THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION OR IN THE LIGHT OF THEO8OPHY BY BHAGAVAN DAS, M. A. Being the expanded form of a series of lectures delivered at the Thirty-fourth Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society, held at Benares, on December 27th to 30th, 1909. THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY Benares and London THE THEOSOPHIST OFFICE ADYAR, MADRAS, S. 1910 ... , / II PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT, AT THE VAS.ANTA PRESS, ADVAR. BP f ft DIGS i INTRODUCTION IT is with very great pleasure that I introduce this book, for I believe that it deserves the thought- ful attention of the Indian and English public, and contains ideas and suggestions of the greatest value for all who are interested in the vexed questions of the day. Society, at the present time, is at a< deadlock, unable to go forward into the future without finding solutions for the problems of our time, and yet impelled forward by the imperious law of evolution, which demands progress or sentences to death. It stands at the edge of a precipice, and sees no way to safety. Over the edge it must go as previous civilisations have gone, carrying their treasures of refinement and culture with them unless it can find some Ark of safety to carry it from the old to the new. Such an Ark may be found in the Wisdom of our great Progenitor Maim, the Father of the whole ^ Aryan Race. His precepts cannot be followed /^blindly in an age so far removed from that in but His ideas which He spoke ; contain alii the meeded solutions, and to apply the essential ideas 3 Vlll to modern conditions is the work which needs to be done and which will receive His blessing in the doing. The present volume is an attempt to suggest a few adaptations by one who is full of reverence for the ancient Ideals of his people, and who believes that these are living powers, not dead shells, full of reforming and I'eshaping strength. The book has far outgrown the original lectures, or irrele- but has in it, I think, nothing superfluous vant. For the sake of the learned, both Asiatic and European, the authorities have been quoted in their for the sake of the un- original Samskrt ; learned, these quotations have all been thrown into foot-notes, so that the English may run smoothly and unbrokenly. Technical terms have been translated, but the originals have been added within brackets. One explanatory statement should be made as to the method of conveying to the modern reader the thought of the ancient writer. The European Orientalist, with admirable scrupulosity and tire- less patience, works away laboriously with dic- " tionary and grammar to give an accurate and " scholarly translation of the foreign language which he is striving "to interpret. What else can he do ? But the result, as compared with the * ' original, is like the dead pressed specimen of the botanist beside the breathing living flower of the garden. Even I, with my poor knowledge of IX Samskrt, know the joy of contacting the pulsing virile Scriptures in their own tongue, and the inexpressible dulness and dreariness of their scholarly renderings into English. But our lec- turer is a Hindu, who from childhood upwards has lived in of the atmosphere the elder days ; he heard the old stories before he could read, and he sung by grandmother, aunt, pandit ; when is tired now, he finds his recreation in chanting over the well-loved stanzas of an Ancient (Purana), crooning them softly as a lullaby to a to ' wearied mind j him the well-constructed langu- age' (Samskrt) is the mother-tongue, not a fo- its of reign language ; he knows shades meaning, its wide connotations, its traditional glosses cluster- ing round words and sentences, its content as drawn out by great commentators. Hence when he wishes 'to share its treasures with those whose birthright they are not, he pours out these mean- ings in their richness of content, gives them as they speak to the heart of the Hindu, not to the brain of the European. His close and ac- curate knowledge of Samskrt would make i* " child's play for him to give an accurate and " translation of has scholarly every quotation ; he preferred to give the living flowers rather the dried specimens. Orientalists, in the pride of ' ' their Mastery of a dead language, will very likely scoff at the rendei'ing of one to whom it is a living and familiar tongue, who has not mastered Samskrt as a man but has lived in it from an infant. For these, the originals are given. But for those who want to touch the throbbing body rather than learn the names of the bones of the skeleton of India's Ancient Wisdom, for those these free and full renderings are given. And I believe that they will be welcomed and enjoyed. ANNIE BESANT O Pure of Soul! The angels raise their song, And Truth's light blazeth over East and West ! Alas ! the heedless world lies fast asleep, And the Dawn's glory wasteth in the skies ! O Pure of Soul ! do Y* awake, arise, the of hearts And open wide windows your , And fill them with the shining of Day's Star, And with the heavenly music of that song, So, when the laggards wake, they may not lack Some message from Ye for the next morn's hope, Some sign and token that their kith have seen And stood before the Glory face to face, And that they also may if they but will. Be this your Sun-dawn work, Ye Pure of Soul ! CONTENTS Pages . FOREWORD ... ... ... ... xxiii LECTURE I THE FOUNDATION OF MANC'S CODE OF LIFE Adhyatma-Vidya, the Science of the Self. The individualised self becomes able to grasp it only at the human stage iii evolution. All other sciences and arts dependent upon it. The need of all Kings to know that Kingly Science, if they would rule well. Manu, the Great Progenitor of the Human Race, the Prototype of all such Kings. His Omniscience, by experience of previous world-cycles. His Assistants, The evil effects of the blind rule of those who knew not the Science of the Self, and its explanation of the source and the purpose of life. 1-12 The Ancient Theory of Life. The way to understand ' ' it. The reasou why the modern finds it hard to under- ' stand the ancient '. The difference of standpoint and temperament between East and West, old and young. Hopes of mutual approximations and better understand- iijg. The Scriptures' out of which the Theory of Life should be gathered. .. 13-16 The main outlines of the Theory of Life. The rhyth- mic swing of the Spirit's Entrance into matter and Retirement out of it. Recognised in all systems of thought and religion. The modern scientific ideas of evolution and involution. The ancient names, P r a v r 1 1 i and N i v r 1 1 i, Pursuit and Renunciation, of these two halves of life. The cause of the rhythmic swing. The Interplay of the Self and the Not-Self. The three ends XIV ethi- of the tirst half of life. -(i.) Dharma which means, attribute or or charac- cally, Duty ; intellectually, property in of active function ter; and practically, i.e., terms action, ; is (ii.) Artha, 'that which desired,' wealth, possessions; Kama and (iii.) Kama, sense-enjoyments, pleasures. Why alone not declared the sole end of the first half of life. The interdependence of the three ends. The modern notion of the Debt of the individual to Society. The ancient fulness of thought on the subject. The three Debts of the individual. How he contracts them by birth and the pursuit of the three ends of the worldly life. How he begins to repay them. The passing on to the second half of life. The three ends thereof : b h a k t i, yoga-aishvarya, and m o k s h a. Why only m o k s h a men- tioned mostly as the sole end of this half. Explanation of paradoxes of the spiritual and superphysical life and teachings. The predominance of the impersonal over the personal on the Path of Renunciation. Repayment of Debts, of the physical as well as the snperphysical planes, by the bearing of the burdens of office, adhikara, on smaller and larger scales. Bhakti, Devotion to the Universal Self, as well as to the next higher Personal Ideal which embodies that Self for the aspirant, as the sole means of Yoga-S i d d h i s and all powers. Illustration from the physical plane. Spiritual Hierarchies. Correspondences between various triplets. Summary. 16-54 LECTURE II THE WORT,D.PROCESS AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE The Resume. interdependence of laws and eye-Hen) conditions. Neglect of this principle in later India and consequent degeneration.- -Brief survey of the principal changes of conditions undergone by the Human Race since its advent on this globe, as the necessary basis of XV interpretation of existing laws of Mann. Rounds, globes, races, continents, sub-races and countries. The first or sexless stage and Root-Race of the Human Race, and the homogeneous, unorganised shape of the human indi- vidual. The second or bi-sexual stage and Root-Race. The third, fourth and fifth Root-Races, and the stage of sex-difference and differentiation of organs in the body of the individual, of inequalities between individuals, and therefore of laws and conventions. (The nature of the Puranax from which the bird's-eye view of Human is of future History taken.) Forecast stages and Races ; the sixth as double-sexed again, and the seventh as a- sexnal.