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

Nietzsche's insistence upon war as an aspect of life and the ideaLman as a warrior, — the camel-man he may ^ to begin with and the child-man hereafter, but the lion-man he must become in the middle, if he is to attain his perfection, — these now much-decried theories of Nietzsche have, however much we may differ from many of the moral and practical conclusions he drew from them, their undeniable justification and recall us to a truth we like to hide out of sight. It is good that we should be reminded of it ; first, because to see it has for 6o KURUKSHETOA 2every strong soul a tonic eflFect which saves us from the ^bbiness„_and relaxation encouraged by a toe mellifluous philosophic, religious or ethical senti- mentalism, that which loves to look upon Nature as love and life and bea^9^ and good, but turns away from her grim mask of death, adoring God ^ Shiva but refusing to adore him as Rudra ; secondly, because unless we have the hone sty and courage^ m look existence straight in the face, we shall never amve~~aT“any effective solution of its discords and oppositions. We must see first what life and the world are ; afterwards, we can all the better set about finding the right way to transform them into what they should be. If this repellent aspect of existence holds in itself some secret of the final harmoity, we shall by ignoring or belittling it miss tEiff secret and all our efforts at a solution will fail by fault of our self-indulgent ignoring of the true elements of the problem. If, on the other hand, it is an enemy to be beaten down, trampled on, excised, eliminated, still we gain nothing by underrating its power and hold upon life or refusing to see how firmly it is rooted in the effective past and the actually operative principles of existence.