I could postpone
them all to hear this locust sing.
The most glorious fact in my
experience is not anything that I have done or may hope to do,
but a transient thought, or vision, or dream, which I have had.
I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of
all the heroes, for one true vision. But how can I communicate
with the gods who am a pencil-maker on the earth, and not be
insane?
"I am the same to all mankind," says Kreeshna; "there is not
one who is worthy of my love or hatred."
This teaching is not practical in the sense in which the New
Testament is. It is not always sound sense inpractice. The
Brahman never proposes courageously to assault evil, but
patiently to starve it out. His active faculties are paralyzed
by the idea of cast, of impassable limits, of destiny and the
tyranny of time. Kreeshna's argument, it must be allowed, is
defective. No sufficient reason is given why Arjoon should
fight. Arjoon may be convinced, but the reader is not, for his
judgment is _not_ "formed upon the speculative doctrines of the
_Sankhya Sastra_." "Seek an asylum in wisdom alone"; but what is
wisdom to a Western mind? The duty of which he speaks is an
arbitrary one. When was it established? The Brahman's virtue
consists in doing, not right, but arbitrary things. What is that
which a man "hath to do"? What is "action"? What are the
"settled functions"? What is "a man's own religion," which is so
much better than another's? What is "a man's own particular
calling"? What are the duties which are appointed by one's
birth? It is a defence of the institution of casts, of what is
called the "natural duty" of the Kshetree, or soldier, "to attach
himself to the discipline," "not to flee from the field," and the
like. But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of
their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions.
Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental.
The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of
activity. The one looks in the sun till his eyes are put out;
the other follows him prone in his westward course. There is
such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively
faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your
calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds;
the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial.
There is a struggle between the Oriental and Occidental in every
nation; some who would be forever contemplating the sun, and some
who are hastening toward the sunset. The former class says to
the latter, When you have reached the sunset, you will be no
nearer to the sun. To which the latter replies, But we so
prolong the day. The former "walketh but in that night, when all
things go to rest the night of _time_. The contemplative Moonee
sleepeth but in the day of _time_, when all things wake."
To conclude these extracts, I can say, in the words of Sanjay,
"As, O mighty Prince! I recollect again and again this holy and
wonderful dialogue of Kreeshna and Arjoon, I continue more and
more to rejoice; and as I recall to my memory the more than
miraculous form of Haree, my astonishment is great, and I marvel
and rejoice again and again! Wherever Kreeshna the God of
devotion may be, wherever Arjoon the mighty bowman may be, there
too, without doubt, are fortune, riches, victory, and good
conduct. This is my firm belief."
I would say to the readers of Scriptures, if they wish for a good
book, read the Bhagvat-Geeta, an episode to the Mahabharat, said
to have been written by Kreeshna Dwypayen Veias, - known to have
been written by - - , more than four thousand years ago, - it
matters not whether three or four, or when, - translated by
Charles Wilkins. It deserves to be read with reverence even by
Yankees, as a part of the sacred writings of a devout people; and
the intelligent Hebrew will rejoice to find in it a moral
grandeur and sublimity akin to those of his own Scriptures.
To an American reader, who, by the advantage of his position, can
see over that strip of Atlantic coast to Asia and the Pacific,
who, as it were, sees the shore slope upward over the Alps to the
Himmaleh Mountains, the comparatively recent literature of Europe
often appears partial and clannish, and, notwithstanding the
limited range of his own sympathies and studies, the European
writer who presumes that he is speaking for the world, is
perceived by him to speak only for that corner of it which he
inhabits. One of the rarest of England's scholars and critics,
in his classification of the worthies of the world, betrays the
narrowness of his European culture and the exclusiveness of his
reading. None of her children has done justice to the poets and
philosophers of Persia or of India. They have even been better
known to her merchant scholars than to her poets and thinkers by
profession. You may look in vain through English poetry for a
single memorable verse inspired by these themes. Nor is Germany
to be excepted, though her philological industry is indirectly
serving the cause of philosophy and poetry. Even Goethe wanted
that universality of genius which could have appreciated the
philosophy of India, if he had more nearly approached it. His
genius was more practical, dwelling much more in the regions of
the understanding, and was less native to contemplation than the
genius of those sages. It is remarkable that Homer and a few
Hebrews are the most Oriental names which modern Europe, whose
literature has taken its rise since the decline of the Persian,
has admitted into her list of Worthies, and perhaps the _worthiest_
of mankind, and the fathers of modern thinking, - for the
contemplations of those Indian sages have influenced, and still
influence, the intellectual development of mankind, - whose works
even yet survive in wonderful completeness, are, for the most
part, not recognized as ever having existed.
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