ana; (y) Churakarma; and (h) Upany ana. III.—The Life of the Hindus in Ancient and Modern Times :-Laws of Health Exemplified in the lives of ancient Hindus -The daily life of the Hindu in ancient times-Sandhya, its meaning and object-Illustrations from practical life-Dress, houses and cities of Ancient India--The state of the people in Ancient India-Administration - SacrificesFood-Position of women-The householder of ancient times -The five great sacrifices Contrast between the old and the new mode of life in India-Causes of decay of Indian civilization-The Vanprastha and the Sanyasa :-(a) in Ancient India; (b) in Modern India 50-72 72-97 IV. The Sraddha V.- Reforms Necessary:- -Common Ideals and Common Language PART II.-Religions. I.-The religious beliefs in ancient, medieval and modern India:-The creed of the Rishis of the Vedas-Religion of the Vedic and Smriti periods -Religion in the Puranic timesRama-Krishna-Buddhism--Jainism-Revival of Hinduism under Sankara, Ramanuja, &c.--Kabir--Mira Bai--Dadu—Chaitanya-Nanak-Sikhism-Other Hindu 98-100 100-105 II-Popular Hinduism of the Present Day. -The 111. - Hinduism Illustrated in Practical Life in times Past and Present :-Yudhishthira Bhishma -Karna and Vidura Janak-Vikramaditya and other Hindus of later times IV-The Ideal to aim at 107-155 155-173 173-186 186-193 I. -Indian Philosophy; its Sources, Aims, and II.-The World, the Individual Soul,- God:- What is the world we see.?-Is God the cause of the world?-The Jiva (The individual self) -The result of the enquiry-Modern tendencies-God 194-221 222-247 III.-The Law of Karma, Free-will and Liberty 247-251 IV.-The Summum Bonum, and how to attain it :-The effect of the Vedanta upon every-day life 251-262 HINDUISM: ANCIENT & MODERN. सत्यंवदधम्मँचर Speak the truth and act सत्यमेवजयतेनानृतं Truth alone conquers, not untruth. INTRODUCTORY, I.-GENERAL, HINDU Society is passing through a period of transition due to its coming in contact with a civilization in many respects different from the traditions under which it has hitherto existed. Such contact must become closer every day, and the question naturally forces itself upon the minds of all who wish India to resume its proper place among the progressive nations of the world, what must be the direction in which she should move, in order to escape the fate of nations which, in spite of a past as brilliant as hers, had to succumb in the modern struggle of life, because of their inability to assimilate their past with the present. Here, as everywhere else, we have thinkers of all shades of opinion, from iconoclasts of the most pronounced type, to advocates of a policy of laissez faire, from those who see nothing good in the past, to those who see nothing but good in the past, and who believe the salvation of India to lie in her reverting to her past. On the other hand, we find foreign thinkers either holding all Indian civilization to be entirely dead, or deducing from it lessons which can scarcely encourage Indians to foster it. For instance, Professor Seeley thinks India to be "all past and with no future," while, according to Professor Huxley, here we have "the descendants of a people full of life and vigour, who were always ready to brave the gods them. selves in battle when their blood was up, 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,' frank pessimists or at best make-believe optimists. The courage of the warlike stock may be as hardly tried as before, perhaps more hardly, but the enemy is self. By the Tiber as by the Ganges, ethical man admits that the cosmos is too strong for him, and destroying every bond which ties him to it by ascetic self-denial, he seeks salvation in absolute renunciation."—(Evolution and Ethics, page 17.) There are two tests which may be applied to determine the future of a people, and the rank it is likely to occupy among contemporary nations in the world:-(1) What it can incorporate from its past into its present, and what it can reject as unsuited to its present requirements. (2) How far its social institutions allow the free-est play to individual action and individual progress, consistently with the progress of the whole. How far they curb the individual's purely selfish appetites and desires and afford room for the development of his unselfish energies, how far they replace private gratification by gratification resulting from the happiness of others, determines the degree of success which the institutions of a nation are likely to attain in shaping its future. Modern European civilization claims to proceed upon this basis. There the interests of the individual are being more and more subordinated to those of the society in which he lives, and while the free-est play is afforded to individual progress, the sympathetic side of man's nature is being also gradually unfolded, in order to make him recognize that it is in the happiness of others that his own happiness lies. Was this the case in ancient India also, and is it the same here now-a-days, is the question? Every reader of the great religious and epic literature of ancient and medieval India, must have been forcibly struck with the fact that the social institutions of those times, like those of modern Europe, afforded the free-est play to individual action consistently with the progress of society as a whole. Dharma (righteousness) was then the moving force. Duty to all above him, all around him, and to all below him, was the guiding principle of the Hindu's life. Externals in religion did not occupy the place of religious truth. There was little or no disqualification from birth in the way of every one attaining to the highest end of man. Every one could move in the sphere he was best qualified for. Women had their proper place in society. Do your duty without regard to personal gain or personal comfort, even at the sacrifice |