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v4d were at one time underestimating, nay denouncing, the abilities and good qualities of this great man, more out of envy than anything else, but occasions brought them very often in closer contact with him, which converted their sneers and condemnation into love and admiration for him. I wish I could have written this letter to his son, if he had fortunately left one after him, but in the absence of one, I am sui-e I hit the next proper mark in addressing this to you, inasmuch as the deceased entertained most affectionate regards for you. May God give him eternal repose is my sincere prayer to Him. Hoping you are well, I am, Ever yours, Harida's Viha'rida's.” 42 Mr. H. A. Wadia, Barrister-at-Law, writes as follows : — " I knew EAo Bahadur Gokulajibhai from 1873 till his death. I knew him intimately because in some important cases, notably the Mangrol Juris- diction case, we had occasion to meet very frequent- ly. What struck me most was his absolute fidelity to Jundgadh’s interests. I have never seen a more zealous and capable Dewan. Although of the old school he was as far from corruption personally as the most incorruptible of the new school of Karhharees. If he was mistaken or misled, harsh or exacting, it was owing to excessive zeal for the interests of his state. It is worthy of note how he — a thorough Hindu — was a most devoted and faith- ful servant to Mahommedan rulers. His personal virtues were many and they had their source in the purest tenets of his I'eligion. He did not know English but he w^s a scholar nevertheless. He may not have studied politics but he was still a states- man. He knew Persian well and I am sure it was this knowledge which helped him to search through the Persian records of the State to collect a mass of ancient original evidence which saved JunSgadh from the perilous attempt to wrest Mangrol from its jurisdiction. We all know now how clever and un- scrupulous the fabrications wei*e on which that attempt was based. I must not fail to mention an- other characteristic of the deceased. This was his sterling independence. It was due to his disinterest- edness. He was not afraid to tell the truth, when the occasion required, whether to the Darbar or to the Political Agent or even to the Governor. As he was one of the best, so also was he one of the last, ^ alas 1 — of the Great Karhharees'' 43 Gokulajibhii's life inculcates many useful and eloquent lessons of virtue, and will enduringly exer- cise a wholesome influence on many. He was kind- hearted and prudent, anxious to attend to those matters which might make him better, and to bring them to light for the benefit of others. Besides the noble qualities of his intellect there was in his nature a lofty integrity and truth, together with a high earnestness on behalf of what was right and good. He possessed a genial Stoicism — an estimable faculty of taking the good and leaving the bad alone. He had the sincerity of motive and earnest- ness of conviction which are the characteristics of great men, and the change his personal influence wrought in intelligent and good minds that came in contact with him was grave and noble. He illustrat- ed in his life the true principle conveyed in the Vedanta. He successfully performed the duty of the Religion of Works, and rose to the highest position in the province of Surd- shtra, and used in his best moment to enjoy, though in GrihastMs'rama, even the result of the Religion of Retirement and Reflection ( characterised by Knowledge ), by the attainment of the Supreme Bliss, or the liberation of soul through perfection. His youth SfFPifsnT was devoted to the toil of acquiring educa- tion and qualifications, so that his manhood might be consecrated to the duty of a house-holder and to the realization of the teachings of the Vedanta Philosophy. He was an honour to humanity. May his good character mould many after him 1 It will awaken many to try to distil out their Self or Soul 44 of goodness surrounded by evils. It will ennoble them, and lift them up to a higher region of ob- jects and aims than that in which they, unaided, habitually dwell. It will induce them to call forth the best treasure — everybody's Self — lying hidden in them, but whose existence was not before suspected; nnd it will thus light a bright flame in those who ■cherish high aims, like faculties, and vigorous and ■earnest effort. The present writer cannot more fitly close this sketch than by quoting the Poet Laureate’s following lines of prayer to God : — “ Forgive my grief for one removed, Thy creature, whom I found so fair. I trust he lives in thee, and there I find him worthier to be loved.” P. S. The first edition of this sketch was published in 1881. After a few years, Sujna Gokulaji Z4lS,’s friends and admirers raised a fund to perpetuate his memory. Government Promissory notes of the value of Rs. 1 5,000 ( fifteen thousand ) bearing interest at 4 per-cent were handed over, in 1888, to the Bombay University, with the request to keep the amount intact and award annually a prize out of the yearly interest called '‘The Sujna Gokulaji Vedanta Prize,'’ to the M. A. of that year who may be reported by the examiners as most proficient in the VedS,nta of the S'ankaiAch^rya system of Philosophy; failing this a prize to one who should write the best essay in ^English on the Vedanta as expounded by the S'ankara school ; failing either of the above 45 alternatives, the prize be awarded to the best translator or editor of any work selected on the said subject. A bx'ief sketch of a very few of the most promi- nent doctrines of the all-embracing Vedanta (Pan- theism, Theosophy, the highest knowledge of God within the reach of the human mind) will not be considered as out of place in connection with a sketch of one who identified himself with the Ved- anta. It is given in the following pages. THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. ( The Importance and Excellence of the Philosophy. ) “ How charming is divine Philosophy ! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns.” Milton, Comus, 476 . “The day on which man first reflected was the birth-day of philosophy. Philosophy is nothing else than reflection in a vast form; reflection accompanied by all the retinue of pro- cesses belonging to it, reflection elevated to the rank and authority of a method. Philosophy is little else than a method; there is perhaps no truth whicli belongs exclusively to it; but all truths belong to it for this very reason, that it alone can account for them, subject them to the test of examination and analysis, and convert them into ideas Philosophy is the complete development of thought But phiWsophy, like religion, art, the State, industry, and the sciences, is not less a special and real want of the understand- ing, a necessary result, not of the genius of such or such a man, but of the genius itself of humanity Philosophy is then the light of all lights, the authority of all authorities. In fact, philosophy is the understanding and the ex- planation of all things “When we read with attention the poetical and philosophi- cal monuments.... of India,... we discover there so many truths, and truths so profound, and which make such a con- trast with the meanness of the results at which the European genius has sometimes stopped, that we are constrained to bend the knee before that of the East, and to see in this 50 cradle of the human race the native land of the highest philosophy”! The Vedanta, which is poetry, religion, and philo- sophy all in one, and which is sometimes called Pantheism, Theosophy, Psychology, Metaphysics, and is the knowledge of the infinite Wisdom and the un- changing and eternal Righteousness, proclaims to all ages and countries the vast treasures of most vitally essential and sublime truths and thoughts, which, if rightly understood, lead to the highest goal — the Summum Bonum — the supreme good. The Veddnta is judged to be the highest and best philosophy and metaphysics, not only by the thinkers of India, who are called a ‘Nation of philosophers', but also by those competent philosophers of Europe and America, who have studied it. The great German philosopher, Schopenhauer, proclaims: — “From every sentence (of the Upani- shads or Vedanta) deep, original, and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit.... In the whole world there is no study... so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads (the Vedanta)... (They) are products of the highest wisdom ... It ' is destined sooner or later to become the faith of the people.” 1 The History of Modern Philosophy^ by M. Victor Cousin, — tlio greatest among the historians of philosophy in France, about whose work it is observed that — “Whoever...^ wishes to make himself acquainted with Eclecticism, which is fast becoming the dominant philosophy of the Nineteenth Century, will do well to study this production of its founder and ablest teacher.”— Vol. I. pp. 22, 23, 24, 25, 32. 51 Dr. Max Muller says: — "If these words of Schopenhauer^s required any endorsement, I should willingly give it as the result of my own experience during a long life devoted to the study of many philosophies and many religious.”^ Mr. G. H. Lewis, in his Biographical History of Philosophy says: — "In some way or other. Pantheism seems to result from every Philosophy of Religion, if the consequences be rigorously carried out ; but Germany, above all European countries, has, both in feeling and speculation, the most constantly repro- duced it.