Reviews
MODERN LEADERS ON RELIGION
(Published
by the Author, ‘Viraj’, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. Price Rs. 4-50)
Srimat
Puragra Parampanthi is a Hindu monk who has drunk deep of the ancient, yet
eternal, springs of the wisdom of the Hindus. He has in addition an intimate
knowledge of western thought on the fundamental problems of philosophy and
religion and this juxtaposition in his mind of the wisdom of the East and of
the West has enabled him to assess and appreciate each in its proper
perspective and to their mutual advantage. One of his earlier books, Advaita
and Modern Physics provides at once a vindication of the truths of Advaita
and a validation of the discoveries of modern physics. He has shown in that
book that in the higher flights of the human intellect, there is a revealing
unanimity of thought in such wise that the deepest science and the highest
philosophy become identical both in form and in substance.
In
this book, Srimat Parampanthi turns his synthetic mind to the realm of
religion. While there have doubtless been differences in the philosophies of
thinkers of the East and the West both among themselves and in relation to
others, such differences have rarely, if ever, led to conflicts disrupting the
bonds of human fellowship. In the field of religion, however, the inevitable
variety of faiths has often been the cause of ridicule and recrimination, of
war and bloodshed, of a desire to dominate and demolish. Not unoften, religion
which is the most lofty of human concepts and the noblest of human pursuits has
been dragged into the mire breeding dislike, hatred and contempt. And there are
those who would not have anything to do with religion from a feeling that it is
unnecessary for man or that it is injurious to him, forgetting the undeniable
fact that as far as human memory can go, down the ages, there has never been a
time when man was not without a religion of some kind or other. Religion is the
embodiment of ‘spiritual values’, which in Srimat Parampanthi’s words, ‘form
the highway to the brotherhood of mankind under the fatherhood
of God.’ It is the
vehicle of the journey of the human soul to its high destiny. It is what makes
for the excellence of man and serves to exalt him answering an inmost
need of the human spirit, declared by Divinity itself from age to age and
determined and directed by rare spirits who ‘possess the gentle vision of the
abiding and the spiritual.’
Religion
is an eternal fact, a universal need. The fact has been vouched for in the
experiences of men ‘who have walked with God’ and the need has been affirmed by
the leaders of thought all the world over. In this book, Sri mat Parampanthi
details the testimony of twelve master-minds of recent and contemporary times.
It is a representative band of those who know and who can speak with authority
that the author has brought into this symposium on religion,–philosophers and
poets, mathematicians and scientists, saints and sages. And they are drawn from
England, France, Germany, Russia, America and India. ‘One by one these great
leaders stand before the conflict-torn humanity and give their unequivocal
verdict in favour of these eternal values without which life will be a
misnomer,’ Srimat Parampanthi further goes on to say, and we agree. ‘There is profound
urgency in their voice; there is commanding vision in their message which
echoes the wisdom of the ages; there is invincible spirit of truth in their
words and mankind which is on the verge of darkness will be saved if it listens
to their call crying in the wilderness.’ But, we hope and pray that their call
will not be a cry in the wilderness. The urge for religion is deeply imbedded
in human nature. Notwithstanding that many a foreign and hostile element has
hidden it from view, it has a native vitality all its own which will bring it
to the surface in periods of stress and storm, of travail and tribulation, of
despondency and despair. When fate seems to conspire with circumstance to
thwart human hopes and defeat human purposes, when man realises the futility of
his will and the frailty of his endeavours, when in his utmost extremity he
raises the S. O. S. cry and plaintively asks for grace and succour, then
religion comes to the fore offering comfort and counsel, takes possession of
the beseeching heart and mind, captains the human vessel and leads it on to its
haven. In the din of material pursuits and in the clamour of combatant noises,
the voice of religion may be hushed for a while, but it is never silenced.
Those twelve profound thinkers bid us hearken to that voice and give it a
chance to mould our lives, making it the literal heart beat of our spiritual
frame.
Before
conducting the symposium sketching the views of the participants, interspersed
with quotations from their writings, the author introduces it by an account of
the ways in which religion stands to the modern world. In its pride
as the age of science, the modern period is indifferent to religion and often
hostile to it. Science being the realm of ‘things’ and religion of ‘values’,
the modern mind thinks of them in antithetical terms and quoting A. N.
Whitebead Srimat Parampanthi observes that the ultimate values have been
excluded from social life and handed over to the clergy to be kept for Sundays.
In this ‘age of terrific transition’ from the old order to the new, ‘modern man
has neither the consolation of old values nor the inspiration of new ones.’ He
concludes his indictment of science with the words: ‘Physically man is degraded
by rich, elaborate and artificial food, comfort and dependence on mechanical
amenities of life. Mentally he is a victim of hypertension, unrest, split
personality, frustration and other neurotic and physical diseases.
Intellectually he has been cynical, hedonistic and sceptic. Spiritually he is a
pigmy and atheistic being.’
Yet,
Srimat Parampanthi does not give way to despair regarding the fate of homo
sapiens. Among other reasons, he holds that ‘the remorseless enquiry into
the final constituents of matter has led the aspiring scientists towards a
non-mechanical reality.’ Science points to a Beyond, to an Other. Ultimate
science is proximate to philosophy and religion. Modern man is also
psychologically prepared, shall we say, hankering for intimations of religion.
Mankind has now come to realise that true history is the history of increasing
mastery of soul over flesh, sacrifice over selfishness, universality over
egoism.
Having
thus proved the need of religion for modern times, Srimat Parampanthi goes on
to define the nature of religion and describe its manifestations. He calls it
‘the factual realisation of the harmony between the aspiring soul and the
integrating principle.’ For ever an Ideal of the Soul, it needs the stability
of flesh and blood in the shape of rules and rituals, precepts and theology. The
use of religion is to neutralise and conquer the base and basic passions of
man, to lead him from the material to the spiritual, to provide man with a
charter of universal ethics and ‘in moments of deep unrest and psychic storms,
in times of anguish and death, pain and separation, misfortune and misery, when
all other helpers flee, to be the undying source of incessant strength, light
and peace.’
The
author is convinced that there is not and there must not be any conflict
between science and religion. Religion must direct the gifts of science for the
good of man and for the good of the whole world. The ‘perfect means’ which
science provides and the ‘perfect end’ which religion holds forth must combine
to perfect the man. Science can make religion rational and acceptable and
religion can direct science to noble purpose. Bertrand Russell declares
‘Science without religion is lame–religion without science is blind.’
But
why has religion come in for so much disrepute now a days? Srimat Parampanthi
attributes it to nine causes, namely, secularisation, intrusion on the field of
others, dogmatism, substitution of the non-essential for the essential,
internal bickerings, vagueness, subservience to chauvinism, proselytisation and
conversion, and reliance on irreligious ideas like sin. Adverting to
‘reformation of religion,’ the author cautions against evolving a synthetic
world-religion and surrender of fundamentals to make it acceptable to the
modern mind. In the last analysis, he observes, religion must remain spiritual
and transcendental.
Chapter
II of the book is devoted to an exposition of John Caird’s views on religion.
Caird does not uphold the theory that a philosophy of religion is not possible,
and is definitely of the view that ‘in thought we supersede ourselves’ and that
‘true religion in the ultimate sense is rooted in man’s rational or intelligent
nature.’ ‘Caird visualises the predominence of reason and intellect in the
domain of religion.’ He subscribes to the view that morality is not an end in itself,
but is a pointer to religion. Religion too is not a static state, it may not be
progress towards, but it is progress within the realm of the spirit. He
explains the Ontological proof of God that ‘as spiritual beings our whole
conscious life is based on a universal selfconsciousness, an Absolute spiritual
life, which is not a mere subjective notion or conception, but which carries
with it the proof of its necessary existence or reality.’
The
next philosopher who is made to participate in the symposium is Friedrich
Paulsen who holds that ‘religion, philosophy and science can harmoniously
co-exist under certain favourable conditions. Religion should not interfere in
realms which are the perquisite of science and science should remember that it
cannot exhaust the whole of reality, that there are things beyond its ken,
which are atindriya. It is one thing for philosophy to be satisfactory
to the mind; but is quite another satisfying the heart which religion alone can
do. But while philosophy and religion can co-exist, Paulsen would not have a
synthesis of the two. It is comforting to be told that according to Paulsen,
‘religion itself cannot die out from this earth because humanity will not ever
be satisfied with the scientific explanation of man’s inner relation to reality
or God. Also because the longing for the Infinite is inherent in the soul.
‘Religious faith’ says Paulsen, ‘is the immediate certainty of the heart that
the real is derived from the good.’
Writing
about Swami Vivekananda on Religion, Srimat Parampanthi has distilled out of
the Swami’s speeches a cogent and connected account of his views on this
subject dealing with the origin of religion, the verification of religious
tenets in personal experience and the three parts of religion, its philosophy,
mythology and ritual, etc. He also brings into relief the Swamiji’s insistence
on renunciation as essential to religious life and the ideal of universal
religion, which is not one religion for the whole world, but the soul of
religion which ‘exists eternally in every religion.’
Leo
Tolstoy whose views on Religion come next in the series insists on the close
connection between morality and religion and on the conception of the equality
of all mankind in the presence of the sublime infinity of God. He inveighs
against ritual and ceremonial as features of ‘dogmatic’ religion. On the
relation of Faith and Religion, Tolstoy says–‘by the word religion we imply
something observed outside of us, while what we call faith is the same thing,
only experienced by man within himself.’
William
James who comes in next makes a pragmatic approach to religion: ‘He believes
that religious faith is capable of making immensely valuable contribution
towards the welfare of humanity.’ We gain by our belief and lose by our non-belief
a certain vital good. James is sure that God’s presence is felt as a reality in
prayerful communion. The unseen power with which the saintly person comes in
contact is real, because it definitely produces results within a reality.
To
Rabindranath Tagore, religion is a process which infinitises the finite. ‘Man
is infinite in essence; he is a perpetual process operating beyond space and
time’ and religion enables man to realise himself in the perspective of the
infinite and eternal. It is the realisation of beauty everywhere, of the
harmony of the soul, of the blissfulness of the spirit. Says he: ‘My religion
is in the reconciliation of the super-personal Man, the universal human spirit
in my own individual being.’ Tagore would remind modern man who is forgetful of
religion of the divine touch in life.
Henry
Bergson applies the dynamic aspect of life and reality to the problems of
morality and religion. Distinguishing between closed society and open society
and the closed and open moralities pertaining to them, he says that the latter
makes for aspiration and universal vision of life and is the
possession of a privileged few. The elanvital which gets compressed in
closed society finds free expression in an open society and its dynamism
exhibits itself in mysticism of the highest order.
Srimat
Parampanthi describes in the succeeding chapters the views on religion held by
A. N. Whitehead and Albert Einstein who in their persons deny the allegation
that science is opposed .to religion. To Whitehead, the two pursuits are
complementary to each other, ‘what one side sees, the other misses, and vice
versa.’ The aim of this age is ‘the reconciliation of a deeper
religion and a more subtle science.’ Religious thinkers should adopt the temper
of science whereby the discarding of old ideas is not a sign of revolt, but of
progress. In a remarkable passage he says: ‘Religion is the vision of something
which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things,
something which is real, and yet waiting to be realised; something which is a
remote possibility and yet the greatest of present facts, something which gives
meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension, something whose
possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is
the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.’
Albert
Einstein though superficially seeming an atheist, possesses a deeply religious
nature. Extolling the example of great characters, he insists on the
annihilation of selfish desires and egoistic aims in ‘cosmic religion’ which is
the acme of the process of religious development. ‘He feels that the extreme
harmony of natural order reveals an intelligence of such superiority that
compared with it all the systematic thinking and intellection of man are
utterly an insignificant affair.’ It is encouraging to hear him say that ‘in
this materialistic and atheistic age, only the real scientists are profoundly
religious.’
Aldous
Huxley bas been deeply influenced by vedantic thought and emphasises the unifying
character of religion. Speaking of rituals he is of the view that they are
necessary for the majority of individuals who ‘cannot make the effort to attain
enlightenment’ while for the few of exceptional calore, ritual may be
unnecessary and even harmful. He refers to three ways of religious
self-education, the physiological, the devotional and the contemplative, and
dwells at length on the unique character of the last method. ‘Spiritual
progress’, says he, ‘is through the growing knowledge of the self as nothing
and of the Godhead as all-embracing Reality.’
In
his chapters on Mahatma Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan and their views on
religion, Srimat Parampanthi focusses the reader’s attention on
the central thesis of each of these personages. He shows that to Gandhiji faith
and moral principle are inseparable. ‘Religion is not a dogma, or a ritual; it
is a transforming power in accord with the highest laws of spirituality.
Saintliness, universal tolerance, a sense for morality, ahimsa, renunciation and
faith in God are the sources of every true religion. Respect for other faiths
is a cardinal aspect of religion.’ To Gandhiji Truth is God. Fasting, prayer,
repetition of the name of God, the Five vows of Truth, Love, Chastity,
Non-possession and Non-stealing are the sine qua non of religious life.
Radhakrishnan
pleads for a recovery of faith in the things of the Spirit. Every man has a
‘primal craving for the eternal and the abiding,’ but it is jettisoned out
between scientific soulless intellectualism and inhibitory orthodox religion.
Indicating what religion is not, he distinguishes it from external compulsion,
obedience to dogma, social reform, or mere moral consciousness. ‘There is in it
(Religion)’ observes Radhakrishnan, ‘a mystical element, an apprehension of the
real and an enjoyment of it for its own sake.’ It is based on intuitive
experience which is supra-logical, being the wisdom gained by the whole spirit
and in which the dualism of ordinary knowledge is overcome. It arises from a
vivid unity of soul with reality. Radhakrishnan is not pessimistic about the
renaissance of religion in human life: ‘The present un-rest is but a prelude to
a great spiritual awakening of the nations. But the need of the present age is
not for dogmatic religion, but the reality of it, which is of the spirit, which
will give purpose to life, which will not demand any evasion or ambiguity,
which will reconcile the ideal and the real, the poetry and prose of life,
which will speak to the profound realities of our nature and satisfy the whole
of our being, our critical intelligence and our active desire.
Thus
do the greatest among the thinkers, poets, scientists, mathematicians,
theologians and politicians speak about the urgent problem of religion in the
pages of Srimat Parampanthi’s book. The author has the unique capacity to
unfold every thinker’s views with marvellous fidelity documenting his narrative
with references to their writings and quotations from them. As one lays down
the book, one is filled with a consciousness of the majesty of
religion and its fundamental role in human life–a fact which is diversely
affirmed by these Modern Leaders. Ekam Sat Vipra bahudha
Vadanti.
(Prof.) P.
SANKARANARAYANA AIYAR
(Vivekananda
College, Madras)
Amaranath Jha: A
Memorial Volume. Edited by K. K. Mehrotra, Allahabad
University.
One
of the central figures in the sphere of Indian education, and undoubtedly the
most distinguished of them, was the late Pt. Amaranath Jha, whose sudden death
in October 1955 came as a shock to his countless admirers, friends and
well-wishers all over the country. It was not merely his scholarship, profound
as it was, in many languages, chief among them his subject, English–he had the
reputation of being the ablest Professor of English in India–that made him so
outstanding, but his intellectual brilliance, his social gifts and his
administrative capacity. To have been a worthy son of a father so worthy as
Mahamahopadhyaya Sir Ganganath Jha–a veteran educationist and
Vice-Chancellor–is itself a great distinction, but that his record surpassed
even his father’s and that he came to occupy at a comparatively earlier age,
positions of equal influence and authority, speaks of his calibre.
Amaranath
Jha gave evidence of his brilliance even while still a lad. He had the unique
distinction of being appointed as a Professor of English at the age of 20 and
before he even received his B.A. degree. A superb speaker, he could keep his
listeners spellbound by the literary artistry of his words and the gentle
cadence of his sentences. Had it not been for the fact that he dedicated
himself to the profession of his choice and once for all turned his back on the
Civil Service, he might have filled some of the highest offices in the
Government, a regret which was widely shared.
This
memorial volume brought out by Sri K. K. Mehrotra, which is in the nature of a
reverent homage to the illustrious teacher by a loving student, is a welcome
publication.
When
he was no longer connected with the Allahabad University but was the Chairman
of the Public Service Commission first of U. P. and later of Bihar, Dr. Jha was
known to be giving away almost his entire salary to the poor and deserving
students of the Allahabad University–so great was his devotion to the
University of which he himself was the brightest product.
The
volume, besides containing valuable contributions by distinguished friends and
colleagues of Dr. Jha, carries a foreword by no less a personage than Sri
Jawaharlal Nehru, written with a degree of warmth and affection. What adds to
the interest is the inclusion of some pages from Dr. Jha’s own diary as well as
some of his articles, and the volume is enlivened by some photographs,
particularly an impressive print of a bronze bust of his, which very well
brings out his highly intellectual and forceful personality.
Wisdom Beyond Reason by
S. R. Sharma. Published by Lakshmi Narain Agarwal, Agra. Pages 143. Price Rs.
2-8-0.
Professor Sharma, who has already made his mark as a learned professor and a competent interpreter of history, blazes a new and startling trail in this slim volume. Here is a ‘confession’ of his spiritual aspiration and heart-searchings which have led him up through the labyrinth of reason to a wisdom beyond reason.
A
son of the modern age dominated by the intellect, he has elected to hark back
to the ancient call of great mystics, true to the traditions and scriptures of
the land of his birth; but he finds, however, that the call of the scriptures,
at one with the heart’s aspiration to explore the heights and depths, is not a
call away from life but a call to life, to Karma Yoga, as the Gita expands it.
In
this account of his struggle and choice and reconciliation and persistent
voyage of the spirit, spoken with a rare sincerity and charm, all earnest
souls, especially among modern Indians, are sure to find food for thought and,
possibly, encouragement and guidance.
M. SIVAKAMAYYA