English
The Hindus, therefore, like the modern educators saw that complete self-realisation was pos¬ sible only through finding one’s own rela¬ tions to the world around one and thus ■ G <w realising that all things have their beginning , life and end in God. So according to them the final emancipation was possible only through an active and harmonious life, i.e. “from communion with one’s fellow men and with the beauty and truth of the universe.” From what has been said above it follows that the stage of final emancipation presup¬ poses a stage of self-active and self-controll¬ ed life of action. Now since the individual is born with good as well as bad impulses, the second stage should be preceded by a stage in which the individual should go through a training enabling him to discharge successfully the duties of a householder in manhood. Hence, though the first and second phases of Hindu religious thought were antagonistic to the teachings of the Upanishad, the early Hindus did not reject them. On the other hand, they made it a general rule that to attain the last stage the individual must pass through the other two, each stage preparing for the next higher. Accordingly, it has been laid down that “let a man become a householder after he mi$r# y EVOLUTION OF VEDIC RELIGION. completed the studentship, let him be a dweller in the forest after he has been a householder and let him wander away after he has been a dweller in the forest” (Jabala Upanishad, 4). 1 Similar ideas also occur in Manu ; “He who after passing from order to order, after offering sacrifices and subduing his senses, becomes an ascetic being tired with (giving) alms and offerings of food, gains bliss after death.” VI. . 34 ." Also, ‘‘when he has paid the three debts, let him apply his mind to (the attainment of) final liberation j he who seeks it without having paid (his debts) sinks downwards.” VI. 35. The Hindus from a very early time have held that each man is born a debtor : that he has obligations first to the sages who were the founders and fathers of his religion : second¬ ly, to the gods : thirdly, to his parents. The first debt he repays as a student by a careful study of the vedas. The second he repays 1 “asi'srtft *r<?n nft ^ trasif 9 1 Ml NlST/fy, EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA. <SL as a householder through the performance of a number of sacrifices. The third debt he repays by offerings to the Manes and by becoming himself the father of children. When a man has thus paid all the three debts he is considered free and becomes fit for applying himself to the attainment of final liberation. 1 What the early Hindus meant was that one should not anticipate the freedom of the third stage i. e. of the forest life without having fulfilled the duties of the student and the householder. They were afraid that if the desires remained un¬ satisfied and uncontrolled, the mind might become contaminated. In fact, they say, ‘‘the hermitage is not the cause of virtue ; the virtue arises only when practised”. 2 1 This principle corresponds to the modern theory which makes the child responsible to the society in which he lives. The reasons it puts forward are :—(1) The modern child is what he is potentially because of the culture of his ancestors, and (2) he realizes his own nature in and through the society in which he is brought up. Hence the individual, as he receives freely from the society must add to it something for its conservation and progress. 2 Laws of Yajnavalka III, 65. Herein the Hindus anticipat¬ ed Aristotle who holds, ‘Virtue does not consist iu the know¬ ledge of the good, but in the functioning of the knowledge*. MiNfsr^ EVOLUTION OF VEDIC RELIGION. •Similar sentiments occur in the Mahdbhdrata also : “ O Bharata, what need has a self-con¬ trolled man of the forest, and what use is the forest to an uncontrolled man ? Wherever a self-controlled man dwells, that is a forest, that is an hermitage” ( Santiparva). In fact, what, according to the early Hindus, was required was to realise one’s identity with the Self in the universe not only intellectually, but practically. So the Hindus have laid down that the in¬ dividual should first go through a training and then through a life of trials and action. Here by overcoming passions and desires and becoming pure in mind and body, the individual should prepare himself for the forest life where perfect freedom and eternal bliss reign. The early Hindus, therefore, considered education as a life process and different duties were assigned to each stage in such a way that their due performance in any stage might prepare the individual for the next higher. In order to prepare himself for dis- MIN ISTfy EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA. charging self-actively the duties of manhood,, the individual must in the first stage of life chant the hymns and study the vedas to become acquainted with the moral precepts and life’s duties and must learn self-control by subjecting his mind and body to a course of discipline . 1 Again, to make himself fit for the third stage, as has been shewn before, he had to perform sacri¬ fices and to participate fully in the active life of manhood being self-controlled and self-active. During this period his whole life was controlled by the rules laid down in the Dharma-Sastras. These rules regulated every sphere of his activity ; hence not only his domestic and social life was regulated by them but his studies, enjoyments, trades and the political life as well. The Hindus tho¬ roughly recognised the categorical nature of their social laws and regulations and volun¬ tarily submitted to their fetters in the first and second stages of their life in order they 1 The early Hindus emphasised not asceticism but a life of self-control and an avoidance of extremes. See Oita VI. 16-17 and XVJI 16-19, Vishnu Purana Third Part XII, 17. Also Manu II. 100 and 224. EVOLUTION OF VEDIC RELIGION. might in the third stage rise above the trammels of society and live a life of perfect spiritual freedom. 1 To sum up then, it appears that the early Hindus held that the individual should take the steps which their ancestors had taken to reach the highest pinnacle of religious thought. Accordingly the life of the indivi¬ dual was divided into three broad stages O corresponding to the three stages in the evo¬ lution of the vedic religion ; in the first stage, the mind was opened and disciplined and the body made fit to carry out the orders of the mind : in the second, the individual put the principles he had learnt into practice and realized their true natui’e and that of the things of the world and its round of duties and thus becoming pure in mind and body, in the third, he turned his attention inward to recognize the true and intimate relation between the individual and the eternal self 1 Slokas 26 and 29 (Gita III) as well as the different Upanishads show that instruction in the early Hindu system was far from being dogmatic. It has been shewn in the last chapter that the system afforded sufficient scope for the development of individuality. MiN/sr^ EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA. in which was found the explanation of the origin and the meaning of existence. Hence with the early Hindu philosophers as with Froebel “the purpose of education was to expand the life of the individual until it should comprehend this existence through participation in the all-pervading spiritual activity.” Hence we have in the Gita (III. 26), “ Let no wise man unsettle the mind of ignorant people attached to action ” i.e. the Gita forbids the wise to thrust on the individual the divine wisdom before he becomes fit for receiving it. It urges that the individual should perform action so that he may learn by doing the true nature of his own self. This goes to show that the Hindu system was not in favour of dogmatic instruction and aimed at the development of the personality of the individual. 1 The ideal of the Hindus, as has been stated before, is to find out the relation of the individual self to God, as this is “the 1 Also cp. The <Jita III 29. Prasna UpanishacI— 1st Pra 9 na. *2 Taittiriya Upaniahad— Vrigu Valli. Also Chhandogya Upanishad—Satyakama Jabala. EVOLUTION OF VEDIC RELIGION. way in which we can conceive the satisfaction of human aspirations, the com¬ pletion of human knowledge, the sancti¬ fication of human life.” In fact, to know one¬ self in relation to society and the universe was the problem of the Hindu educational theorists. This implies and necessitates the fullest development of personality. The complete realisation of this ideal was, as we have seen, possible to the individual in the third stage of life only when lie reached it ■after having conscientiously fulfilled the duties of the student and householder. In this stage, according to the Hindus, the individual becomes free from all fetters of law, of custom and of tradition and enjoys a life of perfect spiritual freedom and eternal bliss. 1 We thus see that the Hindu System mms at the perfect freedom of the individual rather than at his suppression. Now, it is clear that the Hindu philosophers instead giving an ‘expression to the hostility to individuality’ as has been suggested by some ' Max Muller—Lectures ou the origin of Religion p, 365. EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA. writers 1 aim at a greater development of individuality. In fact, instead of suppress¬ ing tneir individuality, “they attain their real individuality, infinitely beyond these little selves which we now think of so much importance. No individuality will be lost; an infinite and eternal individuality will be realized. Pleasure in little things will cease.