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First, it suggests that a man's moral and spiritual state is scarcely under his own control, since it is the result of his past life : so that it is quite possible that he is not yet in a fit state for accepting a spiritual religion. Secondly, it suggests that, since a man will have many more lives, there will be plenty of opportunity for repentance in the future. (c] The ascetic cut himself adrift from human society, on the ground that ordinary human life is altogether secular and unspiritual. The religion of the race thus fell into two halves, the religion of the people and the religion of the monk ; and as the religion of the people was considered utterly useless to the spiritual man, those who had risen to FORMATIVE ELEMENTS 197 the higher life did not dream of exerting themselves to better that which seemed to them hopeless. (d) Since there was no moral element in the Vedic conception of God, the worship of God produced no com pelling conviction in the mind of the worshipper that he was in duty bound to serve his fellow men. The ascetic is not a servant of humanity. 129. Hindu morality grew with the culture of the race, and many a tributary rill of thought passed from philosophy, asceticism, and the higher theology, into the common mind of the people. Above all, Buddhism left a large moral legacy to Hinduism. There is much that is beautiful in family life, despite its many blots. The Hindu is charitable, peaceful, law-abiding. He honours religion and believes no nation can be built without it. Thus Hindu morality, as found in the best books and in the life of orthodox families, has many high qualities. The modern Hindu who has drunk of Western thought in Indian or European universities also maintains that Hindu morality has a solid spiritual basis in Hindu philosophy ; that from that starting-point man's moral relation to God and his complete responsibility to God may be clearly worked out. This is strange, if it be true ; for it is certain no one attempted to find such things in Hindu philosophy until Christian thought appeared in India. NOTE. — The text at the bottom of the page gives the sum of the Vedanta : — The hard-to-see, the mystery-hidden, Heart-dwelling, cave-abiding, old — He who by brooding o'er his inner self Sees Him as God escapes both joy and grief. Katjiaka Upanishad, ii. 12. CHAPTER XVII THE FUTURE OF HINDUISM 130. Note the extraordinary strength of Hinduism :— (a) Like Chinese ancestor-worship, it has held the people firmly together for millenniums, while other civilized races of the ancient world have gone to pieces. (/;) It has had to meet hostile attacks of overwhelming strength, and yet it has in each case won the victory : note especially Buddhism, Jainism, Muhammadanism. Its strength lies mainly in three elements : — (a) Its family system, founded on ancestor-worship. This links each generation with the past and the future, and binds living members closely together. To give this up seems disloyalty to one's ancestors and gross impiety towards other members of the family. ($) //f caste system. This is strong in several ways. It is founded on original race and culture divergencies as dis tinct as those that now sever European and Hindu : a man NOTE. — The head-piece above is a scroll from Ganclharan sculpture, l-'oucher, I' Art Grcco-Bouddhiqite du GanJhara, fig. 103. (See above, section 53.) FUTURE OF HINDUISM 199 thus feels that he has an aristocratic stronghold in his caste, and also a certainty of the purity of his birth and of his customs. Caste has preserved the forms of ancient society almost unchanged into our day : it has thus the strength of immemorial custom. A Hindu feels that to go out of caste is practically to go out of civilization. The outcaste often finds life almost impossible. (c) Its religious system, which must be acknowledged to be the highest form which polytheism has ever taken. It teaches a lofty conception of the world ; it brings every detail of life under the rule of religion ; and it has certain very beautiful ideas in connexion with home life, notwith standing its degradation of women. Its strength lies largely in the fact that it justifies every form of traditional worship, and yet offers forms of spiritual faith to those who want such. It thus gathers to itself all the strength of custom and habit, and disturbs no one with serious demands. It can attract almost every type of mind ; for it offers a response to almost every form of religious need. 131. If modern thought and Western influence could be kept out of India, Hinduism might go on indefinitely, only changing slowly as it has changed in the past. But modern thought, as introduced by missions, education, and Western influence generally, has begun to weaken Hinduism as no force active in India in earlier centuries ever did : — (a) The office clerk performs the sraddha for his father, but he no longer believes in its efficacy. Thus faith in the religious basis of the Hindu family has faded out of the minds of educated Hindus. (If) Our modern knowledge of the different races of the world and of the way in which they rise and fall in the scale of civilization has made it impossible for any thinking man to believe the ancient Hindu doctrine, that the four castes are divinely appointed and permanent institutions, and that 200 HINDUISM AS A SYSTEM it is a religious duty to observe the rules of caste. Educated Hindus frequently seek to defend caste as healthy in certain ways, but they do not pretend to believe the old doctrine. They never declare that it is wrong for a man who is not a Brahman to teach religion. The national movement with its demand for equality and its summons to union is everywhere weakening caste. (<:) Educated men defend idolatry as being a help to the ignorant, but they never say that they actually believe in the existence of the devas represented by the idols. Polytheism has become incredible. Compare the conditions which obtained in the Roman Empire, while Christianity was in its death-struggle with the old religions. 132. Thus if the modern spirit is to remain in India, and education is to be extended, it is only a question of how long time the process of collapse will take. The religious foundations of Hinduism (namely, the rules of caste, the authority of the Veda, the authority of Brahmans, polytheism, and idolatry) crumble to pieces in the atmosphere of modern thought. They are, one and all, old-world superstitions, which fade away in the light of modern truth. We may therefore be perfectly certain that, unless some unforeseen revolution occurs to seclude India more securely than before from modern influences, belief in the essentials of Hinduism is bound to decay as surely as belief in witches and other fears have disappeared at home. But, though honest belief in these basal doctrines is certain to gradually disappear, most men will for a long time continue to remain within Hinduism : and all sorts of new defences will be hastily flung up around the old camp to save it from being stormed. The first great attempt in this direction is being made now by Mrs. Besant and the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal. FUTURE OF HINDUISM 201 As decay increases, however, the number of honest men who feel they cannot remain in a hypocritical position will steadily increase ; and the interest of the problem lies in them : where will they turn ? Which religion will they adopt ? 133. The position of affairs is most interesting. We have seen in chapters iii and iv how the early Indo-Aryans, as their ancient tribal experience became widened by the con quest of India and their intercourse with many races and many religions, were compelled to transform their funda mental conceptions, and to produce a new theology, which we dealt with in chapter iv under the name of Essential Hinduism. Similarly in these modern days, the widened experience, the new knowledge, and the fresh moral ideas begotten from contact with European religion, education, and government, and from the impact of the world's com merce on the economic life of India, are making another and more radical reconstruction of Indian ideas altogether inevitable.