राजमूला महाबाहो योगक्षेमसमृद्धयः ।

प्रजासु व्याधयश्चैव मरणं च भयानि च ॥

That Vedic religion offers a complete scheme of the highest civil and spiritual life to its followers a be proved to any intelligent person who is prepared to undertake a moderate amount of able in studying the records of that religion. smay of course be claimed, to some extent, Fall great religions which lay down rules of rality and insist upon their observance in order 5make corporate life possible; they also enjoin tion to God or other means of spiritual proBut there are many features of the Vedic on in which it can be proved to excel all her religions. No other religion can claim to Low liberty of conscience and freedom of thought and speech to the extent enjoyed by the followthe Vedic religion. Europe has known of free-thought from the time of Socate down to the days of the Inquisition. In La even downright atheists like the Charvakas Fere allowed to disseminate their views unmolestKapila never suffered any persecution for aring that the existence of God could not be pred. On the contrary he has been given the

e distinction of being included among the ren fathers of Sankya philosophy called Sanakadi sta manushyah who are offered libations known tupuna by all who offer them to their ancestors. This honour is not paid to the founder of any of ze most orthodox systems of philosophy or to yone else, except Bhishma, the renowned hero the Mahabharat, who is so honoured for his sing wisdom, virtue and valour. Gautama Baddha who broke away from the Vedic religion, made converts of the followers of that con, was never persecuted. On the other his renunciation of a kingdom, his lofty Sacter and his humane teachings were rewardhis deification as an avatar of Vishnu. His vers were allowed to live in peace along with lowers of the Vedic religion.

Acother point in favour of the Vedic religion that it does not come in conflict with science. U the other hand, science in its onward march is dicating and demonstrating the tenets, beliefs, atations, and practices of that religion. A instances will suffice to support this stateZest. One of the principal tenets of that on is, that all this universe is a manifestation modification of the spirit as is evident from 'at texts as सर्वे तत् ब्रह्म अयमात्मा ब्रह्म, (मांडूक्य

१, २) पुरुष एवेदं विश्वं (मुण्डक २१, १०). India is proud that this tenet has been scientifically proved by the epoch-making discoveries and demonstrations of her distinguished son, Jagadish Chandra Bose. Another tenet of that religion is that the spirit, of which the universe is a visible manifestation, is smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest. अणो रणीयान महतो महीयान् । The first part of this Vedic text is supported by the theory of electrons and other recent conclusions of science regarding the constitution of matter; and the second part was proved some centuries ago by Copernicus who found with the aid of the telescope that the boundless space around us is full of countless worlds immensely larger than the earth on which we live, and who suffered dire persecution for the heresy of communicating this discovery to his contemporaries in Europe. In India this discovery had been made many ages before. It is referred to in the Yoga-Vasishtha, which cannot but be regarded as much older than the time of Copernicus. The idea has been beautifully brought within the comprehension of average intelligence by comparing the innumerable worlds of stupendous magnitude journeying with tremendous velocity over their orbits in the infinite space, with imaginary giants dancing in a vast wilderness pervaded by awful darkness.

भीमान्धकार गहने सुमहत्यरण्ये
नृत्यन्त्य दर्शित परस्परमेव मत्ताः ।
यक्षा तथा प्रवितते परमाम्बरेन्त
रेवं स्फुरन्ति सुवहूनि महा जगन्ति ॥

The said Vedic text will receive a still further confirmation if it is satisfactorily proved, as attempts are being made by astronomers to prove that the solar orb, which is the centre of our planetary system, is itself a planet revolving around the Canopus which is known to Indian astronomers as Agastyamuni, which has now been computed to be thousands of times larger and brighter than the sun which gives us light and life. सूर्य आत्मा जगतस्तस्थुषश्च is another Vedic text which has been verified by modern science. It says that the sun is the source of all life, animal, and vegetable ; and so say the science of chemistry and the physical theory of conservation of energy. So much freedom of thought has been allowed in India in the interests of truth which is regarded as the highest form of religion,

सत्यान्नास्ति परो धर्मः is a dictum which is unreservedly assented to by all followers of the Vedic religion. They are, therefore, bound to accept all well-established conclusions of science, for those conclusions are confined to matters within the ken of our senses, and in such matters the testimony of the senses is the highest authority according to the well-known canon of Mimamsa, which limits the authority of revelation to matters beyond the reach of the senses, a canon which is accepted by so high an authority as Sankaracharya who ratifies it with the remark fe

प्रमाणानुपलब्धेहि विषये श्रुतेः प्रामाण्यं न प्रत्यक्षादि विषये and boldly declares that if a hundred revelations could be produced to prove that fire was cold and devoid of light, they would have no weight. न हि श्रुति शतमपि शीताऽग्निरप्रकाशो वेति ब्रुवन् प्रामाण्यमुपैति Another leading feature of the Vedic religion is that it brings all human activities within its purview. It does not regard secular life as distinct from religious life. Every human act is to be performed as a religious duty. Marriage is a religious duty because society must be made numerically strong. What would not the President of the French Republic pay to have marriage recognized as a religious duty? Education and cultivation of knowledge are a religious duty because without them society would lapse into barbarism. Household life and pursuit of some useful avocation is a religious duty because wealth must be produced to make society prosperous. Fighting is a religious duty because society must be guarded against aggression and allowed to work peacefully for its welfare and enjoy the fruits of its work. It need scarcely be said that fighting without a just cause is an offence against religion. Even the preparation of daily meals is a religious duty. The Gita voices Vedic teaching when it says: those who cook for selfish enjoyment eat sin.' à à ai ¶¶ भुञ्जते त्वघं पापा

ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात्. Life should, according to that teaching, be a series of services and sacrifices for the good of the society. The very name for a householder's life, A, implies sacrifice. Services and sacrifices for the welfare of society are regarded as offerings to God. In this sense society which is the direct beneficiary of services and sacrifices is metaphorically spoken of in the famous go as God

Himself. Morality was never placed upon a surer and a higher basis than it has been in the Purusha Sukta, which teaches us to regard ourselves as members of one body, viz., the body politic.

Health, safety, refinement, and progress in useful knowledge and prosperity are special concerns of the Vedic religion, which devotes an Upaveda to each of these interests. The aim of the Ayur Veda, as we all know, is to maintain society in health. Dhanurveda is unfortunately lost; but its aim is stated by Madhusudhana Sarasvati, who has given a brief epitome of that Upaveda, as taught by Visvamitra, to be the protection of society from its enemies. He has given such epitomes of all Vedas, Vedangas, Upavedas and other authoritative works in commenting upon the word which occurs

in the verse of the Mahimna Stotra, which says that God is the goal of all religions as the ocean is that of all rivers. नृणामेको गम्यस्त्वमसि पयसामर्णव इव.

The aim of the Ghandarvaveda is to refine society and lead it to higher life through the influence of music. Little or nothing has been preserved of the Sthapatya Veda, but it is known that it consisted of sciences and arts relating to the production of wealth. Philosophy, poetry, sciences, and arts are all regarded in Europe as secular subject. But in India they have always been accessories of religion. Their very origin has been traced to religion. The Vedas are well known as the source of philosophy and poetry. Readers of Romesh Chander Dutt's history know how geometry and astronomy arose in Vedic times. Architecture, sculpture, painting, drama, and music have always been cultivated in India chiefly for religious purposes. In fact, the whole civilization of India is based upon religion and is the creation of religion. Law and jurisprudence, which are the first essentials of civilized life, are known in India as Dharma Sastra. Civilization is in reality the product of knowledge and thought, and no other country cultivated knowledge and thought-power as systematically and scientifically as India. The sole aim of Indian religion and philosophy is to attain true knowledge, and the Indian system of cultivating thought-power, as taught in the Yoga philosophy, stands unparalleled and unapproached. Equally unrivalled is the Yoga system of moral and spiritual discipline summed up in the words Yama and Niyama. The knowledge of Nature is regarded as essential to the knowldge of God. The Vedic religion

therefore lays down two paths, one of activity and the other of renunciation, प्रवृत्ति and निवृत्ति. The former is to be pursued by discharging the duties of one's position in society, by obtaining temporal prosperity, and by the enjoyment of legitimate pleasures of life; and thus pursued, it leads to the latter path which is that of unlimited knowledge and eternal bliss. Nature, including matter and mind, is described in Patanjali's Yogasutra as having experience and emancipation for its

purposes.

प्रकाश क्रिया स्थितिशीलं भूतेन्द्रियात्मकं

भोगापवगीर्थे दृश्यम् The Vyasa Bhasya on this aphorism explains experience () as a complete knowledge of all that is good and evil in Nature. तत्रेष्टानिष्टगुण स्वरूपावधारणमविभागापन्नं भोगः And this is a direct incitement to the cultivation of science, which of course is nothing but the study of Nature. It is not possible to notice even the leading characteristics of Indian culture in one discourse; but what has been said now is sufficient to indicate that that culture is the product of a highly civilized state of society and to show that what remains of it is worthy of being preserved. It is acknowledged by Western scholars who have studied some works of Sanskrit literature and have formed some idea of the remains of that literature, which have hitherto been catalogued and examined that those remains are much larger in volume and not inferior in value and merit than the remains of Greek and Latin literatures which are now in existence. Sir William Jones who was the first European to learn the Sanskrit language declared it to be more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either.' Many scholars in Europe and America have since studied that language, made researches in its literature, written accounts of their discoveries and recorded their appreciations of Indian culture, which it would require volumes to reproduce. They have traced the beginnings of several sciences such as geometry, algebra, astronomy, and medicine to India. Even so old an art as that of extracting metals from ores was, many years ago, stated by Sir George Birdwood to have been discovered by the Aryans of India. Much still remains of Sanskrit literature to be studied and understood. Emerson says that there are not more than a dozen scholars in any age who fully understand the writings of Plato, whom he regards as the source of all that is good and

It is

great in the religion and literature of modern Europe and America. When such is the case with Greek literature, which is so largely studied in Europe and America, it is not surprising that abstruse subjects written in so highly complex and so foreign a language as Sanskrit should not be fully understood in the West. The question of the extent, to which European civilization is indebted to India, may remain unsettled for a long time; but there is no doubt about the influence of Indian culture having dominated other conthe religion, art, literature, and stituents of civilization over the greater part of Asia. It is worthy of note that while Roman culture was imposed upon conquered peoples, Indian religion, laws, philosophy, art, and other phases of culture were voluntarily and reverently adopted in China, Japan, Tibet, Burma, Assam, Siam, Ceylon, and other parts of Asia. Roman culture was disorganised by Teutonic conquests and remained in abeyance during the dark ages of Europe. Indian culture similarly came to a standstill after the establishment of Mahomedan supremacy in this country. true that Mahomedans were not an uncivilized people like the old Teutons, but their language and civilization were very different from those of India. When Persian became the State language, it was cultivated not only by those who sought service under their Mahomedan rulers but by all who aspired to any status in their eyes or cared for the advantages to be derived from intercourse with them. Thus Indian culture fell into disuse. It is showing some sigus of revival under the British Government as Sanskrit has been given a place in the curriculum of schools and colleges; but as examinations for Government service and the learned professions have to be passed in English, the option of taking Sanskrit as a second language is not availed of by many, and most of those who pass examinations in that language rarely possess much more than an elementary knowledge of it. European culture and European mode of living are being adopted as eagerly as Mahomedan culture and Mahomedan ways of living were assumed in former days. Indian religion and Indian institutions are being neglected or unintelligently worked, and evils arising from the apathy or ignorance of the workers are being urged as arguments in support of ill-informed attacks on that religion and those institutions. These cannot be satisfactorily worked without an adequate and widely extended knowledge of Sanskrit literature. When that

It is true that

religion was in full force and its institutions were in full working order, India was the most prosperous and most civilized country in the world. This was acknowledged even by the Greeks who are said in Europe to have been the teachers of the world. The testimony of Herodotus that Indians were a greater nation than any people of his time in Greece is well known to scholars. Greece made much progress after the time of Herodotus; but India made still greater progress. No one who has even a second-hand knowledge of Sanskrit literature derived from Western orientalists, will dispute the claim that no country has produced profounder thinkers, braver warriors, wiser law-givers and greater teachers of mankind than India. It is well known that the arts, manufactures, and wealth of India were the envy of the world within comparatively recent times. To-day, however, we all know that India is one of the poorest, most illiterate, and most helpless countries. She is dependent upon the outside world for many of the barest necessities of civilized life. Even needles for sewing clothes are not made in this country. Owing to the disorganisation due to war, we are threatened with a famine of needles as of many other requisites of our daily life. Two months ago at least a dozen needles could be bought for one pice. At present needles are said to be selling, at Benares, at the rate of one for a pice. Let us hope and pray that peace may soon be restored to the world; but if war lasts another year or so, we may have to revert to very primitive conditions, and those who have adopted European dress and European mode of life will be the greatest sufferers. Men of plain living and high thinking-the old ideal of India-can live a highly civilized life, at least to their own thinking, with two pieces of unsewn cloth. Still it is not desirable that those who wish to wear sewn clothes should not have that little instrument which is necessary for sewing. Science and arts are necessary for maintaining a civilized life, and they cannot really become the possessor of India so long as they cannot be learnt through the vernaculars of India. These vernaculars can only be enriched from the treasures of the Sanskrit literature, as European languages are enriched from Latin and Greek. There is a widespread agitation in the Western world for the substitution of what is called modern education for Latin and Greek; but the best minds in Europe and America are convinced that their civilization should not be cut off from its real source. Latin and Greek therefore continue to be taught in schools and colleges not only in Europe but in the

more go-ahead America. No one is regarded in the West as a really educated man who has had no classical education. Sanskrit ought to be in India what Latin and Greek are in Europe and America. Indian vernaculars must be nourished or their mother's milk, if they are to thrive and grow to a full stature. The terminology and the structure of the language of sciences and arts must, in India, be based upon Sanskrit as they are based upon Latin and Greek in the West, Indian vernaculars must be the medium of instruction if education is to reach the mass of the Indian population. But if agriculturists, artisans, mechanics, and petty traders must be taught through the vernacular, the leaders of thought and life, and builders of science and literature, must be well grounded in the Sanskrit language and literature, and if India is to rise to greatness once more, the characters of her leading men must be built upon the great principles of her religion and morality, and must be moulded on the models supplied by the great characters of ancient India. It is great men who make great nations. It is great thoughts which make great men, and really great thought was never conceived and expressed in a foreign language.

India still possesses the makings of a great civilization. Her soil is as fertile as any other land. She is still rich in mineral and sylvan wealth. But her greatest asset is the rich heredity of talents and aptitudes produced by the institution, which was designed to secure the highest social efficiency by assigning the various functions of a civilized life to the classes best fitted to discharge them, and by recognising the great truth that faculties for doing superior and efficient work are best developed by hereditary transmission. If this great wealth of heredity is brought to bear upon the wealth of India's material resources, she can make her way to the vanguard of the world's civilization in the near future as surely as she did in the past.

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་

IR Edwin Arnold was born on 10th June 1832, at Gravesend. He was the second son of Robert Coles Arnold, of Whartons Framfield, and elder brother of Sir Arthur Arnold. He was educated at King's School, Rochester, at King's College, London, and at University College, Oxford. He graduated in 1854 and became a Master of Arts in 1856. Although he got only a third class in the final classical school, he read classical poetry with a great deal of love and enthusiasm. In

I would wish to see cultivated those fields of Eastern philosophical thought which I have so feebly and hastily traversed, as affording & sweet Sovereign medicine against the fever of a too busy national life.

He became a Fellow of the Bombay University and studied Eastern languages includi n g Turkish and Persian. He translated Hitopadesa and his translation was published with fine illustrations by Harrison Weir. He wrote a pamphlet on Education in India in 1860, pleading for a more scientific grafting of Western knowledge on the learning of the East. He wrote also a History of Lord Dalhousie's administration. His kind and sympathetic attitude during the troubled times of the

1852, he obtained the Newdigate prize with a poem on Belshazzar's Feast. He published it in 1852 and afterwards included it in his volume entitled "Poems Narrative and Lyrical" published in 1853. He was second master at Birmingham in the King Edward's School for a short period. In 1856, he was nominated Principal of the Deccan College, Poona. It was his stay in India that enabled him to steep his soul in the outer and inner glories and enchantments of India. In his book on Seas and Lands, he says:

great Indian Mutiny won for him the love of the people and the appreciation of the Government of India. He returned to England in 1861, and got the post of leader

writer on

the Daily

Other books by him are: Pearls of the Faith, With Sa'di in the Garden, The Secret of Death and other Poems, The Song Celestial or Bhagawad Gita, Poets of Greece, Indian Idylls, Lotus and Jewel, Tenth Muse and other Poems, Adzuma or the Japanese Wife, Potephar's Wife and other Poems, In my Lady's Praise, Indian Poetry, The Voyage of Ithobal, Wandering Words, Japanica, Seas and Lands,