Part 14 (1/2)
(A lecture delivered at Detroit on March 11, 1894 and reported in the Detroit Free Press) ”Vive Kananda spoke to a crowded audience at the Detroit Opera House last night. He was given an extremely cordial reception and delivered his most eloquent address here. He spoke for two hours and a half.
Hon. T. W. Palmer, in introducing the distinguished visitor, referred to the old tale of the s.h.i.+eld that was copper on one side and silver on the other and the contest which ensued. If we look on both sides of a question there would be less dispute. It is possible for all men to agree. The matter of foreign missions has been dear to the religious heart. Vive Kananda, from the Christian standpoint, said Mr. Palmer, was a pagan. It would be pleasant to hear from a gentleman who spoke about the copper side of the s.h.i.+eld.
Vive Kananda was received with great applause.” . . . I do not know much about missionaries in j.a.pan and China, but I am well posted about India. The people of this country look upon India as a vast waste, with many jungles and a few civilised Englishmen. India is half as large as the United States, and there are three hundred million people. Many stories are related, and I have become tired of denying these. The first invaders of India, the Aryans, did not try to exterminate the population of India as the Christians did when they went into a new land, but the endeavour was made to elevate persons of brutish habits. The Spaniards came to Ceylon with Christianity. The Spaniards thought that their G.o.d commanded them to kill and murder and to tear down heathen temples. The Buddhists had a tooth a foot long, which belonged to their Prophet, and the Spaniards threw it into the sea, killed a few thousand persons, and converted a few scores. The Portuguese came to Western India. The Hindus have a belief in the Trinity and had a temple dedicated to their sacred belief. The invaders looked at the temple and said it was a creation of the devil; and so they brought their cannon to bear upon the wonderful structure and destroyed a portion of it. But the invaders were driven out of the country by the enraged population. The early missionaries tried to get hold of the land, and in their effort to secure a foothold by force, they killed many people and converted a number. Some of them became Christians to save their lives. Ninety-nine percent of the Christians converted by the Portuguese sword were compelled to be so, and they said, ”We do not believe in Christianity, but we are forced to call ourselves Christians.” But Catholic Christianity soon relapsed.
The East India Company got possession of a part of India with the idea of making hay while the sun shone. They kept the missionaries away. The Hindus were the first to welcome the missionaries, not the Englishmen, who were engaged in trade. I have great admiration for some of the first missionaries of the later period, who were true servants of Jesus and did not vilify the people or spread vile falsehoods about them. They were gentle, kindly men. When Englishmen became masters of India, the missionary enterprise began to become stagnant, a condition which characterises the missionary efforts in India today. Dr. Long, an early missionary, stood by the people. He translated a Hindu drama describing the evils perpetuated in India by indigo-planters, and what was the result? He was placed in jail by the English. Such missionaries were of benefit to the country, but they have pa.s.sed away. The Suez Ca.n.a.l opened up a number of evils.
Now goes the missionary, a married man, who is hampered because he is married. The missionary knows nothing about the people, he cannot speak the language, so he invariably settles in the little white colony. He is forced to do this because he is married. Were he not married, he could go among the people and sleep on the ground if necessary. So he goes to India to seek company for his wife and children. He stays among the English-speaking people. The great heart of India is today absolutely untouched by missionary effort. Most of the missionaries are incompetent. I have not met a single missionary who understands Sanskrit. How can a man absolutely ignorant of the people and their traditions, get into sympathy with them? I do not mean any offense, but Christians send men as missionaries, who are not persons of ability. It is sad to see money spent to make converts when no real results of a satisfactory nature are reached.
Those who are converted, are the few who make a sort of living by hanging round the missionaries. The converts who are not kept in service in India, cease to be converts. That is about the entire matter in a nutsh.e.l.l. As to the way of converting, it is absolutely absurd. The money the missionaries bring is accepted. The colleges founded by missionaries are all right, so far as the education is concerned. But with religion it is different. The Hindu is acute; he takes the bait but avoids the hook! It is wonderful how tolerant the people are. A missionary once said, ”That is the worst of the whole business. People who are self-complacent can never be converted.”
As regards the lady missionaries, they go into certain houses, get four s.h.i.+llings a month, teach them something of the Bible, and show them how to knit. The girls of India will never be converted. Atheism and skepticism at home is what is pus.h.i.+ng the missionary into other lands. When I came into this country I was surprised to meet so many liberal men and women. But after the Parliament of Religions a great Presbyterian paper came out and gave me the benefit of a seething article. This the editor called enthusiasm. The missionaries do not and cannot throw off nationality - they are not broad enough - and so they accomplish nothing in the way of converting, although they may have a nice sociable time among themselves. India requires help from Christ, but not from the antichrist; these men are not Christlike. They do not act like Christ; they are married and come over and settle down comfortably and make a fair livelihood. Christ and his disciples would accomplish much good in India, just as many of the Hindu saints do; but these men are not of that sacred character. The Hindus would welcome the Christ of the Christians gladly, because his life was holy and beautiful; but they cannot and will not receive the narrow utterances of the ignorant, hypocritical or self-deceiving men.
Men are different. If they were not, the mentality of the world would be degraded. If there were not different religions, no religion would survive. The Christian requires his religion; the Hindu needs his own creed. All religions have struggled against one another for years. Those which were founded on a book, still stand. Why could not the Christians convert the Jews? Why could they not make the Persians Christians? Why could they not convert Mohammedans? Why cannot any impression be made upon China or j.a.pan? Buddhism, the first missionary religion, numbers double the number of converts of any other religion, and they did not use the sword. The Mohammedans used the greatest violence. They number the least of the three great missionary religions. The Mohammedans have had their day. Every day you read of Christian nations acquiring land by bloodshed. What missionaries preach against this? Why should the most blood-thirsty nation exalt an alleged religion which is not the religion of Christ? The Jews and the Arabs were the fathers of Christianity, and how they have been persecuted by the Christians! The Christians have been weighed in the balance in India and have been found wanting. I do not mean to be unkind, but I want to show the Christians how they look in others' eyes. The missionaries who preach the burning pit are regarded with horror. The Mohammedans rolled wave after wave over India waving the sword, and today where are they?
The furthest that all religions can see is the existence of a spiritual ent.i.ty. So no religion can teach beyond that point. In every religion there is the essential truth and the non-essential casket in which this jewel lies. Believing in the Jewish book or in the Hindu book is non-essential. Circ.u.mstances change; the receptacle is different; but the central truth remains. The essentials being the same, the educated people of every community retain the essentials. If you ask a Christian what his essentials are, he should reply, ”The teachings of Lord Jesus.” Much of the rest is nonsense. But the nonsensical part is right; it forms the receptacle. The sh.e.l.l of the oyster is not attractive, but the pearl is within it. The Hindu will never attack the life of Jesus; he reverences the Sermon on the Mount. But how many Christians know or have heard of the teachings of the Hindu holy men? They remain in a fool's paradise. Before a small fraction of the world was converted, Christianity was divided into many creeds. That is the law of nature. Why take a single instrument from the great religious orchestra of the earth? Let the grand symphony go on. Be pure. Give up superst.i.tion and see the wonderful harmony of nature. Superst.i.tion gets the better of religion. All the religions are good, since the essentials are the same. Each man should have the perfect exercise of his individuality, but these individualities form a perfect whole. This marvelous condition is already in existence. Each creed has something to add to the wonderful structure.
I pity the Hindu who does not see the beauty in Jesus Christ's character. I pity the Christian who does not reverence the Hindu Christ. The more a man sees of himself, the less he sees of his neighbors. Those that go about converting, who are very busy saving the souls of others, in many instances forget their own souls. I was asked by a lady why the women of India were not more elevated. It is in a great degree owing to the barbarous invaders through different ages; it is partly due to the people in India themselves. But our women are any day better than the ladies of this country who are devotees of novels and b.a.l.l.s. Where is the spirituality one would expect in a country which is so boastful of its civilisation? I have not found it. ”Here” and ”here-after” are words to frighten children. It is all ”here”. To live and move in G.o.d - even here, even in this body! All self should go out; all superst.i.tion should be banished. Such men live in India. Where are such in this country? Your preachers speak against ”dreamers”. The people of this country would be better off if there were more ”dreamers”. If a man here followed literally the instruction of his Lord, he would be called a fanatic. There is a good deal of difference between dreaming and the brag of the nineteenth century. The bees look for the flowers. Open the lotus! The whole world is full of G.o.d and not of sin. Let us help each other. Let us love each other. A beautiful prayer of the Buddhist is: I bow down to all the saints; I bow down to all the prophets; I bow down to all the holy men and women all over the world!
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THE RELIGION OF LOVE.
(Notes of a lecture delivered in London on November 16, 1895) Just as it is necessary for a man to go through symbols and ceremonies first in order to arrive at the depth of realisation, so we say in India, ”It is good to be born in a church, but bad to die in one”. A sapling must be hedged about for protection, but when it becomes a tree, a hedge would be a hindrance. So there is no need to criticise and condemn the old forms. We forget that in religion there must be growth.
At first we think of a Personal G.o.d, and call Him Creator, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and so forth. But when loves comes, G.o.d is only love. The loving wors.h.i.+pper does not care what G.o.d is, because he wants nothing from Him. Says an Indian saint, ”I am no beggar!” Neither does he fear. G.o.d is loved as a human being.
Here are some of the systems founded on love. (1) Shnta, a common, peaceful love, with such thoughts as those of fatherhood and help; (2) Dsya, the ideal of service; G.o.d as master or general or sovereign, giving punishments and rewards; (3) Vtsalya, G.o.d as mother or child. In India the mother never punishes. In each of these stages, the wors.h.i.+pper forms an ideal of G.o.d and follows it. Then (4) Sakhya, G.o.d as friend. There is here no fear. There is also the feeling of equality and familiarity. There are some Hindus who wors.h.i.+p G.o.d as friend and playmate. Next comes (5) Madhura, sweetest love, the love of husband and wife. Of this St. Teresa and the ecstatic saints have been examples. Amongst the Persians, G.o.d has been looked upon as the wife, amongst the Hindus as the husband. We may recall the great queen Mir Bi, who preached that the Divine Spouse was all. Some carry this to such an extreme that to call G.o.d ”mighty” or ”father” seems to them blasphemy. The language of this wors.h.i.+p is erotic. Some even use that of illicit pa.s.sion. To this cycle belongs the story of Krishna and the Gopi-girls. All this probably seems to you to entail great degeneration on the wors.h.i.+pper. And so it does. Yet many great saints have been developed by it. And no human inst.i.tution is beyond abuse. Would you cook nothing because there are beggars? Would you possess nothing because there are thieves? ”O Beloved, one kiss of Thy lips, once tasted, hath made me mad!”
The fruit of this idea is that one can no longer belong to any sect, or endure ceremonial. Religion in India culminates in freedom. But even this comes to be given up, and all is love for love's sake.
Last of all comes love without distinction, the Self. There is a Persian poem that tells how a lover came to the door of his beloved, and knocked. She asked, ”Who art thou?” and he replied, ”I am so and so, thy beloved!” and she answered only, ”Go! I know none such!” But when she had asked for the fourth time, he said, ”I am thyself, O my Beloved, therefore open thou to me!” And the door was opened.
A great saint said, using the language of a girl, describing love: ”Four eyes met. There were changes in two souls. And now I cannot tell whether he is a man and I am a woman, or he is a woman and I a man. This only I remember, two souls were. Love came, and there was one.”
In the highest love, union is only of the spirit. All love of any other kind is quickly evanescent. Only the spiritual lasts, and this grows. Love sees the Ideal. This is the third angle of the triangle. G.o.d has been Cause, Creator, Father. Love is the culmination. The mother regrets that her child is humpbacked, but when she has nursed him for a few days, she loves him and thinks him most beautiful. The lover sees the beauty of Helen in the brow of Ethiopia. We do not commonly realise what happens. The brow of Ethiopia is merely a suggestion: the man sees Helen. His ideal is thrown upon the suggestion and covers it, as the oyster makes sand into a pearl. G.o.d is this ideal, through which man may see all.
Hence we come to love love itself. This love cannot be expressed. No words can utter it. We are dumb about it. The senses become very much heightened in love. Human love, we must remember, is mixed up with attributes. It is dependent, too, on the other's att.i.tude. Indian languages have words to describe this interdependence of love. The lowest love is selfish; it consists in pleasure of being loved. We say in India, ”One gives the cheek, the other kisses.” Above this is mutual love. But this also ceases mutually. True love is all giving. We do not even want to see the other, or to do anything to express our feeling. It is enough to give. It is almost impossible to love a human being like this, but it is possible to love G.o.d.
In India there is no idea of blasphemy if boys fighting in the street use the name of G.o.d. We say, ”Put your hand into the fire, and whether you feel it or not, you will be burnt. So to utter the name of G.o.d can bring nothing but good.”
The notion of blasphemy comes from the Jews, who were impressed by the spectacle of Persian loyalty. The ideas that G.o.d is judge and punisher are not in themselves bad, but they are low and vulgar. The three angles of the triangle are: Love begs not; Love knows no fear; Love is always the ideal.
”Who would be able to live one second, Who would be able to breathe one moment, If the Loving one had not filled the universe?”
Most of us will find that we were born for service. We must leave the results to G.o.d. The work was done only for love of G.o.d. If failure comes, there need be no sorrow. The work was done only for love of G.o.d.
In women, the mother-nature is much developed. They wors.h.i.+p G.o.d as the child. They ask nothing, and will do anything. The Catholic Church teaches many of these deep things, and though it is narrow, it is religious in the highest sense. In modern society, Protestantism is broad but shallow. To judge truth by what good it does is as bad as to question the value of a scientific discovery to a baby.
Society must be outgrown. We must crush law and become outlaws. We allow nature, only in order to conquer her. Renunciation means that none can serve both G.o.d and Mammon.
Deepen your own power of thought and love. Bring your own lotus to blossom: the bees will come of themselves. Believe first in yourself, then in G.o.d. A handful of strong men will move the world. We need a heart to feel, a brain to conceive, and a strong arm to do the work. Buddha gave himself for the animals. Make yourself a fit agent to work. But it is G.o.d who works, not you. One man contains the whole universe. One particle of matter has all the energy of the universe at its back. In a conflict between the heart and the brain follow your heart.
Yesterday, compet.i.tion was the law. Today, cooperation is the law. Tomorrow there is no law. Let sages praise thee, or let the world blame. Let fortune itself come, or let poverty and rags stare thee in the face. Eat the herbs of the forest, one day, for food; and the next, share a banquet of fifty courses. Looking neither to right hand nor to the left, follow thou on!