Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)

T 305 be said, in the pregnant phrase of the Greek thinkei-, **The kingdom is_ oL-the childL''

The knowledge of the p hilosophy is that of the true naHire^“niTriTdarne e^Tsfehcerthe trans ience of o utward thing s, the vanity of thS world's dilFSences and distinctions, the superiority of the inner calm, peace, light, self-depeTIdence. ins~an ei^ality oTphilosophic indifference ; it brings a high c alm, bu t not ^e greater spiritiy.1^ joy ; ir is an isSla tecT freedom, a wisdoih like that of the Lucretian sage high in his superiority upon the cliff-top whence he looks down on men tossed still upon the tempestuous waters from which he has escaped, — in the end something after all aloof and ineffective. The Gita admits the philosophic motive of in- difference as a preliminary movement ; but me liiaiffSence to which it finally arrives, if indeeff that inadequate word can be at all applied, has nothing in it of the philosophic aloofness. It ii^ indeed ^ position as of one seated above, ud^i navat, but as fReTffvme is seat^ above, having no need at all in the wofiar yet he does ^fks always and is present everywhere supporting, helping, guiding the labour of creatures. This equality is founded upon one- nes^with_all bemgsizjt brings iiTwhat is wanting philosophic equality ; for its soul is the soul of peace, but also it is the soul of love. It sees all beings without exception in the Divine, it is one self with the Self of all existences and therefore it is in supreme sympathy with all of them. With- out exception, ageshena, not only with all that is

30^ EQUALITY AND KNOWLEDGE good and fair and pleases ; nothing and no one, however vile, fallen, criminal, repellent in appear- ance, can be excluded from this universal, this whole-souled sympathy and spiritual oneness. Here there is no room, not merely for hat r^ oF anj^r or uncharifableness, but for ^oofness, disdain or any petty pride of superiority. A divine compassion for the ignorance of the struggling mind, a divine will to pour forth on it all light and power and happiness there will be, indeed, for the apparent man ; but for the divine Soul within him there will be more, there will be adoration and love. For from all, from the thief and the harlot and the outcaste as from the saint and the sage, the Beloved looks forth and cries to us, “This is I.“ “He who loves Me in all beings,” — what greater Word of power for fhe"uTmosrintensiti^^ and profundities rf divine and universal love, has been uttered by anx philosophy or any religion?