BY T. RAGHAVACHARI

I

The Englishman's Table Conventions are interesting. They indicate certain principles of ‘Maya’ which is necessary as you know for the exercise of the mind. The lessons may be rudimentary yet appropriate for the psychology of a child-mind. Conventions are a part of society life. To such beings as live in society and can see no further than beyond themselves, convention becomes an instrument of fear. Gradually, they would slip down into the shades of superstition, ignorance, cowardice and sin. However, convention, by itself, is a necessary institution just as Image-worship is.

First you have to dress properly for dinner (which is the important meal). This dressing corresponds to the Indian Brahmin's ‘Madi.’ The difference in style is due to the difference in climate. You have to sit with ease and elegance within the limits of your chair. The forearms and hands should be manipulated dexterously and gracefully; else you will spill things and get into your neighbour's way. It certainly teaches one an artistic way of displaying one's movements. You have to know something of the art of cooking, for you have to assort and mix the several ingredients yourself before the dish becomes agreeable. You help yourself when the course is served, which again is a feat of gentle art. You have to do it without disturbing the artistic effect of the service. You should keep its appearance agreeable to your neighbour. You should now and again consult your neighbour's wants and help him in a pleasant manner, passing the salt, the sugar, the mustard and worcesta sauce. Then you have to know the nature and purpose of the several instruments on the table. There are the fish-knife, the butter-knife and the meat-knife. The fish-fork is different from the meat-fork. The fork and knife for eating are different. The plates themselves are different for different dishes. The spoons are different. Salt should be taken in a particular way, sugar in a different way. Then you have to eat with ease, without making any noise or producmg hair-raising sounds. To drink at the table is art again. The glasses are different. Water-glass, wine-glass and whisky-glass are all different. And you should not soil yourself or the white table-cloth. It is immaculate and so is the waiter, with gloved hands, who serves you. Your behaviour and operations should be in tune with the color scheme, so exquisitely arranged, overflowing with the milk of cleanliness. Do you know what concentration of mind it requires? What will-power? What faculties? A knowledge of cutlery, crockery, cookery, jugglery, skill in acrobatic feats, washing, serving, and grace in everything you do. Above all, you have to be pleasant and agreeable to your neighbours. You should engage them in light refined conversation. You cannot shout. You have to modulate your voice to a key which harmonizes with the subdued and gently audible clatter of the knives and forks. You will be styled a ‘drug’ if you cannot make yourself entertaining. What an exercise for the mind! There are people who almost think that ‘eating’ is a necessary ‘evil’ to maintain body and life, and you can eat in any manner you choose as long as you do not overdo the ceremony. It may be so for one who always thinks in terms of the world and not of his own self. To the average man, however, eating is an important factor. The cravings of nature are all intrinsically noble and they should be satisfied in a noble manner. Elegance and art are the bed-rocks of nobility.

I quite realize that this art may eventually become a habit. That is the danger-zone. To those who conform to the Code of Convention out of fear, habit becomes a positive danger. It leads them to superstition and ignorance. To them the spilling of salt is a bad omen. To those, however, who are not the slaves of habit, convention is an instrument of love. I found quite a useful source of education in the Table Conventions of the West.

II

I understand the development of the modern English stage. It is the painting of life as it is–in its naked beauty and consequently its naked ugliness. The bogs and marshes which are kept so religiously covered by the cloak of modern society are all ruthlessly betrayed. The havoc played by unbridled and never-dying primordial passions and desires, are ‘hittingly’ brought into relief. The loathsome toiling of modern life, behind an apparently respectable conventional front, is exposed with a callousness which is a blend of a sneer and a twinkle. The utter helplessness of society, culture and civilization, in the face of facts is painted. The eternal verities are sung to a tragic tune and the vision of a Beyond or the idea of eternal justice as unrefined burlesque. The great problems which are the natural outcome of the necessary existence of inequalities are reckoned in a most scientific and clear-headed manner. So far the Englishman has the advantage over the Indian. The latter, as you know, instinctively draws his head (like the tortoise) at the hint of any difficulty or any struggle.

Let me come back to the stage. The bewildering confusion caused in the fashionable and artistically laid-out streets of society's life by the wild careering of the beasts of the lower self; the fierce revolt of all natural instincts against the schemes laid by man's avarice and possessive instinct; the harsh and triumphant cry of Nemesis and retribution drinking the very blood of tyrannical selfishness; the cynical smile of subterfuge in helping the natural cravings to surreptitiously open the windows and doors of Dame Convention and flyaway; the innocence of crime, the chastity of the prostitute; the morality of the liar, the injustice of Law, the unrighteousness of punishment–all these are attempted to be portrayed with a vividness as true as painful. It is life as it is–Realism in Excelcis–And then there is nothing beyond–It is Nirvana–The audience goes home realizing how hopeless men and women are in the maelstrom of Life's currents.

I found the acting good, the plot holds you with a thrill. The environment is superb; but I felt a vague sense of disappointment. It is true I had seen Life's current. I want to enjoy my bath and must find a way to swim in the current and not be drifted by it.

Why does the stage leave the problems unsolved? Why should it dread to refer its problems to the Great Influence, which fills all? Is it a shame to believe in a final adjustment? Is it a weakness to believe in a happy end?

I find that God is reckoned only as a creative principle. Perhaps the principle of destruction is admitted. But the' maintaining principle, the protecting principle, is only a fairy tale. To believe in a God, who is responsible for Order, Law and Justice, appears to be an old, a very old fashion. The modern culture has dismissed God.

It may have its advantage and distinguished look; but the picture presented by the stage is somehow to my mind incomplete.

III

There is a great, a very great need at the present day of broadcasting our ancient Vedic discoveries, truths and culture to the young Hindu. This is a dire need. The present system of education is making the young Hindu worse than useless. I came across a number of Indian students in the West. There are some who keep to their orthodox ways and talk to you of the great Indian past without having any the least idea of where the greatness lay. There are others who are faithful carbon paper editions of the Western drawing-room etiquette of the class below the lower middle-class, who are scrupulous about their dress-suit for dinner, who drink beer, take their landlady's daughter to see the pictures, cultivate the discarded catch expressions of the pavements and consider themselves as equal to Europeans. Their idea of Western culture is a certain kind of swagger furtively peeping into insolence. They must address a friend as an ‘old man.’ They will tell you that Indian music is rotten, at the same time confess their ignorance of the great masters of India. They will tell you that the Ayurvedic system of medicine is ignorance. They will tell you that your system of bathing, dressing and eating, is barbarian. They will refuse to converse with you in any language but the English. One of them told me seriously that it is only beef-eating and driving away of all religion that can make India respectable. I asked him what he meant by religion. Of course he was confused. I don't blame this young man. They have no real Indian education and they are dazzled by the material glamour and happiness of the West. The natural result is that the majority honestly believe that India's salvation consists in complete westernization. And a few others instinctively antagonistic to Western influences, good or bad, are however unable to go farther than proclaiming a blind admiration for the ancient past. Is it not time to start a vigorous campaign for placing the real good of ancient Indian culture before our young men? It is now high time to tell our young men that according to our ancients, religion was merely knowledge and realization of the great truth that God is in every person, working through all hands, walking through all feet, eating through every mouth and thinking in every mind. Without this concept, how can the grand idea of the universal brotherhood of man (which lies at the root of all progressively humanitarian movements) be possible? This religious knowledge is essential for our everyday life, whether engaged in social functions, politics or playgrounds. Is it not high time to reveal to our young men the sublime place music occupied in ancient Aryan education and the transcendental reach of its sphere? Is it not time to disclose to them the strictly scientific and hygenic principles that are at the bottom of the Indian dress and Indian food in ancient days?

I can see where the mistake lies. The western-educated young man (along with others like Miss Mayo) is obsessed by the putrid accretions and excrescenses which have grown on the Indian skin. It is therefore necessary, and immediately too, to give our young men an insight into the original stuff which was and is pure gold, and encourage them to scour away the unwholesome outgrowth.