FOREWORD
Professor Pandurang Vaman Kane, by his monu mental volumes on Dharmaśāstra, has placed us all under a deep debt of gratitude to him. His work is of lasting value. At a time when we are building an integrated Indian society, a dispassionate study of our Dharmasāstras is essential. By his work we are helped to understand what is living and what is dead in the heritage which has come down to us.
Our heritage has always been changing with refe rence to new conditions and new pressures. The pro cess of readaptation is now at work. In spite of many changes the obstacles to Indian unity require to be removed. The principles which should guide us in the reorientation of our society are well brought out in Professor Kane’s volumes. They may be said to be religious and social.
True religion has three sides to it: (1) a state of mind; (2) a relationship to Reality; and (3) a way of life.
State of mind. Religious scriptures speak of the passionate quest for spiritual illumination. Religion is inner illumination, a renewal of spirit, an awakening, a changed condition of mind. This is the knowledge of God and not merely belief in Him. This is achieved by study, discipline, meditation and purity of heart.
Relationship to Reality. Nearness to God is the goal of religious aspirants. When they attain an in sight into Reality, their words are full of rapturous delight. They make out that the Reality they en counter is ineftable, incapable of adequate expression.
History of Dharma sūstra
It transcends the distinction of subject and object, the duality which is essential for knowledye.
The absolute of experience is not the absolute of language or of logio. The Real to which we belong is beyond description in its majesty, power and glory. Spiritual humility requires us to look upon the varied expressions and interpretations as suggestions of the Supreme. By encouraging dogmatism and the use of force to spread belief, religions have become discredited.
Tbe seers affirm that they are one with the Sup reme : ahar brahmāsni. Hallāj exclaims : “ I am the truth" and was executed for his heterodoxy.
A well-known Sufi tradition attributes to the pro phet a saying : “He who knows the self knows the Lord”. Of Abu Yazid it is recorded that he said: “I sloughed off my self as a snake sloughs off its skin ; then I looked into my self, and lo, I was He”. Reli gion, it is said, springs from the great ‘I am in each ‘me’. The fountains are within.
On the pathway to the goal we feel that the attainment of the goal is conditioned by the effort of the seeker and the grace of God - tupah-prabhāva and deva-prasada.
The seekers look upon the Supreme As & Person separate from us, whose commands we obey, whose will we accept with reverence. The One beyond sonse-per ception, speech and logic is also the Controller, the Lord of all, the Creator and Ordainer of all, « There is nothing marvellous in my love for you, O God, you are a mighty being but your love for me a poor slave is really marvellous. It is impossible to know thee and not to love thee." The personal is not a falsification of
- Of. Bṣhadūranyaka Upanijad IV. 4. 7.
Foreword
the real. It is a manifestation of the Supreme. In some of the Upaniṣads — Svetāśvatara for example - as in the Bhagavadgitā, the Supreme is a God of love and grace. Those who adopt the view of religion as experi ence, communion with God, are free from the tyranny of dogmas, from the fanaticism which is a disease of the mind to which men and communities are subject.
We are vulnerable to mass hysteria. This need not be so for human nature is infinitely malleable. If we feel that anything is true or beautiful, we are per suaded that it must find acceptance from others. We cannot but communicate to others what we know to be the truth. But when claims to absolute truth are varied and conflicting, humility requires us to respect the deepest convictions of others.
Way of Life. In some systems of thought a dis tinction is made between two orders of being, meta physical and empirical. It does not mean that the latter is illusory. The distinction between the two is not absolute. The metaphysical reality is immanent in the world of becoming and makes for the gradual unfolding of values. This world is consecrated ground. Our sages set forth in clear and shining words the ideal of participation in the work of the world in order to raise its quality. Karmabhūnim incin prāpya karta vyam karna yat snubham says Rāma, according to Vālmīki. Having come into this world of action one should perform good deeds. Vālmīki continues that the great sages have attained heaven through the perfor mance of good deeds. It does not matter whether you are a grhastha or householder, scorinyāsin or mendicant. Janaka was a householder, and sage Yājñavalkya was a wandering mendicant, parivrājaka. If we behave well, we will make the world a paradise ; if we misbehare we will turn it into hell.
Vyavasāyātmikā budilhir eke’ha kurunandana. The traiped understanding is single-minded. Integrity refers to the quality of oneness. It does not mean alienation from the world. Religion does not mean other-worldiness, separating oneself from all created things. It is denial of egoism. Turning one’s back on the world is a part of ascetic discipline which is not an end in itself. Liberation from the tyranny of time is not liberation from time. When we become spiritual in outlook we do not cease to be hum an.
The secret of true greatness is love of fellowmen. Love of neighbour is not only a moral duty but a wise policy. The right course today is co-operation and not conflict. “What merit is there in the goodness of a man who returns good for good ? A good man verily is one who returns good for evil," Rūmarājya or the Kingdom of God is the ideal for the human community. The one hope for the peoples of the world to get to gether is a change in the human heart.
Ethical standards are the only criteria for the distinction between high and low among men. Purity of conduct elevates a man even as impurity degrades him. All other distinctions are irrelevant. The Chan dogya Upaniṣad refers to patitas. The Cāṇdālas are those given to stealing, drinking, adultery and murder. These four are fallen : ete patanti catvārah.’ A patita, a fallen man, is a wicked man, a small-minded selfish man, not an untouchable.
The caste distinctions may have had their value in another context of society but we have out-grown it.
- upakūriṣu yaḥ sidhuḥ sadhulve lasya ko gunaḥ |
apakūrigu yaḥ sūdhuli sa sudhuk saduhir ugyafe 11 2. V. 10.9.Horsword
The Bhagavadgitā speaks of the four-fold classification as based on guna ( character) and karma ( work ).
We are all unregenerate at birth and become re generate by our effort.
janmanā jāyate sūdraḥ
saṁskārād dvija ucyate i Some are advanced; others not. We should give equal facilities to all. The Mahābhūrata says that there was only one varṇa at the beginning and the four castes arose out of later developments.
ekavarṇam idaṁ pūrvaṁ viśvam āsid yudhisthira »
karma-kriyā-vibhedena cīturvarnyar pratișthitam 11 But we have come to base caste on birth though some of our leading writers have held that it is not birth or learning but conduct alone that constitutes its basis ; for dvijatva,
vrttani cua tu kāranani i vcdapāṭhcna vipras to brahmajñānīt tu brāhmanaḥ 11 It is not the colour of the skin but the conduct of the person that counts. The only way to progress is by means of good conduct. The Sarıcarta-Smrti says :
sadācārcna devatran rṣitvari vai tathaixa ca i
prāpnuvanti kuyonitvani manııṣyās tadviparyaye il Great achievement is possible for each one of us.
Professor Kane brings out with great learning and lucidity the frequent changes our society has passed through. When Manu (I. 85 ) tells us that different customs prevailed in different ages he suggests that the social code is not a fixed but a Hexible one.’ Social
III
1, anye krlayuye dharmās tretāyun drare ‘pore !
anye kaliyuge nrnam
vi
customs and institutions are subject to change. Yājña valkya tells us that “one should not practise that which, though ordained by the Smrti, is condemned by the people.”? What appeals to one’s conscience, ātmanas tuṣṭih, the conscience of the disciplined, not of the superficial, the forms which the elect praise, should be our standard.
Vital changes may be introduced in the habits of the people by pariṣarls or assemblies of the learned. When such assemblies cannot be constituted even the decision of one learned in <blocarma will be authoritative. The Apastamba Dharmasūtra says : dharmajña-samayaḥ pramānan. People who are learned and compassionate, who are practical-minded can decide the issues of right and wrong. They are the conscience of the commu nity. What we are doing by legislative enactments ‘is consistent with our tradition,
S. RADHAKRISHNAN
- I. 156. 2. yam dryāḥ kriyamanan lu samaanti. 3. I, 1, 1, 2,