AVATARAS/PART 4
FOURTH
LECTURE
Shri Krishna
My brothers, there are themes so
lofty that tongue of Deva would not suffice to do full justice to that which
they enclose, and when we think of the music of Shri Krishna's flute, all human
music seems as discord amidst its strains. Nevertheless since bhakti grows by
thought and word, it is not amiss that we should come near a subject so sacred;
only in dealing with it we must needs feel our incompetency, we must needs
regret our limitations, we must needs wish for greater power of expression than
we can have down here. For, perhaps, amid all the divine manifestations that
have glorified the world, there is none which has aroused a wider, tenderer
feeling than the Avatara which we are to study this morning.
The austerer glories of Mahadeva, the
Lord of the burning ground, attract more the hearts of those who are weary of
the world and who see the futility of worldly attractions; but Shri Krishna is
the God of the household, the God of family life, the God whose manifestations
attract in every phase of His Self-revelation; He is human to the very core;
born in humanity, as He has said, He acts as a man. As a child, He is a real
child, full of playfulness, of fun, of winsome grace. Growing up into boyhood,
into manhood, He exercises the same human fascination over the hearts of men,
of women, and of children; the God in whose presence there is always joy, the
God in whose presence there is continual laughter and music. When we think of
Shri Krishna we seem to hear the ripple of the river, the rustling of the leaves
in the forest, the lowing of the kine in the pasture, the laughter of happy
children playing round their parents' knees. He is so fundamentally the God who
is human in everything; who bends in human sympathy over the cradle of the
babe, who sympathises with the play of the youth, who is the friend of the
lover, the blesser of the bridegroom and the bride, who smiles on the young
mother when her first-born lies in her arms — everywhere the God of love and of
human happiness; what wonder that His winsome grace has fascinated the hearts
of men!
We are to study Him, then, this
morning. Now an Avatara — I say this to clear away some preliminary
difficulties — an Avatara has two great aspects to the world. First, He is a
historical fact Do not let that be forgotten. When you are reading the story of
the great Ones, you are reading history and not fable. But it is more than
history; the Avataras acts out on the stage of the world a mighty drama. He is,
as it were, a player on the world's of Shri Krishna, and the vast range that He
covered as regards His manifestations of complex human life, in order to render
the vast subject a little more manageable, I have divided this drama, as it
were, into its separate acts. I am using for a moment the language of the stage,
for I think it will make my meaning rather more clear. That is, in dealing with
His life, I have taken its stages which are clearly marked out, and in each of
these we shall see one great type of the teaching which the world is meant to
learn from the playing of this drama before the eyes of men. To some extent the
stages correspond with marked periods in the life, and to some extent they
overlap each other; but by having them clearly in our minds we shall be able, I
think, to grasp better the whole object of the Avatara — we shall have as it
were compartments in the mind in which the different types of teaching may be
placed.
First then He comes to show forth to
the world a great Object of bhakti, and the love of God to His bhakta, or
devotee. That is the aim of the first act of the great drama — to stand forth
as the Object of devotion, and to show forth the love with which God regards
His devotees. We have there a marked stage in the life of Shri Krishna.
Then the second act of the drama may
be said to be His character as the destroyer of the opposing forces that retard
evolution, and that runs through the whole of His life.
The third act is that of the
statesman, the wise, politic, and intellectual actor on the world's stage of
history, the guiding force of the nation by His wondrous policy and
intelligence, standing forth not as king but rather as statesman.
Then we have Him as friend, the human
friend, especially of the Pandavas and of Arjuna.
The next act is that of Shri Krishna
as Teacher, the world-teacher, not the teacher of one race alone.
Then we see Him in the strange and
wondrous aspect of the Searcher of the hearts of men, the trier and tester of
human nature.
Finally, we may regard Him in His
manifestation as the Supreme, the all-pervading life of the universe, who looks
on nothing as outside Himself, who embraces in His arms evil and good, darkness
and light, nothing alien to Himself.
Into these seven acts, as it were,
the life-history may be divided, and each of them might serve as the study of a
life-time instead of our compressing them into the lecture of a morning. We
will, however, take them in turn, however inadequately; for the hints I give
can be worked out by you in detail according to the constitution of your own
minds. One aspect will attract one man, another aspect will attract another;
all the aspects are worthy of study, all are provocative of devotion. But most
of all, with regard to devotion, is the earliest stage of His life inspiring
and full of benediction, those early years of the Lord as infant, as child, as
young boy, when He is dwelling in Vraja, in the forest of Brindaban, when He is
living with the cowherds and their wives and their children, the marvellous
child who stole the hearts of men. It is noticeable — and if it had been
remembered many a blasphemy would not have been uttered — that Shri Krishna
chose to show Himself as the great object of devotion, as the lover of the
devotee, in the form of a child, not in that of a man.
Come then with me to the time of His
birth, remembering that before that birth took place upon earth, the deities
had been to Vishnu in the higher regions, and had asked Him to interfere in
order that earth might be lightened of her load, that the oppression of the
incarnate Daityas might be stayed; and then Vishnu said to the Gods: Go ye and
incarnate yourselves in portions among men, go ye and take birth amid humanity.
Great Rishis also took birth in the place where Vishnu Himself was to be born,
so that ere He came, the surroundings of the drama were, as it were, made in
the place of His coming, and those that we speak of as the cowherds of Vraja,
Nanda and those around Him, the Gopis and all the inhabitants of that
wondrously blessed spot, were, we are told, "God-like persons"; nay
more, they were "the Protectors of the worlds" who were born as men
for the progress of the world. But that means that the Gods themselves had come
down and taken birth as men; and when you think of all that took place
throughout the wonderful childhood of the Lila [Play ] of Shri Krishna, you
must remember that those who played that act of the drama were no ordinary men,
no ordinary women; they were the Protectors of the worlds incarnated as
cowherds round Him. And the Gopis, the graceful wives of the shepherds, they
were the Rishis of ancient days, who by devotion to Vishnu had gained the
blessing of being incarnated as Gopis, in order that they might surround His
childhood, and pour out their love at the tiny feet of the boy they saw as boy,
of the God they worshipped as supreme.
When all these preparations were made
for the coming of the child, the child was born. I am not dwelling on all the
well-known incidents that surrounded His birth, the prophecy that the destroyer
of Kansa was to be born, the futile shutting up in the dungeon, the chaining
with irons, and all the other follies with which the earthly tyrant strove to
make impossible of accomplishment the decree of the Supreme. You all know how
his plans came to nothing, as the mounds of sand raised by the hands of
children are swept into a level plain when one wave of the sea ripples over the
playground of the child. He was born, born in His four-armed form, shining out
for the moment in the dungeon, which before His birth had been irradiated by
Him through His mother's body, who was said to be like an alabaster vase — so
pure was she — with a flame within it. For the Lord Shri Krishna was within her
womb, herself the alabaster vase which was as a lamp containing Him, the
world's light, so that the glory illuminated the darkness of the dungeon where
she lay. At His birth he came as Vishnu, for the moment showing Himself with
all the signs of the Deity on Him, with the discus, with the conch, with the
shrivatsa on His breast, with all the recognised emblems of the Lord. But that
form quickly vanished, and only the human child lay before His parents' eyes.
And the father, you remember, taking Him up, passed through the great locked
doors and all the rest of it, and carried Him in safety into his brother's
house, where He was to dwell in the place prepared for His coming.
As a babe He showed forth the power
that was in Him, as we shall see, when we come to the second stage, the
destroyer of the forces of evil. But for the moment only watch Him as He plays
in his foster mother's house, as He gambols with children of His own age. And
as He is growing into a boy, able to go alone, He begins wandering through the
fields and through the forest, and the notes of His wondrous flute are heard in
all the groves and over all the plains. The child, a child of five — only five
years of age when He wandered with His magic flute in His hands, charming the
hearts of all that heard; so that the boys left tending the cattle and followed
the music of the flute; the women left their household tasks and followed where
the flute was playing; the men ceased their labours that they might feast their
ears on the music of the flute. Nay, not only the men, the women and the
children, but the cows, it is said, stopped their grazing to listen as the
notes fell on their ears, and the calves ceased suckling as the music came to
them on the wind, and the river rippled up that it might hear the better, and
the trees bowed down their branches that they might not lose a note, and the
birds no longer sang lest their music should make discord in the melody, as the
wondrous child wandered over the country, and the music of heaven flowed from
His magic flute.
And thus He lived and played and
sported, and the hearts of all the cowherds and of their wives and daughters
went out to that marvellous child. And He played with them and loved them, and
they would take Him up and place His baby feet on their bosoms, and would sing
to Him as the Lord of all, the Supreme, the mighty One. They recognised the
Deity in the child that played round their homes, and many lessons He taught
them, this child, amid His gambols and His pranks — lessons that still teach
the world, and that those who know most understand best.
Let me take one instance which ignorant
lips have used most in order to insult, to try to defame the majesty that they
do not understand. But let me say this: that I believe that in most cases where
these bitter insults are uttered, they are uttered by people who have never
really read the story, and who have heard only bits of it and have supplied the
rest out of their own imaginations. I therefore take a particular incident
which I have heard most spoken of with bitterness as a proof of the frightful
immorality of Shri Krishna.
While the child of six was one day
wandering along, as He would, a number of the Gopis were bathing nude in the
river, having cast aside their cloths — as they should not have done, that
being against the law and showing carelessness of womanly modesty. Leaving their
garments on the bank they had plunged into the river. The child of six saw this
with the eye of insight, and He gathered up their cloths and climbed up a tree
near by, carrying them with Him, and threw them round His own shoulders and
waited to see what would chance. The water was bitterly cold and the Gopis were
shivering; but they did not like to come out of it before the clear steady eyes
of the child. And He called them to come and get the garments they had thrown
off; and as they hesitated, the baby lips told them that they had sinned
against God by immodestly casting aside the garments that should have been
worn, and must therefore expiate their sin by coming and taking from His hands
that which they had cast aside. They came and worshipped, and He gave them back
their robes. An immoral story, with a child of six as the central figure! It is
spoken of as though he were a full grown man, insulting the modesty of women.
The Gopis were Rishis, and the Lord, the Supreme, as a babe is teaching them a
lesson. But there is more than that; there is a profound occult lesson below
the story — a story repeated over and over again in different forms — and it is
this: that when the soul is approaching the supreme Lord at one great stage of
initiation, it has to pass through a great ordeal; stripped of everything on
which it has hitherto relied, stripped of everything that is not of its inner
Self, deprived of all external aid, of all external protection, of all external
covering, the soul itself, in its own inherent life, must stand naked and alone
with nothing to rely on, save the life of the Self within it If it flinches
before the ordeal, if it clings to anything to which hitherto it has looked for
help, if in that supreme hour it cries out for friend or helper, nay even for
the Guru himself, the soul fails in that ordeal. Naked and alone it must go
forth, with absolutely none to aid it save the divinity within itself. And it
is that nakedness of the soul as it approaches the supreme goal, that is told
of in that story of Shri Krishna, the child, and the Gopis, the nakedness of
life before the One who gave it You find many another similar allegory. When
the Lord comes in the Kalki, the tenth, Avatara, He fights on the battlefield
and is overcome. He uses all His weapons; every weapon fails Him; and it is not
till He casts every weapon aside and fights with His naked hands, that He
conquers. Exactly the same idea. Intellect, everything, fails the naked soul
before God.[ So in the "Imitation of Christ", the work of an occultist,
it is written that we must "naked follow the naked Jesus." ]
If I have taken up this story
specially, out of hundreds of stories, to dwell upon, it is because it is one
of the points of attack, and because you who are Hindus by birth ought to know
enough of the inner truths of your own religion not to stand silent and ashamed
when attacks are made, but should speak with knowledge and thus prevent such
blasphemies.
Then we learn more details of His
play with the Gopis as a child of seven: how He wandered into the forest and
disappeared and all went after Him seeking Him; how they tried to imitate His
own play, in order to fill up the void that was left by His absence. The child
of seven, that He was at this time, disappeared for a while, but came back to
those who loved Him, as God ever does with His bhaktas. And then takes place
that wondrous dance, the Rasa [Dance ] of Shri Krishna, part of His Lila, when
He multiplied Himself so that every pair of Gopis found Him standing between
them; amid the ring of women the child was there between each pair of them,
giving a hand to each; and so the mystic dance was danced. This is another of
these points of attack which are made by ignorant minds. What but an unclean
mind can see aught that is impure in the child dancing there as lover and
beloved? It is as though He looked forward down the ages, and saw what later
would be said, and it is as though He kept the child form in the Lila, in order
that He might breathe harmlessly into men's blind unclean hearts the lesson
that He would fain give. And what was the lesson? One other incident I remind
you of, before I draw the lesson from the whole of this stage of His life. He
sent for food. He who is the Feeder of the worlds, and some of His brahmanas
refused to give it, and sent away the boys who came to ask for food for Him;
and when the men refused. He sent them back to the women, to see if they too
would refuse the food their husbands had declined to give. And the women — who
have ever loved the Lord — caught up the food from every part of their houses
where they could find it and went out, crowds of them, bearing food for Him,
leaving house, and husband, and household duties. And all tried to stop them,
but they would not be stopped; and brothers and husbands and friends tried to
hold them back, but no, they must go to Him, to their Lover, Shri Krishna; He
must not be hungry, the child of their love. And so they went and gave Him food
and He ate. But they say: They left their husbands! they left their homes! how
wrong to leave husbands and homes and follow after Shri Krishna! The
implication always is that their love was purely physical love, as though that
were possible with a child of seven. I know that words of physical love are
used, and I know it is said in a curious translation that "they came under
the spell of Cupid." It matters not for the words, let us look at the
facts. There is not a religion in the world that has not taught that when the
Supreme calls, all else must be cast aside. I have seen Shri Krishna contrasted
with Jesus of Nazareth to the detriment of Shri Krishna, and a contrast is
drawn between the purity of the one and the impurity of the other; the proof
given was that the husbands were left while the wives went to play with and
wait on the Lord. But I have read words that came from the lips of Jesus of
Nazareth; "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of
me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall
receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matt x. 37,
and xix. 29.) And again, yet more strongly: "If any man come to me and
hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke xiv.
26.) That is exactly the same idea. When Jesus calls, husband and wife, father
and mother, must be forsaken, and the reward will be eternal life. Why is that
right when done for Jesus, which is wrong when done for Shri Krishna?
It is not only that you find the same
teaching in both religions; but in every other religion of the world the terms
of physical love are used to describe the relation between the soul and God.
Take the "Song of Solomon". If you take the Christian Bible and read
the margin you will see "The Love of Christ for His Church"; and if
from the margin you look down the column, you will find the most passionate of
love songs, a description of the exquisite female form in all the details of
its attractive beauty; the cry of the lover to the beloved to come to him that
they might take their fill of love. "Christ and His Church" is
supposed to make it all right, and I am content that it should be so. I have no
word to say against the "Song of Solomon", nor any complaint against
its gorgeous and luxuriant imagery; but I refuse to take from the Hebrew as
pure, what I am to refuse from the Hindu as impure. I ask that all may be
judged by the same standard, and that if one be condemned the same condemnation
may be levelled against the other. So also in the songs of the Sufis, the
mystics of the faith of Islam, woman's love is ever used as the best symbol of love
between the soul and God. In all ages the love between husband and wife has
been the symbol of union between the Supreme and His devotees; the closest of
all earthly ties, the most intimate of all earthly unions, the merging of heart
and body of twain into one — where will you find a better image of the merging
of the soul in its God? Ever has the object of devotion been symbolised as the
lover or husband, ever the devotee as wife or mistress. This symbology is
universal, because it is fundamentally true. The absolute surrender of the wife
to the husband is the type upon earth of the absolute surrender of the soul to
God. That is the justification of the Rasa of Shri Krishna; that is the
explanation of the story of His life in Vraja.
I have dwelt specially on this, my
brothers, you all know why. Let us pass from it, remembering that till the
nineteenth century this story provoked only devotion not ribaldry, and it is
only with the coming in of the grosser type of western thought that you have
these ideas put into the Bhagavad-Purana. I would to God that the Rishis had
taken away the Shrimad Bhagavata from a race that is unworthy to have it; that
as They have already withdrawn the greater part of the Vedas, the greater part
of the ancient books, they would take away also this story of the love of Shri
Krishna, until men are pure enough to read it without blasphemy and clean
enough to read it without ideas of sexuality.
Pass from this to the next great
stage, that of the Destroyer of evil, shortly, very shortly. From the time when
as a babe but a few weeks old He sucked to death the Rakshasi, Putana; from the
time He entered the great cave made by the demon, and expanding Himself
shivered the whole into fragments; from the time He trampled on the head of the
serpent Kaliya so that it might not poison the water needed for the drinking of
the people; until He left Vraja to meet Kansa, we find Him ever chasing away
every form of evil that came within the limits of His abode. We are told that
when He had left Vraja and stood in the tournament field of Kansa with His
brother, His brother and Himself were mere boys, in the tender delicate bodies
of youths. After the whole of the Lila was over They were still children, when
They went forth to fight. From that time onwards He met, one after another, the
great incarnations of evil and crushed them with His resistless strength: we
need not dwell on these stories, for they fill His life.
We come to the third stage of
Statesman, a marvellously interesting feature in His life — the tact, the
delicacy, the foresight, the skill in always putting the man opposed to Him in
the wrong, and so winning His way and carrying others with Him. As you know,
this part of His life is played out especially in connection with the Pandavas.
He is the one who in every difficulty steps forward as ambassador; it is He who
goes with Arjuna and Bhima to slay the giant king Jarasandha, who was going to
make a human sacrifice to Mahadeva, a sacrifice that was put a stop to as
blasphemous; it was He who went with them in order that the conflict might take
place without transgressing the strictest rules of kshattriya morality. Follow
Him as He and Arjuna and his brother enter into the city of the king. They will
not come by the open gate, that is the pathway of the friend. They break down a
portion of the wall as a sign that they come as foes. They will not go
undecorated; and challenged why they wore flowers and sandal the answer is that
they come for the celebration of a triumph, the fulfilling of a vow. Offered
food, the answer of the great ambassador is that they will not take food then,
that they will meet the king later and explain their purpose. When the time arrives
He tells him in the most courteous but the clearest language that all these
acts have been performed that he may know that they had come not as friends but
as foes to challenge him to battle. So again when the question arises, after
the thirteen years of exile, how shall the land be won back without struggle,
without fight, you see Him standing in the assembly of Pandavas and their
friends with the wisest counsel how perchance war may be averted; you see Him
offering to go as ambassador that all the magic of His golden tongue may be
used for the preservation of peace; you see Him going as ambassador and
avoiding all the pavilions raised by the order of Duryodhana, that He may not
take from one who is a foe a courtesy that might bind him as a friend. So when
he pays the call on Duryodhana that courtesy demands, never failing in the
perfect duty of the ambassador, fulfilling every demand of politeness, He will
not touch the food that would make a bond between Himself and the one against
whom He had come to struggle. See how the only food that He will take is the
food of the King's brother, for that alone. He says, "is clean and worthy
to be eaten by me." See how in the assembly of hostile kings He tries to
pacify and tries to please. See how He apologises with the gentlest humility;
how to the great king, the blind king, He speaks in the name of the Pandavas as
suppliant, not as outraged and indignant foe. See how with soft words He tries
to turn away words of wrath, and uses every device of oratory to win their
hearts and convince their judgments. See how later again, when the battle of
Kurukshetra is over, when all the sons of the blind king are slain, see how He
goes once more as ambassador to meet the childless father and, still bitterer,
the childless mother, that the first anger may break itself on Him, and His
words may charm away the wrath and soothe the grief of the bereft. See how
later on He still guides and advises till all the work is done, till His task
is accomplished and His end is drawing near. A statesman of marvellous ability;
a politician of keenest tact and insight; as though to say to men of the world
that when they are acting as men of the world they should be careful of
righteousness, but also careful of discretion and of skill, that there is
nothing alien to the truth of religion in the skill of the tongue and in the
use of the keen intelligence of the brain.
Then pass on again from Him as
Statesman to His character as Friend. Would that I had time to dwell on it, and
paint you some of the fair pictures of His relations with the family He loved
so well, from the day when, standing in the midst of the self-choice of
Krishna, the fair future wife of the Pandavas, He saw for the first time in
that human incarnation Arjuna, His beloved of old. Think what it must have
been, when the eyes of the two young men met, with memories in the one pair of
the close friendship of the past, and the drawing of the other by the tie of
those many births to the ancient friend whom he knew not. From that day when
they first meet in this life onwards, how constant His friendship, how
ceaseless His protection, how careful His thought to guard their honour and
their lives; and yet how wise; at every point where His presence would have
frustrated the object of His coming, He goes away. He is not present at the
great game of dice, for that was necessary for the working out of the divine
purpose; He was away. Had He been there, He must needs have interfered; had He
been there, He could not have left His friends unaided. He remained away, until
Draupadi cried in her agony for help when her modesty was threatened; then he
came with Dharma and clothed her with garments as they were dragged from her;
but then the game was over, the dice were cast, and destiny had gone on its
appointed road.
How strange to watch that working!
One object followed without change, without hesitation: but every means used
that might give people an opportunity of escaping if only they would. He came
to bring about that battle on Kurukshetra. He came, as we shall see in a
moment, in order to carry out that one object in preparation for the centuries
that stretched in front; but in the carrying of it out, He would give every
chance to men who were entangled in that evil by their own past, so that if one
of them would answer to His pleading he might come over to the side of light
against the forces of darkness. He never wavered in His object; yet He never
left unused one means that man could use to prevent that object taking place. A
lesson full of significance! The will of the Supreme must be done, but the
doing of that will is no excuse for any individual man who does not carry out
the law to the fullest of his power. Although the will must be carried out,
everything should be done that righteousness permits and that compassion
suggests in order that men may choose light rather than darkness, and that only
the resolutely obstinate may at last be whelmed in the ruin that falls upon the
land.
As Teacher — need I speak of Him as
teacher who gave the Bhagavad-Gita between the contending armies on
Kurukshetra? Teacher not of Arjuna alone, not of India alone, but of every
human heart which can listen to spiritual instruction, and understand a little
of the profound wisdom there clothed in the words of man. Remember a later
saying: "I, O Arjuna, am the Teacher and the mind is my pupil"; the
mind of every man who is willing to be taught; the mind of every one who is
ready to be instructed. Never does the spiritual teacher withhold knowledge
because he grudges the giving. He is hampered in the giving by the want of
receptivity in those to whom his message is addressed. Ill do men judge the
divine heart of the great Teachers, or the faint reflection of that love in the
mouth of Their messengers, when they think that knowledge is withheld because
it is a precious possession to be grudgingly dealt out, that has to be given in
as small a share as possible. It is not the withholding of the teacher but the
closing of the heart of the hearer; not the hesitation of the teacher but the
want of the ear that hears; not the dearth of teachers but the dearth of pupils
who are willing and ready to be taught. I hear men say: "Why not an
Avatara now, or if not an Avatara, why do not the great Rishis come forward to
speak Their golden wisdom in the ears of men? Why do They desert us? Why do
They leave us? Why should this world in this age not have the wisdom as They
gave it of old?" The answer is that They are waiting, waiting, waiting,
with tireless patience, in order to find some one willing to be taught, and
when one human heart opens itself out and says: "O Lord, teach me",
then the teaching comes down in a stream of divine energy and floods the heart
And if you have not the teaching, it is because your hearts are locked with the
key of gold, with the key of fame, with the key of power, and with the key of
desire for the enjoyments of this world. While those keys lock your hearts, the
teachers of wisdom cannot enter in; but unlock the heart and throw away the
key, and you will find yourselves flooded with a wisdom which is ever waiting
to come in.
As Searcher of hearts — Ah! here
again He is so difficult to understand, this Lord of Maya, this Master of
illusion. He tests the hearts of His beloved, not so much the world at large.
To them is the teaching that shall guide them aright. For Arjuna, for Bhima,
for Yudhishthira, for them the keener touch, the sharper trial, in order to see
if within the heart one grain of evil still remains, that will prevent their
union with Himself. For what does he seek? That they shall be His very own,
that they shall enter into His being. But they cannot enter therein while one
seed of evil remains in their hearts. They cannot enter therein while one sin
is left in their nature. And so in tenderness and not in anger, in wisest love
and not with a desire to mislead, the Lord of Love tries the hearts of His
beloved, so that any evil that is in them may be wrung out by the grip that He
places on them. Two or three occasions of it I remember. I may mention perhaps
a couple of them to show you the method of the trial. The battle of Kurukshetra
had been raging many a day; thousands and tens of thousands of the dead lay
scattered on that terrible field, and every day when the sun rose Bhishma came
forth, generalissimo of the army of the Kurus, carrying before him everything,
save where Arjuna barred his way; but Arjuna could not be everywhere; he was
called away, with the horses guided by the Charioteer Shri Krishna sweeping
across the field like a whirlwind, carrying victory in their course; and where
the Charioteer and Arjuna were not there Bhishma had his way. The hearts of the
Pandavas sank low within them, and at last one night under their tents, resting
ere the next day's struggle, the bitter despondency of King Yudhishthira broke
out in words, and he declared that until Bhishma was slain nothing could be
done. Then came the test from the lips of the searcher of hearts. "Behold,
I will go forth and slay him on the morrow." Would Yudhishthira consent? A
promise stood in his way. You may remember that when Duryodhana and Arjuna went
to Shri Krishna who lay sleeping, the question arose as to what each should
take. Alone, unarmed, Shri Krishna would go with one, He would not fight; a
mighty battalion of troops He would give to the other. Arjuna chose the unarmed
Krishna; Duryodhana, the mighty army ready to fight; so the word of the Avatara
was pledged that He would not fight. Unarmed He went into the battle, clad in
his yellow silken robe, and only with the whip of the charioteer in His hand;
twice, in order to stimulate Arjuna into combat, He had sprung down from the
chariot and gone forth with His whip in His hand as though He would attack
Bhishma and slay him where he fought Each time Arjuna stopped Him, reminding
Him of His words. Now came the trial for the blameless King, as he is often
called; should Shri Krishna break His word to give him victory? He stood firm.
"Thy promise is given", was his answer; "that promise may not be
broken." He passed the trial; he stood the test But still one weakness was
left in that noble heart; one underlying weakness that threatened to keep him
away from his Lord. The lack of power to stand absolutely alone in the moment
of trial, the ever clinging to some one stronger than himself, in order that
his own decision might be upheld. That last weakness had to be burnt out as by
fire. In a critical moment of the battle the word came that the success of
Drona was carrying everything before him; that Drona was resistless and that the
only way to slay him was to spread the report that his son was dead, and then
he would no longer fight Bhima slew an elephant of the same name as Drona's
son, and he said in the hearing of Drona: "Ashvatthama is dead." But
Drona would not believe unless King Yudhishthira said so. Then the test came.
Will he tell a practical lie but a nominal truth, in order to win the battle?
He refused; not for his brother's pleadings would he do it Would he stand firm
by truth quite alone when all he revered seemed to be on the other side? The
great One said: "Say that Ashvatthama is slain". Ought he to have
done it because He, Shri Krishna, bade him? Ought he to have told the lie
because the revered One counselled it? Ah no! neither for the voice of God nor
man, may the human soul do a thing which he knows to be against God and His
law; and alone he must stand in the universe, rather than sin against right And
when the lie was told under cover of that excuse, Yudhishthira doing what he
wished in his heart under cover of the command from one he revered, then he
fell, his chariot descended to the ground, and suffering and misery followed
him from that day till the day of his ending, until in the face of the King of
the celestials he stood alone, holding the duty of protection even to a dog
higher than divine command and joy of heaven. And then he showed that the
lesson had worked out in his purification, and that the heart was clean from
the slightest taint of weakness. Oh, but men say, Shri Krishna counselled the
telling of a lie! My brothers, can you not see beneath the illusion? What is
there in this world that the Supreme does not do? There is no life but His, no
Self but His, nothing save His life through all His universe; and every act is
His act, when you go back to the ultimates. He had warned them of that truth.
"I" He said, "am the gambling of the cheat", as well as the
chants of the Veda. Strange lesson, and hard to learn, and yet true. For at
every stage of evolution there is a lesson to be learnt He teaches all the
lessons; at each point of growth the next step is to be taken, and very often
that step is the experiencing of evil, in order that suffering may burn the
desire for evil out of the very heart. And just as the knife of the surgeon is
different from the knife of the murderer, although both may pierce the human
flesh, the one cutting to cure, the other to slay; so is the sharp knife of the
Supreme, when by experience of evil and consequent pain He purifies the man,
different, because the motive is other than the doing of evil to gratify
passion, the stepping aside from righteousness in order to please the lower
nature.
Last of all He shows himself as the
Supreme; there is the Vaishnava form, the universal form, the form that
contains the universe. But still more is the Supreme seen in the profound
wisdom of the teaching, in the steadfastness of His walk through life. Does it
sound strange to say that God is seen more in the latter than the former, that
the outer form that contains the universe is less divine than the perfect
steadfast nature, swerving neither to the right hand nor the left? Read that
life again with this thought in your mind, of one purpose followed to its end
no matter what forces might play on the other side, and its greatness may
appear.
What did He come to do? He came to
give the last lesson to the kshattriya caste of India, and to open India to the
world. Many lessons had been given to that great caste. We know that twenty-one
times they had been cut off, and yet re-established. We know that Shri Rama had
shown the perfect life of kshattriya, as an example that they might follow.
They would not learn the lesson, either by destruction or by love. They would
not follow the example either from fear or from admiration. Then their hour
struck on the bell of Heaven, the knell of the kshattriya caste. He came to
sweep away that caste and to leave only scattered remnants of it, dotted over
the Indian soil. It had been the sword of India, the iron wall that ringed her
round. He came to shiver that wall into pieces, and to break the sword that it
might not strike again. It had been used to oppress instead of to protect It
had been used for tyranny instead of for justice. Therefore he who gave it
brake it, till men should learn by suffering what they would not learn by
precept And on the field of Kuru, the kshattriya caste fought its last great
battle; none were left of all that mighty host save a handful, when the
fighting was over. Never has the caste recovered from Kurukshetra. It has not
utterly disappeared. In some districts we find families belonging to it; but
you know well enough that as a caste in most parts of modern India, you are
hard put to find it Why in the great counsels of the world's welfare was this
done? Not only to teach a lesson for all time to kings and rulers, that if they
would not govern aright they should not govern at all; but also to lay India
open to the world.
How strange that sounds I To lay her
open to invasion? He who loved her to lay her open to conquest? He who had consecrated
her, He who had hallowed her plains and forests by His treading, and whose
voice had rung through her land? Aye, for He judges not as man judges, and He
sees the end from the beginning. India as she was of old, kept isolated from
all the world, was so kept that she might have the treasure of spiritual
knowledge poured into her and make a vessel for the containing. But when you
fill the vessel, you do not then put that vessel high away on a shelf, and
leave men thirsting for the liquid that it contains. The mighty One filled His
Indian vessel with the water of spiritual knowledge, and at last the time came
when that water should be poured out for the quenching of the thirst of the
world, and should not be left only for the quenching of the thirst of a single
nation, for the use of a single people. Therefore the Lover of men came, in
order that the water of life might be poured out; He broke down the wall, so
that the foreigner might overstep her borders. The Greeks swept in, the
Mussulmans swept in, invasion after invasion, invasion after invasion, until
the conquerors who now rule India were the latest in time. Do you see in that
only decay, only misery, only that India is under a curse? Ah no, my brothers!
That which seems a curse for the time is for the world's healing and the
world's blessing; and India may well suffer for a time in order that the world
may be redeemed.
What does it mean? I am not speaking
politically, but from the standpoint of a spiritual student, who is trying to
understand how the evolution of the race goes on. The people who last conquered
India, who now rule her as governors, are the people whose language is the most
widely spread of all the languages of the world, and it is likely to become the
world's language. It belongs not only to that little island of Britain, it
belongs also to the great continent of America, to the great continent of
Australia. It has spread from land to land, until that one tongue is the tongue
most widely understood amongst all the peoples of the world. Other nations are
beginning to learn it, because business and trade and even diplomacy are
beginning to be carried on in that English speech. What wonder then that the
Supreme should send to India this nation whose language is becoming the
world-language, and lay her open to be held as part of that world-wide empire,
in order that her Scriptures, translated into the most widely spoken language,
may help the whole human family and purify and spiritualise the hearts of all
His sons.
There is the deepest object of His
coming, to prepare the spiritualisation of the world. It is not enough that one
nation shall be spiritual; it is not enough that one country shall have wisdom;
it is not enough that one land, however mighty and however beloved — and do not
I love India as few of you love her? — it is not enough that she should have
the gold of spiritual truth, and the rest of the world be paupers begging for a
coin. No; far better that for a time she should sink in the scale of nations,
in order that what she cannot do for herself may be done by divine agencies
that are ever guiding the evolution of the world. Thus what from outside looks
as conquest and subjection, to the eye of the spirit looks as the opening of
the spiritual temple, so that all the nations may come in and learn.
Only that leaves to you a duty, a
responsibility. I hear so much. I have spoken so often, of the descendants of
Rishis and of the blood of the Rishis in your veins. True, but not enough. If
you are again to be what Shri Krishna means you to be in His eternal counsels,
the brahmana of nations, the teacher of divine truth, the mouth through which
the Gods speak in the ears of men, then the Indian nation must purify itself,
then the Indian nation must spiritualise itself. Shall your Scriptures
spiritualise the whole world while you remain unspiritual? Shall the wisdom of
the Rishis go out to Mlechchas in every part of the world, and they learn and
profit by it, while you, the physical descendants of the Rishis, know not your
own literature and love it even less than you know? That is the great lesson
with which I would fain close. So true is this, that, in order to gain teachers
of the Brahmavidya, which belongs to this land by right of birth, the great
Rishis have had to send some of their children to other lands in order that
they may come back to teach your own religion amidst your people. Shall it not
be that this shame shall come to an end? Shall it not be that there are some
among you that shall lead again the old spiritual life, and follow and love the
Lord? Shall it not be, not only here and there, but at last that the whole
nation shall show the power of Shri Krishna in His life incarnated amongst you,
which would really be greater than any special Avatara? May we not hope and pray
that His Avatara shall be the nation that incarnates His knowledge, His love,
His universal brotherliness to every man that treads the soil of earth? Away
with the walls of separation, with the disdain and contempt and hatred that
divide Indian from Indian, and India from the rest of the world. Let our motto
from this time forward be the motto of Shri Krishna, that as He meets men on
any road, so we will walk beside them on any road as well, for all roads are
His. There is no road which He does not tread, and if we follow the Beloved who
leads us, we must walk as He walks.
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS
END OF THIS BOOK
MORE OF THE SAME AUTHOR BELOW
THOUGHT-FORMS
As knowledge increases, the attitude of
science towards the things of the invisible world is undergoing considerable
modification. Its attention is no longer directed solely to the earth with all
its variety of objects, or to the physical worlds around it; but it finds
itself compelled to glance further afield, and to construct hypotheses as to
the nature of the matter and force which lie in the regions beyond the ken of
its instruments.
DEATH AND
AFTER
Who does not remember the story of the
Christian missionary in Britain, sitting one evening in the vast hall of a
Saxon king, surrounded by his thanes, having come thither to preach the gospel
of his Master; and as he spoke of life and death and immortality, a bird flew
in through an unglazed window, circled the hall in its flight, and flew out
once more into the darkness of the night.
INTRODUCTION TO YOGA
In this first discourse we shall concern
ourselves with the gaining of a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking
its place in nature, its own character, its object in human evolution.
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