This all the limbs are
:
;

Safe if this goes right they are all ruined if this goes wrong.**
;

illustration, on gigantic scale, read the story,

1
For classical
in the Puranas, of how, over the question of who should
salute first, hostility began between the great gods Shiva and
Daksha, and a great War in Heaven took place, which
' '

changed the whole'

course of future evolution Arrogance,
megalomania, I am greater than yoa are/ has been a prime
cause of battles, on largest and smallest scales, throughout
history, and has been miscalled by self-deceivers and flatterers,
'
Ambition for glory '. It is said that at least one of the
matches which set fire to the powder-magazines of Europe and
caused the conflagration and explosion known as the Great
European War of 1914-*18, was a slight put upon a favorite
priest, Rasputin, of the Russian Czar Nicholas, by the German
" " "
Kaiser Wilhelm. Britannia rules the waves and Deutsch-
" '

land ttber alles may be regarded as glaring instances of bad

manners '.
MANU] NEED TO BE TAUGHT 343

being constantly pointed out and denounced by

everybody, nowadays, in students, in high and
low officials, amongst business-men, in the working
classes, even in legislators, in every country. But
no effort is made systematically to teach manners to
them, by those wbo are in the best position to do
so, viz.) the governments of the various countries
and the educationists.
If a man is taken from the plough and put into
an official place, which, however petty it is, still
carries with it much power for mischief and some
for good, how is it possible for such a man not
to feel that he is there to enjoy the taste of power
by a piece of sheer good luck, in which his fellow-
ploughmen have not and' need nothave any share?
How is it possible for such a manto behave other-
wise than in the ways of vulgar arrogance ? No one
ever told him that he was put into that place in
order to serve the public by helping the good and
hindering the evil, and not in order to feel himself
a great man. He does not know that elementary
yet all-important fact, has never been taught it,
and yet is given daily blame for rude behavior, and
is given it in a manner not very much better than
his, and which instead of helping his soul, only
irritates him and confirms him in his evil ways. 1

1
E.g., a striking difference may be seen by comparing the
English and Indian police-constables. The English constable
is sedulously taught, before he is put to his duties he is ;

taught how to behave, he is taught that he is the servant of

344 RESPONSIBILITY IS THE ELDER'S [MANU
From the Sovereign to the least public servant it
should be the duty of each superior officer to
himself daily meditate on and lay well to his
heart the fact, from which all sound ethics of
public service flow, viz., that he is public-s0rv>afl
and not public-master ; and then to instruct his
next subordinate first in that fact and in the ethics
(which issue unfailingly from it) of that sub-
ordinate's work, the righteous spirit of human
sympathy and general helpfulness and freedom
from arrogance in which he should do his work,
and only secondly to instruct him in the business-
details. Manu says :

The responsibility is the elder's. The elder, the

higher, the superior, by his righteousness of spirit and
conduct, maketh the family thrive and grow and prosper ;
or, by the opposite, he bringeth it to ruin and destruction,
including himself. If the elder guide and train the
younger well, he is verily as mother and as father.
1

A code of manners, to be systematically taught

to all men, in their days of studentship, is neces-
sary. The most artificial and faulty one is better
than none. And
not only should it be taught to
the young, but the old should also revive their

the public ; hence, every one in London turns to the constable

as to a friend. In India he is not taught good manners nor
his duty to the public ;and he is arrogant, and every one
tries to keep out of his way, and dreads him. Not he, but
those who have neglected to teach him are responsible.

II ix, 109, no.

MANU] MAKE LIFE A FEAST OF FINE FEELING 345

memories of itfrom time to time. The ascetic-

jshis used to revive thememories of the kings on
such points, in the earlier day. Men in office and
authority, especially, need to be very studious of
the ways of behavior which promote good-will.
Without rules of behavior between old and young
and equals, without forms of salutation and reply
and address, life is without grace and courtesy and
stateliness. The careful observance of any such
code involves a training in self-control, and an
understanding of one's own and others' feelings,
which smooths relations, obviates misunderstand-
ings, and in cases where they may happen to arise,
makes explanations possible and easy. Without
knowing how to address each other, how to tell the
truth gently, people can only cause and feel hurts
and resentments, and can take no steps to help an
awkward situation, but only make it worse by act-
ing on their unexamined and uncontrolled emotions.
A detailed code of manners is therefore carefully
enjoined by Manu, whereby reverence to elders,
tenderness to youngers, affection to equals, are
expressed on all appropriate occasions, making life
a continual feast of fine feeling. At the present day,
as a corollary to the development of egoism, in
every individual, and a compromise between the
egoisms of all, there is a tendency to dispense with
reverence on the one side and tenderness on the
other, and all the expression thereof, by insistence
on the equality of all individuals, that is of the
346 VARIETY RICHER THAN EQUALITY [MANU

bodies ; so that the aged grandfather and the bud-

ding youth shall observe the same forms of behavior
towards each other. Such a state of manners
seems, however, appropriate to other states of
psycho-physical constitution than the present,
conditions like those of the earliest races, which
may be repeated again in the later. In the mean-
while, to deprive ourselves of the feelings of reve-
rence and tenderness, thinking to retain only those
of friendship, (at best, and coarse vulgarity and
flippant impudence or even mutual contempt and
insolence, at the worst) the same as to deprive
is

ourselves of some of our sensor and motor organs,

thinking to retain only the rest. It is to make life
poorer and not richer. Even if equality could be
made really to mean sympathetic fraternity, even
then, surely, to feel the parental and the filial as
well as the fraternal emotions is to be spiritually
three times richer than to feel only the fraternal.
Mere equality, unvaried by seniority and juniority,
superiority and inferiority, must surely become
very dull and monotonous and end in boredom
before long. It indeed endangers the health and
safety of the remainder or even makes its con-
tinuance doubtful. For all the aspects of feelingr
and organs of body are in intimate relation-
ship and inseparably bound up with each other,
and amputation of any will affect all the others. 1

"
: I
Sankhya. Sameness is

slumber, chaos, the world's disappearance and dissolution;

MANU] THREE ASPECTS OF CIVILISATION 347

Every distinctive from a

civilisation, starting
religion, develops special language and a
(i) a
special body of knowledge, (ii) a special culture,
ethos, system of morals, code of manners, sefc of
social conventions, a special way of worship and
series of sacraments more directly connected with
the religion, (iii) a special way of living, a body of
useful and fine arts, dress, architecture, system of
government, and ways of wealth-production and
commerce, etc. whereby to express its share of the
Universal Mind. In India, at present, we may ob-
serve the clash of three such civilisations, mainly,
(discounting the minor varieties under each), viz.,
the ancient Indian, the Arabic-Persian, and the
European or, in terms of religion, the Vaidika,
;

the Islamic, the Christian. The first two are

degenerate the third is abnormal, being too much
;

based on exploitation. All are in the melting-pot.

The immediate result is general conflict and
confusion. It is devoutly to be wished and hoped
that the refining, ennobling, and rational elements
common to all will remain behind, like gold in the
crucible, and the dross and dirt raised and flung
in by the dusty and stormy march of time will be
burnt out. 1
The sifting is work for the Educator.

differentiation is waking, cosmos, the world's reappearance

and evolution." So says ancient Sankhya. So also says the
modern evolutionist.
See the present writer's book, The
1
Unity of Asiatic
Thought, i.e. t ofall Religions.
348 KIND FEELINGS NEED FIT EXPRESSION [MANU
It were well if those responsible for the educa-
tion of the people in the broadest sense would

njoin a carefully thought-out code of manners

upon high and low, official and non-official, young
and old and equal, and persons in different walks
of life and it were well if they would see that
;

all understood the psychological reasons for it,

in ever-increasing degree, according to the growth

of their capacities. A
good portion of the friction
and unrest of modern days in all countries would
disappear if such a code of manners were care-
fully inculcated, and all the rest of the discontent
would disappear if that code were placed in the
setting of a more equitable division of work and
leisure and pleasure for all. As the soul needs a
body to manifest itself ; as thoughts require words
for expression ; so kindly feelings require appro-
priate gestures of salutation, obeisance, blessings,
for their assurance and recognition. And the law
of psycho-physical parallelism tells us that the
one invariably tends to produce the other, and
vice versa. Hence deliberate practice of courteous
ways is essential.

Many are the details mentioned by Manu, for

teacher and taught, ruler and ruled, friend and
friend, stranger and stranger, judge and suitor, and
so on. The general principle of manners in speech,
is stated thus :

Tell the truth, and tell it pleasantly and gently (for

gentleness and benevolence are the very spirit of Truth,
MANU] SOCIAL RANKS 349

the One Truth of truths being the Unity of all selves

all
in the Supreme whence love) tell it not rudely (for
Self, ;

the truth-telling that hurts and jars and repels, carries not
conviction as truth ought to, but is only a display of
aggressive egoism). Never tell a pleasing falsehood
either- such is the ancient law. 1

Titles to Respect

And the general principle of manners in mutual

behavior and courtesies is given thus :

Affluence, good birth and breeding, years, high

deeds, experienced knowledge these constitute the
five titles to honor each succeeding one is higher
;

than the preceding. Amongst brahmanas, he who has

. .

more knowledge is the elder amongst kshattriyas, he

;

who has greater might of arm and prowess amongst ;

vaishyas, he who has larger riches amongst shu^ras, ;

he who counts more years of age from date of birth.-

The son of Angira,, while yet but a boy in years,
was set to teach his uncles, the P i t r s, the Ancestors of
the future races. And he began his lectures to them with
" "
the words :
My
children And the P i r s were very
! t;

indignant and lodged formal complaint with the gods.

And the gods assembled to consider the important ques-
"
tion and after full consideration, gave judgment ; The

tfflRH: II Manu, iv, 138.

For full comment on this verse, see The Science of the

Emotions, pp. 260-262.
2
^j srrfsk; cp,q ft iraft qsnft i

\\

i grot ^B*I ^f^rM g

: Wl u Ut3 *F*tt: II Manu. ii, 136, 155.
350 'ACCIDENTS' OF BIRTH ETC. [MANU
boy addressed ye properly. The one who knoweth less is
younger the one who knoweth more is the elder. Years
;

and white hairs and worldly wealth and high family do

not make elderliness. The Bshis have decided that the
f
wiser and more learned is the greater also amongst us."

These same are the tests of worthiness and right

to honor to-day also, but because the spirit has
gone wrong, as in other matters, the working of
them breeds invidiousness and discontent, instead
of gracefulness The accident of
and pleasure.
birth, the accident of purse, the accident of age,
are very much talked and written about, for
purposes of depreciation and even outright
denunciation. Yet these are no whit more, nor
less, accidental than the accident of brains, the
accident of congenitally strong nerve and large
muscle and tough health, the accident of eloquent
tongue and powerful pen, and the accident of restless
ambition and ability to do deeds. None of these,
in truth, is accidental. All effects have causes.
All these powers and positions are won by great
desire plus self-denial (t apa s) of one sort or another
in this or in previous lives. All are good, each in
its due place ; and all to be highly honored if
rightly used. The Consort of Vishiju, Lakshml,
the rosy mother, the resplendent Matron of the
World, Loka-mafa, is no less, if also no more,
important and sacred than the Helper of BrahmE,
white Sarasvati, the pure, chaste goddess of
1
Manu, ii, 151-154. More on the subject of gradation and
ranking may be said later.
MANU] AND '
ACCIDENTS
'
OF ABILITY ETC. 351

learning. Lakshml, the goddess of all the wealth

and splendor, all the art and glory, of the world ;
Gauri-Annapftrija-Purga, the rainbow-bued Half of
Shiva-Shankara-Rudra, the goddess of conjugal
Love, Beauty, Health, Vital Energy and indis-
soluble Family Relationships, the goddess who
makes good birth, happy marriage, fine children,

long life and great deeds possible, who is also the

"
goddess of the horn of Plenty," of abundance of
Food, and who, finally, turns into the Goddess of
War, the goddess of the warrior, the husbandman
and householder transformed into the soldier for
defence of home and hearth; Sarasvati, the
goddess of Intellect, Science, Art, Wisdom who
shall say which of these is more to be honored
than the other two ? But in misuse, the accident
of cunning brain, glib tongue, facile pen, iron nerve
and muscle, is even worse, if that be possible, than

the accident of purse, birth, age or prowess. The

brahmacharl of Manu was therefore taught
to reverence all the powers of man, but only when
they were well used, and in order to use them well
himself.
The word reverence needs to be dwelt upon, a
little. It is the key to the formation of high
character. Genuine good manners are the outcome
of good morals only. Sincere good conduct is not
"
possible without good character. Mockery is the
"
fume of little hearts and noble manners come
;

"
from noble minds. The man of the world " has
352 MORALS, BOOT; MANNERS, FRUIT [MANU
"
been definedthe man with irreproachable
as
manners and irredeemable morals ". But that is the
hypocrite and deceiver, not an Sjryan gentleman.
The liar deliberately severs the natural direct
relation between manners and morals. Another
type affects superior airs and detachment as of
having risen above all things by omniscience, and
nil admirari. But that is only the reversed and

false image of true vai-ragya, which brings,

not conceit,compassion and the crowning
but
virtue of humility. Good conduct, good manners,
are the fruit good morals, good character, are the
;

root. Manu's word sad-achara, shisht-

a char a, includes both at once. It means the
character and conduct of the good. And, as the
truth is simple always, so the secret of the forma-
tion of good character is simple. Revere the
mother most of all, then the father and the teacher,
honor the other elders, love the brothers and the
sisters, be kind and protective to the youngers.
He who develops these natural good feelings will
find that courage, philanthropy, fellow-feeling,
public spirit, justice, generosity, charity, mercy,
tolerance, patience, fortitude, and all the other
virtues, add themselves. 1
A good family-home,
1
On the subject of virtues (and vices) see Pt. Ill of An
Advanced Text-Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics also ;

the present writer's The Science of the Emotions, 3rd edn.,

pp. 95-114, 131-136, 254-255, and The Science of Religion, II,
ii, (b) and the references to the Maha-bharafa and the Bhaga-
vaja given there ; and especially Glja, xvi, 1-3.
MANU] RESPONSIBILITY 353

parental or tutorial, is the natural and unfailing

nursery of good character. The strong and healthy
1

seeds of it will be formed there, and life outside

will only bring them to sprout and blossom and
fruit.

SCHOOL AND HOME

The notion thatall education should be done

in and college, with rigid routines and

school
time-tables and fixed classes, and that the home
should have nothing more to do with it, is part of
the general spirit of excessive mechanisation,
specialisation, and division of labor, which per-
vades the present era of machine-civilisation. The
other notion, which also we see at work, that
schoolmasters have only to set tasks to the
students, and that it is for the parents to see, them-

selves or through private coaches, that the tasks

are done and manners taught, if at all this is also
part of the concomitant widespread atmosphere of
aggressive egoism, expertism, avoidance of general
*

duty and claim of special right. Responsible

' '
public servant has come to mean, in practice, a
public servant and the higher in salary and office,
the truer the definition who knows how to shift re-
sponsibility from his own shoulders to that of others,
"
1
Pestalozzi was profoundly right in putting forward the
"
home as the very oore of educative influence : Welton, What
Do We Mean by Education t, p. 57.
354 THE FRIEND OF ALL

subordinates, And, even more, of the public

which pays him to do the responsible work '
I The
spiritof bureau-cracy (i.e., the 'strength,' the master-
ship, the supremacy, of the bureau, the office, the
man in office) being abroad, there is a general
tendency, in all departments of the public services,
for the public servant to regard himself as the
public master, and to try to browbeat and hustle
the public to do the work which the public pays
him to dol Of course, this perversion is most
observable in the executive departments. But it
is not absent from even the education department
proper. And it is most unnatural, moat jarring,
most mischievous there as poisoning the very
springs of life, the budding mind and character, by
bad example and wrong ideas. The brahmaija,
the teacher, the priest, the missionary, the coun-
sellorand friend of all in distress, should have no
trace of arrogance about him, but be sympathy
and benevolence and helpfulness personified. The
conflicting notions above mentioned, and many
such others now being cast up by the rising tide of
4 1
the science of education, will all be found
capable of correction and synthesis by the simple
idea of the Teacher's Family-Home, and the simple
"
maxim, Avoid excess ". A pupil who grows up
in such a home's pervasively benevolent atmo-
sphere of reverence for elders, affection for equals,
tenderness for youngers, has acquired the essence
and substance of high character, to which tha
MAKU] THE ESSENCE OF CHARACTER 355

finish and polish of special conventional manners

proper, (* table-manners/ etc.,) are easily added by
the directions of the heads of the home, as occasions
arise, in the daily communion of the life of that
home.
The Teacher, the Father, the Mother above all, and
also the elder brother, should never be slighted even in
thought, even under affliction. The teacher is verily
Brahma incarnate, the father is Praj-pa$i, the mother IB
the all- bearing all-giving Mother Earth, the brother is
one's self in another body. The pains tbat the father and
the mother undergo gladly out of love for the younger
generation, to bring it to birth and enable it to live these
cannot be repaid even by hundreds of years of service.
To them therefore is affectionate service ever due. When
they are satisfied, tapas, self -denying labor, the
essence of high character, is achieved in full. Reverent
service of them, work according to their wishes, is the
highest tapas (for it spreads a spiritual atmosphere all
round). They are the three worlds, they are the three
(first) stages of life, they are the three Ve$as, they are the
three sacred fires. He who is not careless towards them,
he wins the three worlds this, the physical, by love of
:

the mother the middle or astral by that of the father ;

;

the third or mental by that of the teacher his body

;

shines with the aura created by a virtuous and peaceful

mind. He who daily honors these, honors and achieves
all virtues and all duties. He who slights them has not
the quality of spirit which will make any actions success-
ful. Let him ever avoid wrangling with the teachers,
elders, kith and kin, children, servants, guests, sick
persons and physicians, and especially with the mother,
the wife, and the daughter. 1
He who conquers them by
affection, he who allows himself to be defeated and over-
ruled by them in small matters, he conquers all others
and them also in great matters. The teacher puts the
human being in touch with the world of Brahma the

1
See Maoaulay, History of England (original edn.), I,

360, for interesting comment on this.

356 FINE FEELINGS [MANU
Ideator, the father with that of Prajapati the Progenitor,
the guest with that of Indra the Far-famed the priest,
;

of the gods the daughters, of the fairies ; the kinsmen,

;
' '
of the v i s h v e-cj. e v a s the, pervasive gods the ;

relatives, of the waters ; the mother, of this Earth the ;

children, the aged, the sick, of a k a s h a, the skies and

the spaces. 1 The elder brother is as the father the wife
;

and child are part of one's own body the servants are as
;

inseparable shadow; the daughter is object of infinite

tenderness therefore, even if they should get angry and
;

use strong language, the well-instructed twice-born

Aryan gentleman bears it all with unfevered mind, full
of patient kindliness. He who controls himself with
these, will not fail in self-control anywhere. 2
1
For explanation of these somewhat mystic statements, see
The Mahatma Letters, p. 200 and the present writer's The
;

Superphysics of War (Adyar Pamphlets Series), pp. 33-34.

Briefly, all kinds of worlds are present here, now, in and
around us ; the worlds of sound, tact, sight, taste, scent, of
science, art, music, poetry, commerce, trade, etc., obviously ;
and so of the gods and fairies and denizen? of high and low
planes, infinitely, not so obviously. Our various physical,
super-physical, mental senses and faculties put us in touch
with these various worlds. By the law of psycho-physical
parallelism, that a mood of mind corresponds with a mode of
matter, each shade of emotion brings us into contact with its
corresponding world, where it is most in evidence. The
principle of s a m
a-d a r s h t a, the law of analogy, shows us
i

that the whole of the universe is infinitely repeated, on all

scales, from the smallest possible microcosm to the largest
possible macrocosm, over and over again. And as the
cultivation of the physical sensor organs throws open the
riches of their corresponding worlds to the mind, so the
cultivation of the various spiritual affections throws open their
respective regions to the soul.

fa^ha: U
MANU] AND CORRESPONDING WORLDS 357

Such is the essence of a char a. And the

educing of it, as said before, is almost more

II

cTT

f| ^ft %5T<=3 u4)^hl^SJ|^: U

3?T?clT: I

: f^^TT: U

: I

: II

II

l*
4 U

?nt
358 PRECEPTOE BY EXAMPLE [MANTJ

important, if such comparisons may be made at

all, than that of intellect.

THE 5.CHARYA

The a c h a r y a the teacher of highest quality, is he

,

who, having invested the pupil with the sacred thread,

adopted him into his family-home of science, and
brought his mind into assonance with, his own, teaches
him the Ve<Ja, together with its secret meaning and also
the practical application thereof, through experimental
demonstration. He is called L c h a r y a especially because
he gathers together, a-chinoti, all the most important
principles of right and dutiful conduct in the various
situations and circumstances of life, from all the various
sciences, and, a-charati, practising them himself,
teaches the pupils to do so, a - c h a r a y a t i by precept, ,

and, even more, by example. For a c h L r a right con-

1
,

duct, is the essence of the highest 4 bar ma, and every

atma-van 4 v i - j a every twice-born knower of the
,

Self, is ever intent thereon. He who falls away from right

conduct cannot be upheld by any amount of Ve<Ja-
learning. He who is firm in right conduct, he
alone reaps the full harvest of that learning. Thus

: a

^T II

Manu, ii, 225-234; iv, 179-185.

3 2f: ^M ^^^iH^^ftsf: .1

II Manu, ii, 140.

ft WML, Wf ^fRKftf, dWKNl4 3=527% II

MANU] CONDUCT MORE THAN MAXIM 359

realising that (Jharma

is a helpless cripple unless
we supply to the feet of a c h a r a which alone
it ,

can make it walk abroad, the sages have taken

right conduct to heart, as the very root and beginning
of all t a p a s self-denial and ascetic practice for the
,

acquirement of ever higher psychical and superphysioal

powers and ever greater philanthropic worthiness. Right
conduct, high aspiration, freedom from envy, bring long
life, desirable offspring, wealth here and imperishable
riches of the Spirit hereafter, and cure all inauspicious-
nesses and ill-favors of fortune while wrong conduct
;

brings ill -fame, disease, sorrows, early death. Not all the
Ve<Jas, even if studied with all their six a n g a s sub-
-
,

sidiary sciences, can redeem the man of ill conduct ; the

sacred music of the chants forsakes such an one at the
moment of death, as fledglings that have found their
wings abandon the defiled nest. 1

: TOTt rf:

Manu, i, 108-lia.

TO ^T ^cf II Jtfanw, iv, 156-8.

: u
Vishnu Smtfi.
360 SELF-CONSERVATION [MANU
PHYSICAL EDUCATION CONTINENCE

Physical education was part and parcel of this

training in purity of body and mind and manners.
And the most important item of this was held to
be brahma-charya. The most significant and
most prominent name of the disciple is brahma-
chari. Shishya, 'the to-be- instructed/
'

vidy-arfchl, the desirer of knowledge,' the

*

stud-ent, c h h a t r a who dwells under the um-

,

"
brella-protection of the teacher or who covers '

up, does not cavil and mock at, does not proclaim,
the defects of the teacher, but makes much of and
"
imitates only his virtues such are other, and less
deeply significant names of the pupil. Brahma-
c ha r i , as explained before, means the storer,
gatherer, realiser of (i) the vital seed of infinite

biological continuity (s an t an a) and multiplicity

in and through progeny, (ii) all science, (iii) the
Infinite and Eternal Self. M ami's insistence on
utter continence during the student-life is unquali-
fied. Without it, perfection of vital power, bodily
and mental, cannot be achieved. Without it, the
bearing of the burdens of private and public life,
later on, becomes a long-drawn pain and strain and

struggle against debility and disease, instead of a

continual joy. Also, though not expressly stated,
it is indicated that the total physical life shall be

four times as long as the period of genuine con-

tinence observed before the commencement of
MANU] MApANA THE MADDENER 361

reproduction and creation. The extreme statement

on the subject, in works on Yoga, is that the death
of an organism does not take place so long as there
is no failure of continence and autonomy, the will

to live on in the same body (as distinguished from

the will to live on in the bodies of progeny, which
other will is evidenced by and manifested in the pro-
genitive act, exhausting the previous will of self-
continence), on the part of the primal cell which is
the core of that organism. This is illustrated by
1
the story of Bhishma.
Manu says :

When
the knowers neglect the study of Ve<Ja- science
and knowledge decay, when they abandon the
let their
good ways and indulge themselves sensuously and indol-
ently, when they commit mistakes and excesses in eating
and drinking, and ignore the rules of chastity, then only
does Death prevail over them otherwise Death itself
;

could not defeat the Brahma- knower. In other words,

oblivion of right theory, neglect of right practice, failure
in continence, error in diet these help disease and death
to overpower even the erstwhile wise. 2

1
See the present writer's Krshna, pp. 259-268.

ci II Manu, v. 3.

Some recensions read 3TT3RT3L for HHIW. But the latter

is the better reading. SPTT^, p m a d a H^f, m a d a n a

r a -
, ,

"
the maddener," primarily sex-desire, k a m a, eros, is also the
cause of 3liw^, a 1 asya , lassi-tude, carelessness, mistakes

of all kinds; (see Gltf, xviii, 39).

S62 SELF-CONTINUATION [MANTJ

It is possible to translate all the processes of the

world into terms primarily nourishment and
of

secondarily of reproduction, the two ultimate and

penultimate appetites. Hence the great stress laid
by Manu on the guarding of these.
The ancestral germinal cell sub-divides and pro-
duces form after form, which make the progeny.
This is true on the physical as well as the super-
physical planes :

The parent himself is born as the progeny, becoming

renewed again and a gain J
The living creatures of a system are actually,
physically as well as superphysically, the children
of the God of that system, born out of His
sacrifice part of His body and living by the
of a
sacrifice of other parts thereof. If any such sub-
divisional part or cell will cease to sub-divide
further and hold itself together, it may continue to
do so for an indefinitely long time and become,
comparatively, immortal. HanUm&n, by his utter
continence, on all planes, in this k a 1 p a (eon), is to
become the Brahma of the next k a 1 p a. Such is
the promise ofbrahma-charya. 2

1 5tR% g^t ifft >pr gp: g?: n

See Kulluka's commentary on Manu, ix, 8.
8
A few extracts from western writings may be helpful in
bringing home the importance of sex-purity and the connec-
tion between it and diet, to all concerned with the bringing up
of the young :
*'
The sexual organs have not only the duty of renewing
the race, but have also, by a secretion thrown into the
MANU] BY FOOD AND BY PROGENY 363

Side by side with the brahma-charyaof

body, goes the brahma-charyaof the mind,
alluded to before. This is as necessary to observe

as the other. It is evident that the feeble and

circulation, an influence on the nutrition, well-being, and

growth of the body . . . Note the difference between
the ox and the bullock to see how deep-rooted the influence
of the genital glands can be in shaping the size and form
of the body/' Keith, The Human Body (H. U. L.), p. 6S.
"
Purity is of the first importance to boyhood. To prolong
the period of continence in a boy's life is to prolong the
period of growth. This is a simple physiological law . . .

All experience shows that the early outlet towards sex

"
cheapens and weakens affectional capacity ; H. Ellis,
"
Psychology of Sex, I, 281. Next in the list of causes that
conspire to a growth of licentiousness is the perversion of the
appetite by the food and drink used ...
In the boy of
sixteen or eighteen years of age, who has lived and does live
a pure life, whose sexual organism has just awakened to life,
when this secretion of minute cells reaches the vasa
deferentia, it is re-absorbed into the blood, directed into the
nerve-channels of the system, and, as a result, his voice i
altered, and he takes on a new life. In the mature man, who
lives a life of comparative continence, the colls or semen is
secreted very slowly, and on reaching the vas deferens is
absorbed, and so endows him with a status of health,
a clearness of brain, a strength of purpose, and might of will
that the poor miserable sensualist in the wildest flight of his
diseased imagination, knows not of ... Costiveness, the result
of concentrated food, is one of the many causes of self-abuse in
boys and girls"; Dr. Albert Moll, The Sexual Li fe of the
"
Child. The sexually stimulating influence of luxurious
feeding ... as the principal cause of incitation to lascivious-
ness, Is indeed a well-known fact of experiences." Dr. Blooh,
The Sexual Life of Our Time.
A current verse says that the quintessential subtlest portion
of the food taken goes to develop the germ of life :
364 CONTINENCE OF MIND [MANU
sickly physical progeny of the physically inconti-
nent, who take up the household life and the work
of reproduction prematurely, bring about the physi-
cal deterioration of the race. It is even more

evident, if observers would only open their eyes,

that the weak, unhealthy, unwholesome mental
progeny of the mentally incontinent, who take up
the very responsible work of authorship, of educa-
tion of others, before their own minds have attained
the requisite power, balance, and maturity, is even
more dangerous to the mental and therefore all
other health of the race and the nation. Witness,
to-day, the evil mental excitements, panics, irrita-
tions, psychic fevers, crimes, caused broadcast by
frivolous-minded, passion-guided, egoism-inspired
writers, rushing into print, in a million books and
papers, while themselves yet ignorant of the very
1
alphabet of soul-knowledge. In the olden days,
the recognised attitude of the brahma-charl
'
was that ofshushrnsha, the wish to hear! not
to chatter away, himself ; to listen with attention,
with effort to understand, with that reverent

1
H. Ellis, Psychology of Sex, I, 187, quotes Anstie and
"
Bazalgette to the effect that premature and false work in
literature and art, and the tendency of much modern literature
"
to mental orgasm is due to sexually vicious life on the part
of authors. Dr. Iwan Blooh, in The Sexual Life of Our Time,
quotes at full length an autobiographical document which
confesses how a sexual degenerate became a murderous
anarchist and inciter of pogroms. The multitudinous oases
of the disastrous and widespread consequences of sex-errors
which fill the medical records of all civilised nations, drive
MANU] HIGH MOTIVE OF AUTHORSHIP 365

earnestness in the warmth of which alone the

flower of the soul can bloom and blossom not with
the incessant self-displaying restlessness of mind
which is always making internally, if not in
external speech also, vehement assents and dissents
and hasty comments and criticisms. So, on the
other hand, the only motive recognised for author-
ship was helpful instruction :

With what hope of benefit has the Poet described the

greeds of the greedy and the lusts of the lustful to those
that are already obsessed with greed and lust ? Shall he
not be even like one that deliberately leadeth the blind to
their fall in the pit ? Nay in order to lead the minds of the
;

listeners gradually from the evil to the good, from k a a m

and artha to <J h a r a and m m
o k s h a by emphasis-,

ing tbe ill consequences of excessive greed and lust, have

the temptations of mind -alluring, soul -degrading, misery-
bringing glamors of riches and luxuries and sensuousneBS
been described by the Seers in chastening world- histories.
Why else should the tender-hearted Sage, ever full of the
deepest compassion for erring humanity, describe the
things that bind the souls of men to the grinding wheel
of the World-process ? '

home the duty, for both young man and young woman, of
enteringupon marriage only after virgin brahma-charya
prolonged as far as possible.
#4W?fa 35?^T g^R ft^ tf^WL I Atharva Veda.
'*
Byunsullied virginity of brahma-charyadoes a
pure maiden win a similarly pure youth for bridegroom." So
only oan the marriages be made healthy and happy.
366 NOT GREED BUT COMPASSION [MA1HJ

Not for money and ever more money, nor even for
name and fame, did the venerable and tender-heart-
ed patriarchal sages compose their works, but that
their children, the human race, may benefit :

The sage VLlmiki composed the primal Epic,

yana, in order that the b r a h m a n a may become more
easily master of knowledge and of speech and do his work
of teaching better that the kshattriya may under-
;

stand and perform his work of protection of the weak

better ; that the v a i s h y a may gather and expend
wealth more virtuously and usefully that the s h 0. <J r a
;

may advance in soul and attain respectability. The

compassionate sage Vy,sa, toiling ceaselessly for the
good of others, where so many ascetics think but of
securing freedom from sorrow for themselves, put the
essence of the Ve<Ja into the MahU-bhurata, in order that
all may benefit by that precious knowledge, all be helped
to cross beyond the difficult places in life, all see happy
days. Let us offer homageto the over- virgin youthful
Shuka, son of Vysa, who concentrated into the BhUga-
vala, the quintessence of all his experience of the Ve<Ja,
out of flowing pity for mankind, to illumine the darkness
of the world- mystery, wherein otherwise our souls were
groping blindly. Ill indeed were tbe case of unhappy
humanity if the outer and the inner darkness were not
lighten-ed by the Sun, the Moon, and the Mahn-bhftrata.
1

11
9ft:
Ifih&sa-Samuchchaya.

\\

R&m&yana.
 CURE OF CHANCE EREOR8 367

For such reasons, then, in order to perfect the

growth, maturation, and virtue, of body and mind,
Manu enjoins repeatedly that the student shall
conserve the seed of life within himself most
carefully :

Let him sleep by himself, alone not in the same bed

;

with any other. Let him not scatter and waste the germ
of life. He who doeth so wittingly, he indeed murders
his vow of brahma-charya -discipline and the
effective fulfilment and success thereof. But if he should
happen to do so unwittingly, in dream, then let him
bathe and worship the sun and pray thrice with the
"
Vetja-mantra which prays :
May my lost life-
vigor be restored unto me ". He who fulfils his vow of
brahma-charya u nfail ingly he gains the highest
,

worlds, even immortal bliss and freedom from rebirth.

Only he who keeps the vow of brahma-charya
unbroken during the student-stage, and preserves his
virginity intact therein, only he will master the Ve<Ja,
only he will enter and go through the household-stage
successfully. All vigor of intellect, all valor of heart,
all sumptuousness of outer and inner life, are founded on
brahma-charya. This house of flesh, known as the

: U

IfihQsa Samuchchaya.

,
u

Bh&gavat*.
368 SUPERPHYSICAL POWERS [MANU
human body, is upheld by three pillars, right diet, sound
1
sleep, chastity.

To him who wishes to observe b rah ma-

chary a unbrokenly, throughout his life, Manu
grants exemption from the other duties, viz., the
discharge of the congenital debts by the ordinary
means of the household-life. He becomes elevated,
by his abandonment of the three cravings, to a

higher sphere of duty ; he becomes the reserve-force

of the race, the nation, the community, to be of
resistless efficiency in physical as well as super-

physical need. In such a person, superphysical

senses and powers have possibility of development,
nay, certainty, if he fulfil the other subsidiary
conditions. 2 Even current Vaidyaka (medical)

f^T:

I)

Manu.u, 180-'l, 249;iii, 2

Mbh.
II Sushruja.
"
1
Savages also are perfectly well aware how valuable
sexual continence is* in combination with fasting and solitude,
 THE HELPERS OF MANKIND 369

works declare that, after a certain stage and period,

the transformations of the energy developed by th6
food taken as nourishment, carry it to a plane
subtler than the physical, if it is not thrown
away
earlier, and it then becomes tejas,ojas,sahas,
and various other kinds of astral and mental forms
of energy. 1

Eighty-eight thousand Rshis have taken up the

arduous path of the sacrifice of the household and tke
cremation -ground, and serve as the seeds of the races of
men that pass through birth and death, again and again,
in order to provide j i va s with the needed physical vehi-
cles and with experience of the Path of Pursuit, under
the governance of D h a r m a throughout the period of
,

world -evolution. Eighty. eight thousand other Hsbis,

having, like the former, their base in the heaven- worlds,
have set themselves apart to observe the dire self-control
of brahma-charya,in order to keep back the forces
of evil from overpowering the workers on the Path of
Pursuit, to lead j 1 v a s gradually to and guide them safely
on the Path of Renunciation, and to serve, till the very
dissolution of the elements, as the unceasing fountain of

to acquire the aptitude for abnormal spiritual powers . . .

The psychic effect of such training ... is undoubted. It enables

them to accomplish feats of abnormal strength, agility, and
endurance, and gives them, at times, besides a general exalta-
tion of the senses, undoubted clairvoyant and other supernor-
"
mal mental and bodily powers H. Ellis, Psychology of Sex,
;

VI, pp. 145-'6. See also the present writer's The Fundamental,
Idea of Theosophy, and Eugenics, Ethics and Metaphysics^
The physical vital seed may be said to be to ideal or
1

psychical functionings and manifestations, what the atom is

said to be to the energy stored within it, which would be set
free and utilised if the atom oould be disintegrated. Passiing
out, under right conditions, the seed becomes the starti^
point of a new life retained,
; it gyves rise to enhancement of
the original life in a more and more wonderful degree aad
newer and newer ways,
24
370 DEGREES OF CONTINENCE [MANXT
that spiritual knowledge, of the Ve<Jas. the Puranas, the
Upanishats, and other Vi<Jyas and Sutras and Bhashyaa,
which keeps alive the Knowledge of the Self.1

The different periods of b rja h a - c h a r y a for m

the different types or castes are in accord with the
different kinds of physical and superphysical
powers and knowledge required to be wielded by
ach for the highest, life-long the next, thirty-six
; ;

years ; then, eighteen ; or nine and so on.

;

Such then is the first and foremost item of

physical, as well as moral, education.

Yajhavalkya, III. Adhyatma Prakaraija, 131-135.

"
Some read SpRT^3 W^ll'fi-f: i.e.. sage-souls that are always

passing through the cremation-ground, taking birth again and

again, by deliberate choice of this path of self -sacrifice,"
as
the second half of the first line. For an interesting view of
the connection between life and death, see Edward Carpenter's
The Drama of Love and Death, p. 284, et seq.
MANU] SPORTS AND ATHLETICS 371

GAMES

The directions, mentioned before, in connection

with the teaching of cleanliness, as to food, sleep,
bath, and other personal needs and necessities,
have also obviously a direct bearing on physical
health and s tardiness, and may therefore also be
regarded as part of the physical education. And
they are all based on medical science in the deepest
sense, viz., the science of the action of the life-

breaths and other vital currents of the human

body, which govern its physiological functions, and
of the magnetic and other forces, present and
working in the student's natural surround ings.
Of physical exercises in the nature of modern
games and athletics, there is no mention in the
current Manu-Smrti. But the Pura^as and
Itihasas show that in connection with the teach-
'

Scripture of the Bow

'
ing, for instance, of the
1
(Qhanur-Veda) as part of the Yajur-Veda, martial
exercises, drill, wrestling, fencing, archery and the
use of other weapons, mock-combats, foot races and
horse- and car-races, riding and management of
horses, camels, and elephants, swimming,
bulls

diving, rowing, and leaping and jumping of all

kinds, formed part of the training, according to the

1
1t may seem strange to western eyes, but athletics, like all
branches of right training, were regarded also as part of the
divine knowledge of that division of it which is called the
lower or aparfc-vidya.
372 PURPOSEFUL PLAY

type and capacity of the student. Games with

balls, kanduka-krida, are also mentioned, as
specially suitable for girls. Aimless ]
movements of
the body are discouraged by Manu :

Let him not move his hands or feet or eyes aimlessly ;

let him not talk restlessly and crookedly let him not ;

think of always outracing others and of injuring them

3
enviously.

The idea of a definite purpose to serve, of

connecting all activity organically with one or the
other of the ends of life, was kept before the
student, even in play as is in accordance with
the co-operative and inclusive interdependence
taught by the higher Reason, though not with the
aggressive, competitive, separative, independence
asserted by the lower Mind. This purposiveness
might diminish the enjoyment of the play some-
what, but would have the compensating advantage
of not allowing athletics and games to become the
end of life of a few, while the many others are
content to look on without using their own muscles.
But such martial drilling was perhaps not
undergone, except lightly, by the majority of the
students other than the would-be warriors
(kshattriyas), though all who wished were trained.

'
Blind-man's-buff is mentioned in the Bhagavata. For a
brief description of Kfshna's ideal education, see the present
writer's Krshna, pp. 69-72.
2 ! "flRfWivM*?! ( *N-lH<3l5fej: I

I! iv, 177.
HAKU] BREATHING EXERCISES 373

BREATH-REGULATION

One prime means of physical health, however

was carefully taught to every student, namely,
the science and art of breathing (pra$-ay a ma)
in different ways, to promote health and combat
disease :

As the dross of metals is burnt away by the bellows

working on the fire, even so all the impurities of the body
are consumed and all defects rectified, by the controlling
and regulating of the breath in the proper ways.
The student was therefore taught :

To cure physical defects and diseases by breathing-

exercises ; mental diseases and excitements by exercises
in concentration of the mind vicious attachments and ;

addictions of sense by the practice of mental abstraction ;

and, finally, to overcome the disturbances created by the
g u n a s of Praktti, and all mean and ignoble qualities, by
the practice of meditation. The imperishable is the AUM
highest Brahma breath -regulation is the highest t a p a s,
;

ascetic exercise nothing is higher than the Savitri

;

(GayatrT)-mantra ; than silence, truth is higher.

1

f| ZRT *T$T: \

<K
J/onw, vi, 71, 72 ; ii, 83.
Elsewhere we read STWWR : vi 355 ,
breath-control is

(the means of) the greatest energy. Literally and primarily

the word means the stretching, extending, deepening, of the
breathing secondarily, it means regulating, controlling,
;

steadying, and even temporarily stopping the breath.

374 AIR-NOURISHMENT [MANU
Solid and liquid nourishment is important
enough, no doubt, so much so that the Chhnndogya
Upanishaf makes the condition of the mind, and
therefore and m o k s h a themselves, depend
yoga
on it, words which could scarcely be made
in

stronger by the most thorough-going materialist

who makes out the soul to be the produce of the
contents of the stomachManu is accordingly
; and
very detailed in his directions on the subject. But
this gaseous nourishment of ours is obviously even
more important. Men have gone without solid food
for weeks, without liquid food for days, but none
except he who has progressed in Yoga can remain
even a few minutes without air. Modern medical as
well as athletic science is beginning to realise the
supreme importance of proper breathing, and a
science of the subject is slowly re-evolving. If the
old Samskyt works were utilised, the redis-
covery would be very much more rapid in all
probability. By different forms of breathing, com-
bined with concentration of consciousness on or in
those parts, different results can be produced in the
body as a whole, or in its different parts, at
1
pleasure. By deep and rapid breathing, the
?& srro ajgsrafa, ^ ^T: 33 TO, *& TO
"
When the mind goes to any part of the body, the vital
force, nerve-force, p r a n a follows ; where the currents of
,

nerve-energy go, there the blood goes ; where the blood goes,
there go the other secretions and substances .that constitute
the body,"
MANU] VARIOUS BREATHINGS AND RESULTS 375

circulation of the blood can be stimulated to any

desired degree, promoting the elimination of the
refuse stuff of the body. By combining it with
various postures (as an as) special curative or
strengthening be caused in various
effects may
parts; any and muscular
needed exercise and
fatigue may be secured without moving from one
spot and without expensive apparatus. Using one
nostril only has one set of effects ; another, an-
other; using both in alternation, a third ; simul-
J
taneously, a fourth and so on. The Upanishats
tell how mind and breathings and vital currents

(p r a $ a) go together.By the exercises of regulat-

ed breathing (pra^ayama) dormant nerves and
cells be reached and stimulated, and new
may
powers acquired by the individual in a short space
of time, which will, in the ordinary way, come to
the race in the course of ages. The disciplining
in such breathing-exercises was apparently an es-
sential item of physical education, in the olden time.
The amount of importance attached to their regular
performance may be inferred from the fact that
it is made part of the daily worship (sandihya )

Indeed, these three, control of breath, control of

tongue (in diet and in speech), control of sex-desiro,
make up the whole of self-control and the essence
of strong and noble character. He who can control
these, can control all else ; he has achieved the
perfect result of psycho-physical education.
*
See the Trishikha-Brahmana verses 112-116.
376 MUNDANE AND ETHBBIAL TIRES
" *
<iii) Tending the Fires

The tending of the culinary fire and learning to

oook food was another important item of educa-
tion. may be regarded as connected with
It

physical education, being immediately subservient

1
to good health. It may also be remembered that
in times when matches were not known and fire
' '
had to be produced
by twirling fire-sticks of
special kinds of wood, or by flints, the main-
tenance, in the house, of a perpetual fire had a
c '
special importance. The tending of the sacrificial
fires merges into religious education.

(iv) Religious Education

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER

As regards religious education, it has been al-

ready said that religion in the sense of physical
plus superphysical science, in the sense of looking
'
1
Compare the the programme of the
items in Peace
1
Scouts or Boy movement started in the west, a
Scouts
quarter of a century ago, for training all boys in manners and
morals and general helpfulness and in cooking their own food
with a minimum of fuel, etc As has been remarked in the
* *
west, Scouting solves almost all the problems of boys* educa-
tion. It nearly reproduces the healthy, open-air, industrious
' *
life of an old g u r u - k u I a in which household drudgery
,

was made 'romantic* and educative by being equitably

'
distributed and combined with a sufficient amount of adven-
ture* in the neighboring woods; see Krshna, pp. 61*63,
69-72.
MAJTCJ] PRAYER
at the things of the flesh and of all matter (whether
trivial-seeming or important-looking) with the eyes
of the spirit, and not the reverse pervades the whole
of Manu's Scheme of Life, and therefore the whole
of his plan of Education. Yet, in a more restrict-
ed sense also, is it specially provided for. This is
in the shape of the morning and evening prayers
and meditations ( s a n 4 h y a ) Without obser-
.

vance of the s a n d h y a the twice-born falls from

his regenerate condition. The s a n d h y a, links
together the visible and the invisible, the physical
and the superphysical. Omitting mention of all
details, though each is significant, the most im-
portant part of the s a n d h y a is the Gayajri.a
mantra, 1
a prayer to the Supreme Spiritual Sun
as well as the physical Sun, our visible personal
God (pratyaksha-devata), Deity made
manifest even to the eyes of flesh, including all
the other gods within Himself, 2 the Ruler of our
world-system, the source of all its light and heat
and energy, on the physical as well as the subtler
planes, the highest and most glorious embodiment,
to us, of the all-sustaining Spiritual Sun, the Omni-
present, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Impersonal, In-
finite, Universal Self.

Thou, O Sun ! art the soul of the moving and the

un moving. From Thee all beings and all elements issue

is a sequence of sounds, arranged with the

view of obtaining a particular effect.

2
tflfapft f| 9: I
378 THE SPIRITUAL SUN [MANU
forth. We worship unto Thee, the Chief and First
offer
of gods. Thou art the visible mover and doer of all
actions.Thou art visible Brahma. Thou art visible
Vishnu. Thou art visible Ru<Jra. (Thy three bodies,
dense, subtle, and causal, are these three gods).
1

Thou art the very Self, the central heart, the first
maker, of this world-system. Thou hast been declared
in many ways bythe Rshis, to be the root and source of
all the forces, all the knowledge, all the activity of
our world. Thou art the cause of the birth, the stay,
the death of the system. Thou art the centre and re-
pository of all triads. Thou art the bearer of a million
lights, a million wonders, a million cyclic eons. Thou art
the Holy Fire, Energy, Light, Divinity of all Blessed-
ness that the Ve<Jas adore. Thou art the Golden God,
JVarSyarm, that dweliest in the hearts of us, Thy children*
Thy reflected images, as much as in Thy Radiant Orb
that we see in the heavens. The Infinite Brahma has
two aspects one the Formless, the other the Formful ;
;

the former is the lasting, the latter the ever-chang-

ing and passing. Thou, O Lord of Light and Life!,
art the most glorious incarnation of the Eternal Light
that we know as the sacred sound of Aum, the Supreme
Self. When Thy glorious Orb rises above the horizon,
million-rayed, raining light in all directions, then do
our life-forces also rise from the death of sleep Cure me !

of my cardiac disease, O Sun !, and of my pale anaemia.

May we, surrounded by happy children, free from vices,
free from diseases, glowing with health, glad-minded and
bright-eyedmay we behold Thee, O Thou Friend of the
whole world !, arising in thy wondrous glory, day after
day, for many many years. When Thou risest, O Thou
inmost soul of all the gods, of Mit^ra, the god of Air, the
friend of all living things ; of Varuiia, the god of Water,

See the tabular statement at p. 162 of The Advanced

Text-Book of Hinduism.

i c^ srewj *w \

I SVrya-Upaniahat.
MANUl THE PHYSICAL SUN 379

Agni, the god of Fire, who

'
who washes off our sins,' of
'

leads us on,* then Thy luminous army

of gods fills all
space twixt earth and sky with glory. Thou, O Sun" art !

verily the Soul of all the moving and the moveless

'
!

f|

: 11 BhUgavata, XI, xi, 30.

FT:

ftarq

I
Chh&ndogya.
*80 THE ONE SOURCE OF LIFE-ENERGY

111 order to renew our exhausted forces and wast-

ed tissues, we take fresh food and endeavor to
secure fresh air. To vitalise our whole being anew,
day after day, in its outer as well as inner con-
stituents, our physical, astral and, even more, our
mental bodies, we have to open it out to the over-
flowing and radiating love of the Sun. And we
1

have to do this at the proper times ; for there are

Rg-Veda, Saura-sakta.
1 " '
Let in the Sun and the Wind is now an elementary
rule of Sanitation, Sun-bathing has come much into vogue in
the west during the last two or three decades. Sury-
opasthana, standing in the sun, with hands uplifted, and
in various other ways, is part of the S a n d h y a -ritual. A
noted western scientist recently wrote that the ancient sun-
worship is the only natural and scientific worship, and is
t(
likely to revive as science advances. The living machine
stores sunlight in complex compounds, other machines take it
out and use it. The living organism is ... a sun-engine,
which obtains its energy directly from the sun " The Story
;

of Life's Mechanism, H. W. Conn, p. 64. The varenyam

<b h a r g a h of the Gaya^rl is sunlight and sun-energy.
"
Animo descensua per orbem aolis tribuiter ; i.e., It is
true that the spirit descends through the orb of the sun. This
conception is common to the whole of late classical and
mediaeval philosophy "; Jung, Contributions to Analytical
Psychology, p. 109 (pub. 1928). See Kfshna, pp. 30-32, r6
the orb of the sun being the seat of the highest d e v a -s and
 MEDITATION ON AUM 381

times which are more suitable for the absorption of

this supreme nourishment than other times, as
there are for eating and drinking and other physio-
logical functions. The method of the opening out
of the heart to receive this nourishment, is the
recitation (japa) and the dwelling on the significance
of the Sacred Word (P r a $ a v a ), the mystic

prefixes and the mantra (Vyahjti-s and Ga-

y a
r1 t or S a v
i t r I ) and the putting of the soul
;

intoan attitude of prayer and receptivity in accord-

ance with the meaning of that mantra, the
attuning of the heart to it. A superphysical centre
in the region of the physical heart is indicated as
the proper organ for this particular meditation.

The primal three-lettered, three-factored, single

sound (AUM) compounded of the Three Imperishables
which are all One and in One, in which all the countless
triads are rooted, and which are expounded by the three-
fold Ve^a, that is the secret Ve<Ja he who knows It,
;

he only knows the Vecja. That AUM

is the highest utter-
ed word of power and knowledge. The regulation of the
breath is the chiefest t a p a s -discipline. Higher than
the Savitrl is no mantra. Greater than silence is
truth.

The Creator stored the veritable essences of the

three Ve<Jas in the three letters that make up the
Sacred Word, in the three utterances that name
and form the three worlds, and in the three parts
of the Ve<Ja-verse that invokes the Sun. Each part
He milked from one Ve<Ja. Whoso ponders on these,
morning and evening, after having learnt the Vetfas
previously, he verily studies the whole of the Ve<Jas
every day. These we the gateway unto Brahma.
He who is not remiss in meditating on the import of the
Three, viz., the AUM, the V y ah r ti - s, the Gay atri,
382 OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN [MANU
and ponders on it diligently for three years, he will
realise his spiritual identity with Brahma.

repeated dwelling on their significance, and tuning

By
his desire and modelling his thought to that significance,
the seeker after Brahma shall, without fail, attain all
perfection, whether he discharge any other duty or not *;
*
for the very name of the brahmana is the friend of all
(and the G L y a t r i is the prayer for the blessing of all
creatures by our radiant Father in Heaven, the Sun).

But he who performeth not the morning s a n h y a, <J.

nor the evening one, like to a shU(Jra should he be excluded

from all work which requires the twice-born and regener-
'
ate to perform successfully.

1
3TT3I

Manu, xi, 265.

^fcftfe ^ II
MANU] JUNCTIONS OF DAY AND NIGHT 383

Such is the high value placed on the regular

observance of the s a n d h y a. It is difficult to justify
that high valuation in brief compass. A few lines
of thought may be suggested however. In order to
appreciate fully the significance of the s a n d h y a,
the student should, as usual for all successful
understanding of the Ancient Wisdom, first put him-
self at the point of view from which Universal
Consciousness (C h i t- Shak t i, the Supreme Force)
appears as the supreme and force in the World-
fact

process, sustaining it as a whole and also, as ;

transmuted into many minor forces, (Maya, Fohat,

pra$a, vital and other electricities, radio-forces,
heat, magnetism, and endless other forms) bringing
about all its events in detail, guiding, governing,
and indeed creating all its manifestations. Once
this is realised, the performance of this meditation,
at the two junction-points of day and night, is seen
to be practically the only means of securing power
of the finest kinds for carrying on the work of life.

The essence of it is the drawing in of nourishment

g T:

^ii^fj^w^ II

Manu, ii, 83, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 87, 103.

For more detailed exposition of the nature and meaning

of the AU M, the Gayatrl, the Vedas, see The Pranava-V&da,
or The Science of the Sacred Word. Mittra (Pers., Mithras)
is one of the names of the Sun in Samsk'r't. The twioe-born
brahmana, as a worshipper of the Sun, is given the derivative
name of ma i tr a . Both mean the friend
'
of all ',
884 SIGNIFICANCE OF PRAYER [MANU
and force from some great fount of it, by means of
an exertion and attuning of the individual consci-
ousness, an earnest and one-pointed praying,
wishing, willing, and the putting of one's whole
being into a mood of receptivity as of the lungs
while breathing in air. Force, power, energy, cannot
come to one place and be used by an individual
without being drawn away from some other place
and individual. This fact we see summed up in
the laws of conservation of energy, transform-
ation of motion, and indestructibility of matter.
The Ga y a t r I-prayer is only a practical application
of this triple law to the daily life of the human

being, and principally on the mental plane. This

prayer: "We contemplate the refulgent splendor,
the glorious radiance, of our Heavenly Father, the
Sun," the living fount of all the life on every plane
"
of our world-system, in order that that outwelling

resplendence may inspire our intelligence," in the

altruistic communistic plural and not the selfish
exclusive singular, may inspire the collective
intelligence of the wholehumanity, so as to
of
evoke sympathetic co-operation and mutual good-
will and help this contemplation and prayer
are to be practised chiefly on the plane of mind. 1

1 "
Religion must be a form of activity, which brings about
the concentration of the spiritual life as a shield against
unworthy elements that attempt to enter and to govern man."
Euvken (People's Books), p. 65. What act of sueh eoncentra-
tion more specific and definite than the Gay atrT-japa ?
MANU] ORISONS AND YOGA 385

For intelligence belongs to the plane of mental

matter, mind-stuff, (Svah), which in us is the
vehicle of intelligence. The other two planes,
earthly and astral (B h a h and B h u v a h), are also
named and the prayer therefore covers them too ;
but it is mainly directed to the intelligence-inspiring
mind is the specific feature
forces of the Sun, for the
of man, and governs his life, or at least ought to
govern it, on the other two lower planes. If
intelligence and will are perfect, the life of the
other two planes is easily perfected also. Right
knowledge is the basis of right desire ; and right
desire of right action. Hence the sandhya is

declared to be best performed when begun before the

physical Sun-rising, meeting, as it were, the Sun on
higher planes, and, finally only, bathing the physi-
cal body in the sunlight.

THE MANIFOLD BENEFITS OF SANPHYS

The regular practice of the s a n<J h y a is, indeed

in one sense, the first steps, and the last steps
also, of yoga. The highest gods and rshis are
enjoined to, and do, observe the s a n <j h y a, with
the same regularity as the child beginning the
alphabet. The Puraijas illustrate it with a story :
Once upon a time the 4eva-:phi Naracja, invet-
erate wanderer that he is, arrived very early at the
palace of our lord the Sun (of our system), and found
him engaged in s a n d h y a. Astonished, he asked
25
386 MANIFOLD BENEFITS [MANU
him: "Sir, the whole world makes s
" "
prayer to you. To whom do you make it ? To the
Central Sun of the vast sidereal system, of which
mine is an infinitesimal part," was the reply. The
story indicates the unity and endless continuity of the
World-process in cycle within and without cycle in
time, and system inside and outside system in

space all ever-present here and now in the Eternal,

Infinite, Impersonal Self. At its highest, s a n<J h y a
puts the consciousness of the aspirant in rapport
with the Solar Consciousness, which is omniscience.
And because the general principles underlying it
are true and applicable on all scales, to the
beginnings of a child's education as well as the
farthest progress of r s h i s and d e v a s therefore ,

is such great stress laid upon its regular

performance.
Whether we look upon it as a utilitarian training
in concentration of attention, development of
will-power, mind-control, and visualisation, the
formation of clear mental pictures, or as a real
means of drawing super-physical power whether ;

we take it as mere physical Sun-bathing, or as an

elevation of the soul to high thoughts of reverence,
gratitude, self-surrender, and prayer for the good
of all, to the Author of our being ; whether we take
it as the highest and yet most easily and most
generally available form of aesthetic enjoyment and
education to see and hear and the fairy feels
feel
and fragrances, the glorious natural sights and
MANU] OF SANPHY 387

sounds, of sunrise and sunset, over waters, woods,

and mountains, or whether we take it as mere
time-marking, for commencing and closing the
day's workwhether we believe that the sounds,
;

as such, of the mantra- words have any vibrant

potency for good, pronounced externally and inter-
nally, or whether we regard them as mere devices
for fixing and concentrating the mind and soothing
it with rhythmic repetition ; whether we regard

them as helping to form a permanent ideal to

which the mind comes back automatically, for
rest, repose, recuperation by high aspiration and

inspiration, in times of fatigue and distress, when

it would otherwise fret and worry, or stray into

undesirable thoughts and fancies, or whether we

regard them as a means of gradually emphasising
the introspective conscious and inward gaze till it
takes shape as the active power and organ of
internal autoscopy and external clairvoyance, by
the process known as mantra-chaitanya; 1

whether we think that the words of the invocation

have no other than the surface meaning, or whether

1
It issaid that by constant inward silent repetition, a
mantra ' '
begins to be recited even during sleep and so be-
comes a bridge for connecting together the two consciousnesses,
of the waking and the sleeping conditions, merging them into
one, so that the faculties of the subtle-body, the sukshma-
s h a r I r a , become active wakefully, while the physical body
lies perfectly still, as it were entranced. Possibly there is
some etymological connection between the two words,
mantra and motto ; there is some alliance in meaning.
388 SIGNIFICANCE OF GiYATRI [MANU
we hold that they open up endless vistas of know-
ledge to the gaze of the introspective consciousness
in every way there seems to be only good for the
student in the regular practice of these devotions.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GIYATKI

Manu indicates that the words of the mantra

do possess far more than the surface meaning that ;

the triads of which they are made up, are symbolic

of the whole contents of the Vedas. From other
works we learn that the three letters that make up
the Sacred Word (P r a $ a v a) stand for the Self,
1
the Not-Self, and the Interplay between them.
* '
Also, that the three prefixes (V y a h y t i s,
'
literally, utterances ') stand for the three worlds
or planes of matter in which the Interplay takes
place for the majority of the spirits (j i v a s) of the
human race at the present stage. And, finally, we
are told the significance of the three parts of the
Gayatrl-mantra. The first indicates the
nature of the Supreme Force and of its modi-
fications, the forms of matter in which it works,
and the laws governing their evolution and in-
volutionall dealt with by the Rg-Veda, dealing
With knowledge Xj n a n a). The second part indi-
cates the methods of utilising these forces and
materials in varipus ways, known technically as
sacrificial rit.es. and ceremonies (y a j fi a s), at
J
See p. 381, supra, and the Praiiava-VQda.
MANU] ESSENCE OF THE VEpAS 389

which intercourse takes place between men and

gods to the benefit of both, in terms of astral and
still subtler forms of matter, which serve as the

vehicles of emotions and thoughts all dealt with

by the Yajur-o^da, dealing with action (k r i y a).
The third part indicates the purposes^ necessities
or motives, which do and ought to guide such
utilisation, and the consequences of it in pleasure
and pain, the desires and the fulfilments of those
desires which the sacrifices subserve all dealt
with by the Surna-veda dealing with desire (i c h -
hha). The Af-harua-veda stands for the Sum-
mation of all the three, and is taken as included in
" "
the Rg-veda whenever the Triad of Vedas, the

T r a y I, is spoken of. All these matters become

ver clearer to the student who dwells on them day
after day. And he who does not do so, fails to
secure, enfeebles or makes dormant, if not quite

loses again if he did ever thus secure, the intros-

pective consciousness which is the distinguishing
characteristic of the twice-born.
As and food are to the physical body,
bath
purifying and strengthening it, day after day, so to
the astral and the mental bodies is
ther it be directed to a Personal
Ideal, whether it rely for its
individual deity external to
versal Deity immanent within
The evening san<Jhyu puri
f*t\m f.ViA nlnsinor dav'a staiTis
390 HEART-NOURISHMENT [MANtf

and The morning s a n <J h y a clears away the vices,

evil.
astral and physical, of the night before, and gives new
strength to meet with equanimity, the trials and the
troubles of the coming day. Where lights and waters
meet at morn and eve, the ambrosial loveliness, beauty,
and glory of Immortal Brahma are most manifest. 1

f^TT f3^ II Manu, ii, 102.

I Ajharva-shiras.

Some beautiful western poems will illustrate the injunctions

of Manu :

An Hour with Thee

An hour with Thee when earliest day

!

Dapples with gold the eastern gray.

O what can frame the mind to bear
The toil and turmoil, cark and care,
New griefs, which coming hours unfold,
And sad remembrance of the old ?

One hour with Thee I

An hour with Thee ! when burning June

Waves his red flag at pitch of noon,
What shall repay the faithful swain
His labor on the sultry plain,
And more than cave or sheltering bough,
Cool feverish blood and throbb-ng brow ?
One hour with Thee I

An hour with Thee when sun

! is set.

O what can teach me to forget

The thankless labors of the day,
The hopes, the wishes flung away,
Th' increasing wants and lessening gains,
The master's pride who scorns ray pains ?
One hour with Thee 1

(The ordinary rule, for the student and the householder, is

to perform the s a n d h y a twice daily, mornings and evenings ;
MANU] AND BATH OF MIND 391

Without this daily mental bath in the purifying

and vivifying spiritual sunlight, the mind goes on
accumulating vices and distractions and depres-
sions,day by day, till it sinks suddenly into the
depths of confusion, misery, and sin, even as the
body that is never washed and cleaned and ever
kept half-starved, day after day, finally sinks under
its load of foulness and feebleness, into disease
and death.
Such is the most important item of the religious
education prescribed by Manu. The student, he
says expressly, may or may not do any tL^ug else,
in the nature of rites and ceremonies this he must ;

' * '
but for the retired and the anchoret/ a noon-day obser-
vance is added. Islam prescribes five times a day ; its early
'

morning call to prayer,* the azan, is a beautiful institution.)

The Watcher of the Dawn
Well done, thou watcher on the lonely tower 1

Is the day breaking ? Comes the happy hour ?

We pine to see it. Tell us yet again,
Is the day breaking on the distant plain ?
It breaks, it conies, the misty shadows fly,
A rosy radiance overspreads the sky,
The mountain-tops reflect it bright and clear.
The plain is still in gloom, but day is near t

The Lonely Tarn

O silent, lonely tarn !

asleep within the mountain's breast,
Thou seemest, from the world so far withdrawn, to dream
of rest.
So, deep within my heart, there is a silent, lonely cell,
Where I may rest, and worship God, and feel that all is
welll
392 FAR-REACHING VIRTUES [MAW
do. Whatever else was taught, of the nature of
that which would now be named religion, would,
from the earlier standpoint, under physical or
fall

superphysical science yet even this distinction

;

will scarcely stand examination. For, indeed the

s a n <J h y a is the practice of the very quintessence
of Science, in its truest and fullest sense. It cannot
be repeated too often that the modern distinction
between religion and science has no existence in
the ancient ethos, and for the very good reason that
the knowledge was unbrokenly continuous between
the physical and superphysical planes, and there
were no beliefs without reasons.

THE FAR REACH OF THESE FIRST FOUR ITEMS

Before passing on to the subject of intellectual

education, it may be noted that the significance of

this single, simple-looking verse of Manu, prescrib-

'

ing the four things to be taught \ extends

first

very far and very deep. The y a m a - s and

niyama-sofyoga, vows of purity, harmlessness,

poverty, selflessness, etc., are only higher degrees

and stricter forms h a u c h a and a c h a r a,
of s
and are observed more and more perfectly by the
higher and higher ranks and grades of y o g i - s *
muni-s, yshi-s, maha-rshi-s,param-
arshi-s, deva-fshi-s, bucjdha-s, manu-s,
planetary spirits. Their sid<Jhi-s, shakti-s,
aishvarya-s, their manipulations of physical,
MANU] OF THE FIRST FOUR ITEMS 393

psychical (astro-mental, super-physical), and spiritu-

'
al (higher mental) occult powers, energies, fires,'
are symbolised by the a g n i - k a r y a the tending ,

* '
of Three Fires of the teacher's household,
the
corresponding with the father, the mother, and the
teacher, and also the first three ashrama-s or
stages of life, and the three worlds or planes of
matter. Their highest and deepest samadihi-s,
meditations, ecstasies, trances, rapt-ness of intense,
ly, single-mindedly, one-pointedly, concentrated
attention, for the indrawing of supreme knowledge
and supreme by means of supremely
power,
philanthropic devotion, from the Universal Omni-
present Reservoir of Unconscious Omniscience and
Omnipotence, is but the flowering and the fruiting of
the seed of sandhya -devotions. In short, the
highest reaches of yoga are but the culmination of
the practice of purity of body, excellence of manners
and morals and righteousness of conduct, use of
fire, and morning and evening prayers, begun by

the child in the teacher's home, and carried to

higher and higher levels of perfection through the
stages of good gentleman, worthy householder,
patriotic citizen, sage muni,nabi,
and saint,
j-
s h i , wall, messiah, Christ, jlwan-mukta,
insan-ul-kamil, perfect man, son of God,
ava-tara. The upa-nayana ceremony is
also a copy of, and repeated on higher and higher
is

levels in, the iiiitiation-ceremony, the y a j n a -

<J 1 k s h a which takes place
, in the great archetypal
394 THE THREE BIRTHS [MANTJ

Guru-kula of the Spiritual Hierarchy, as is

indicated in theosophical literature and by Manu :

The first birth, the physical, is from the father and

the mother the second, the intellectual-spiritual, from
;

the preceptor and the Savitri-mantra; the third,

the spi ritual- superphysical, takes place at the yajna-
<J I k s h a
, when he takes the vow of special self-
'

sacrifice,' in accordance with the Vecjic rites and cere-

monies of initiation. The blessed influence of the
Savitri- prayer broods over the child as a tender
mother, while the initiating teacher acts as the protect-
ing father. 1

srf^ft fif^T ?im3 s^ct n

Manu. ii, 169, 170,