INTRODUCTION

The world as it appears to poets, prophets, seers and sages-The world, as it is to the general mass of mankind- difference of views, despite world's uniformity.
This world- the world of human beings with all its surroundings and contents- has been an abode of happiness to some and a home of inexpressible and perpetual misery to many. The very same objects, be they of nature or of man's production, have given different experiences to different classes of men. To the poet and the prophet, to the seer and the sage, in fact to such of those whom we are apt to think as of a higher order, this world has nothing but beauty and happiness to yield. The roaring peals of breaking thunder, the scorching rays of blinding lightning, the hanging clouds of a rainy sky, the piercing torrent, the heaving sea, the shaking mountains and the swallowing earthquakes are sources of joy to them. In the squalor and dirt of the world, in the midst of starving masses, in the centre of fearful plagues, they have had occasion to notice the same finger of joy and happiness. Mountains and caves, forests and animals, in their fiercest chaos and maddened chase, seem not to disturb their minds. As in the gentle dew that opens the petals of a rosy bud, as in the silvery streaks of the early morn, as in the chirrups and twitters of the feathery beings, as in the simple life of the rustic villagers, they see an invisible harmony that jars not with the quiet music of their hearts; so equally do they see the same rhythm in the terrible and the ferocious. To them, the terror-striking objects do not yield terror; the ugly ones do not produce their ugliness. Everything assumes a beauty and a form that are at once attractive and pleasing. In all the world, through all its diversities and complexities, they seem to notice one and only thing- Beauty, the divinity which yields the highest music and the greatest harmony possible. To them, changes of season or climate; natural surroundings, healthy or unhealthy; the troubles and turmoil's of the family life; the spite and the sectarianism of the society; the oppressiveness or the beneficiency of the state; -all are one-poverty or luxury, comfort or suffering, seem to be equal. Even death seems to lose its horror before their eyes.
To the generality of mankind, however, - composed not of the prophet or the poet, the seer or the sage- the world has a different picture altogether. It is not one of pleasing harmony. It has no music. Its sounds are jarring. It is the source of all troubles and miseries. The gentlest equally with the hardest, the quiet and the noisy, the smooth and the rough- everyone is the same. Everywhere, there is nothing but a tale of woe. Squalor, dirt, poverty, plague, wants inconveniences suffering and death- that is the picture they see all around. They are tired, fretted and pained, ever and anon. Having eyes, they do not see beauty and harmony; having ears, they do not listen to the song celestial. Their hearts are hardened or worn out; their intellect is perverted or dulled; their whole mentality and morality is clouded, and they are unable to get out or rid of this world. To them, misery is perpetual; according to them, man is born to die; and, while he lives, lives only to be tossed hither and thither in the never-ending waves of the sea of suffering. They grow pathetic and even antipathetic.
Pessimism takes hold of them, and they lose all their hopes and cheerfulness in life.
The world is one. Its phenomena are the same for all. It proceeds in the same orderly path, doing its set duty in an automatic manner. Yet, it appears to be of different colors and varied features. Is it correct to think that the world is nothing but a home of troubles, and that man is a helpless being, living and lying at the mercy of others- Material and immaterial? Is there no hope? Has he no chance of escape from this perpetual sloughs of suffering? Cannot he, like the sage or the seer, be made to see, in the very same things around him, pictures of beauty, consolation and happiness?
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CHAPTER II

THE TROUBLES OF MAN-THEIR MAIN CLASSIFICATION

Human trouble, its perpetuity-Troubles from heredity-Troubles, self-acquired-Physical troubles-Mental troubles; Illustrations.

Man appears to be born only to suffer. From infancy to boyhood, from boyhood to youth, from youth to middle age, from middle age to old age and from thence to death, he seems to be subject to one continuous round of trouble and turmoil which appears to vary in its nature and intensity from time to time.
What, however, is more wonderful than this continuity or persistency of the human trouble is its beginning-point. In the case of certain men, it seems to start even before the stage of their infancy. No sooner does the protoplasmic cell enter the mother's womb, than does the human suffering appear to begin its course. As the cell develops and gradually takes its human shape, so do the miseries of that man-in-the-making seem to assume their gradual form and fashion. Anything wrong with the genital organs of the parents; any weakness or fatigue in their bodily constitution; any variation in the temperature of the external air; any over-exertion or want of proper exercise on the part of the mother; any error of hers in her food or drink- in fact, all those that are apt to have an adverse effect on the physique or the mind of the mother do seem to produce similar results on the babe in the womb. Heredity seems to be a potent factor in the determination of human ills; and, taking the case of diseases, no better illustration can be cited to prove this fact than that of Leprosy.
That fell disease, to eradicate, which all human ingenuity is now turned, seems to affect the progeny, even for several generations to come.
Hereditary tendencies, however, are not the only factors that decide the nature and the course of our troubles. Our own acquirements are equally contributory causes. We suffer, because we neglect. The neglect on our part may be deliberate, or unintentional. But, Intentional or otherwise, it is neglect all the same. Any little carelessness of ours may lead to serious troubles. Over-eating, under-eating, or even the eating of anything that is indigestible is a source of pain. Admission of any foreign matter into the system, for which we cannot find a suitable place and function in our constitution, produces results that are poisonous in the end. Some persons, no doubt, may be less affected than others, or not at all. A small quantity of castor oil is enough to produce the desired cleansing of the digestive organs; but, with some individuals, double or even treble that quantity has no effect; it is assimilated by them into their systems. Some again fall an easy prey to diseases conveyed by certain classes of germs; while there are others who are adamant against them. These variations in effect of the same contributory causes are the consequences of the variation in the capacity to resist that each individual possesses against forces of attack. But, all the same, it is true that even the strongest do suffer, by some cause or other, sometimes in their lives.
Our troubles are, therefore, due to the faults of our fathers or mothers; or to our own follies and errors. And the few cases cited above by way of illustrations are such as do affect our bodies directly. They may, in general, be described as 'physical pains'.
Physical pains, however, do not exhaust the list. There are others yet; and these may exist either in company with, or apart from, the physical ones. A much-fondled child falls ill; and, despite the efforts of her parents, grows worse. That causes anxiety to the latter. A student, intensely applying himself to his studies, sits for a test and hopes to come off in colors. He, however, fails to find his name in the list of successful candidates and grieves over it. The breadwinner of a family loses his employment and fails to secure another. That places him in a perpetual mood of hope and fear till he secures another work. The business of a merchant is in a prosperous condition. One day, however, he wakes up to find that it is gradually slipping from his hands. He stands stupefied, and does not know how best he can avert the probable crash. In certain countries, it is a custom to pay heavy prices in the shape of dowries to the future husbands of grown up daughters. Parents of girls who may happen to be poor fret themselves over the question; neither can they afford to pay, nor can they afford to allow their daughters to grow up unmarried. Robbers and men of their like seem to prosper in their nefarious professions; but, despite their unchecked progress, they are in perpetual dread, lest they should at any time be detected in the perpetration of their crimes by the guardians of law and order. In these illustrations, the parties concerned do undergo trouble and pain, but their troubles and pains do not arise from the Body or necessarily go to it. They are rather mental. They may be real or otherwise. They refer to events here and now; or to those that have gone, or are yet to come. Nevertheless, they are pains still, though they are mental and not physical.
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CHAPTER III

THE TROUBLES OF MAN-PHYSICAL
MAN AND 'NATURE'

(i) What is 'Nature'?

'Nature', the cause of man's troubles -'Nature', matter and force, - Matter and force, not independent entities-Function inter-dependently- and arise ultimately from the same source, 'Aether'- 'Aether' described-Aether and energy identical-Matter and force are presentations of energy in operation-'Nature', the result of inter-actions between matter and force-Illustrations-Man, a product of the same- The inevitability of man's contact with 'nature'.

(ii) The Activities of 'Nature'; Macrocosm and Microcosm

The activities of 'nature'- The solar system- Changes in planets owing to variation in temperature- Separation of parts of planets; moons-Gradual condensation of planets and the sun- Sunspots- Changes in 'earth'- Foreign bodies; comets- Systems other than the solar- The stellar regions- Newly forming systems- Macrocosmland microcosm-Microcosm described- The function of 'nature'?
(iii) How 'Nature' is responsible for Man's Troubles.
(a) Her contact with him

How 'nature' is the cause of man's troubles- Affected by forces around him-Changes in heavenly bodies- Sun-spots-Planetary alterations and comets-The earth and its phenomena-Changes in the microcosmic world- How germs produce diseases.

(iv) How 'Nature' is responsible for Man's Troubles
(b) His neglect of her

Man's own behaviour in connection with 'nature' also the cause of his troubles- The consequences of man's negligence; illustrated;

(v) Conclusion

Man's inevitable contact with 'nature', and his own treatment of her, the causes of his sufferings.

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'What is Nature'?

'One of the causes for such of those human troubles as are termed physical' is man's contact with 'nature'. 'Nature', as human beings ordinarily understand her, appears to be the result of the inter-actions between two entities -Matter and force. Matter, they construe to be that which is capable of division and analysis into minute particles which they style the 'atoms', sometimes so minute as to defy their perception even through powerful, artificial means. Further, according to them, it is such that, when its 'atoms', are added together, they occupy more 'space' and increase 'weight'. Force, on the other hand, they think, is that which, without assuming 'form' or adding to 'weight', acts in and through those atoms, causing them to stand, move, or change their, 'form' or 'constitution'. In fact, 'force' is considered by them to be the 'driving factor' that causes 'the atoms of the universe' to assume from time to time different forms and functions.
In fact, matter and force are not really independent, either in their functioning's or in their origin. They act rather inter-dependently, - and matter without force, and force without matter can never be. Every physical body in the universe and every phenomenon that occurs therein are brought about by a series of varied and varying inter-actions between them in which matter serves as the vehicle for the activity of force. They are ultimately of a common origin too, arising from 'Aether' which is the basis of the entire material world.
'Aether' is that which fills the space between me and you; between me and another person at a distance; between this earth and the sun, the moon and the stars. It is like an all-pervading, yet invisible, ocean through which the sun shines and the moon glimmers, the stars twinkle and the planets move. It is an ever-active entity full of potentialities for the production of mighty and perceptible consequences. It is termed 'energy' when it gets divided and diversified under differing conditions for different experienceable purposes. When its activities, which are generally imperceptible, are actually perceived by man as the consequences of time and space, or as tangible entities in them, they are termed 'force' or 'matter', according to the experiences they produce which may be subtle or gross.
What is called 'nature' is the perceptible out-come or result of the inter-dependent functioning's of these two factors. Fire burns and the sun shines; the wind blows and clouds rain; rivers flow and oceans heave- all because of the actions and re-actions between matter and force. The thunder and lightning which one experiences in a rainy day; the beautiful rosy morn that one observes in the eastern horizon; the water that one notices passing into steam; and the steam which one watches condensing into clouds; are all the effects of the play and the inter-play of that matter and that force. The seed sprouting into a tender plant; the plant developing into a mighty tree; and the tree dwindling into pieces and decaying into the earth again, are once more due to matter and force.
Man lives, moves and has his being in this drama of matter-Force-interplay. In fact, he is surrounded by 'nature' on all sides; nay, he is 'nature' herself in a particular form. The entry of the human cell into the mother's womb is the result of the action of force on matter; the growth of that cell into a human child, and its birth into the world are again due to the same cause. His life on earth after his birth, through the successive stages of infancy, boyhood, youth, adult age and old age, is again the results of it. Even his death emanates only from it.
Being the product of 'nature', man cannot separate himself from her. Whether he wills it or not, whatever he may plan, he must come into contact with 'nature', and cannot avoid her. His prosperity or adversity in life, nay, the very possibility of that life itself here, is due to that dependence of his on her. If for nothing else, at least for the food he has to eat or the water he has to drink, for the air he has to breathe and the heat he needs to warm his body with, he has to look to 'nature' around.
(ii) The Activities of 'Nature'-Macrocosm and Microcosm

'Nature' is ever busy; throughout the vast universe; there is no part of time when she is inept. Every part and particle of hers are every second passing through certain changes -in position, form or function. Considering the heavenly bodies, we understand that this earth is surrounded by several planets, each like the earth going through its set rotations and revolutions. The sun is the centre of these constantly circulating bodies; and, as each body goes through its rounds in its usual orbit to which it is perfectly kept by the force of gravitation, it is subjected to certain alternating experiences. During certain times, some parts of those bodies are exposed to the heat and the light of the sun; and, during certain other times, some other portions pass through similar experiences. As each portion of a planet successively faces the sun in its rapid heavenly march and passes beyond it, that particular portion is subjected to variations in temperature, and in consequence to some changes in its character and life. The earth, for instance, has heat and cold alternately, resulting in rainfall, good weather and bad, thereby affecting life on it.
Sometimes, as the planets whirl round in their aerial race, portions of them get detached and fly into space. Some such pieces are kept near the parent-stem and made to revolve round the latter. Our moon is an instance of that fact, and it is believed that there are similar such moons for some of the other planets.
The planets again, as a result of their rotatory and revolutionary movements, pass through a process of gradual condensation and consequent shrinkage in size. The earth is said to have been a big 'ball of fire' at one time in the distant past. As a result of her rapid march and constant motion through space during millions of years, some portion of the gas thereof got cooled down into liquid, and a part of the latter into a solid form. This is the origin of the earth as it now is. Its outer crust is the result of gradual condensation; and, below it, there is liquid still; and, in certain places, a constantly burning fire. Even the sun which we now see as a huge 'ball of fire' burning in the heavens is believed to be passing through a process of imperceptibly gradual solidification; and it is predicted that some time hence, probably some millions of years from now, it will be a dull cold body, much smaller in size.
There is another variety of changes to which the sun and other bodies are subjected. The sun, for instance, in consequence of the variation in the degree and the volume of its combustion, occasionally experiences 'sun-spots'. The earth similarly, due to alterations in its subterranean fires, sometimes produces 'earthquakes' or 'volcanic eruptions.'
At times, these heavenly bodies are disturbed by the appearance of strangers in their midst. Foreign bodies like 'comets' for instance, moving in space apparently at random, happen to pass across the orbits of some of these planets and are believed to produce some disturbance in their otherwise peaceful career.
The sun, the earth and the other planets with their respective moons do not constitute the entire universe. They are but one of several systems- the solar system; and, beyond this system and away from it, there are others yet. Some of the stars which we observe during a clear night are said to form, each the centre of a particular system. Such systems are located some millions of miles from us, and the distance of the farthest star is such that it takes thousands of years for its light to reach the earth. Those systems too, like the solar, are believed to be undergoing slow but perpetual changes, leading to their gradual and certain disintegration. Side by side with the systems already existing, others are said just to be coming to birth. According to scientists, certain stars or bodies in a nebulous state have already been discovered.
These are some of the facts connected with 'nature' on her grander or bigger side-the macrocosm. There is another side to her, the smaller or the microcosm, which is made up of bodies that, get ever smaller and smaller in size, sometimes so small that even thousands of them collected together appear only as a dot even under the most powerful microscope. Small as they are in size, they too pass through the same processes of formation, growth, decay and re-formation into a new manner. They too are under the operations of the forces of adhesion and expansion, propulsion, withdrawal and the like. In fact, they too are as intensively active as the bodies of the microcosmic world; only, while the latter pass through their changes slowly and in the course of millions of years, the latter complete their careers in a few moments. Certain germs, for instance, multiply themselves a million fold and then die out.
'Nature' in her entirety is thus ever busy-forming systems of lives, passing them through persistent courses of varied alterations, leading them to their ultimate disintegration, and re-forming, out of the materials of the older ones, newer bodies and systems still. This is her work, whether it refers to her grander side or the macrocosm, or to her smaller side, the microcosm; and this, her evolution-involution-process, applies as much to the different parts of her several systems as to her whole systems themselves.

(iii) How 'Nature' is responsible for Man's troubles;
(a) Her contact with him
Man occupies but a tiny place in this gigantic factory of 'nature'. He is a pigmy in the presence of the mighty forces, which alter whole systems themselves. Himself a product of 'nature', he has to depend on her for his very life. Himself passing through the constant processes of birth, growth and death, he is subject to the actions of forces in the lives of bodies around him. He has to face the results of the mighty changes in the solar, the lunar, the terrestrial and the planetary bodies. He must submit himself to the huge alterations that periodically take place in the operations of the several systems that compose the vast physical universe. The appearance of 'spots' in the sun, for instance, produces adverse results on the earth and huge tidal waves are sometimes attributed to that cause. Alterations in the planets outside him do affect him seriously, while the appearance of comets in the sky is believed to portend grave consequences. The activities of the earth itself are no simple facts, and at times woeful tales are heard of the havoc caused by rains and floods, heat waves and fires, lightning and thunder. Periodically, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions add to the troubles of man. Even the 'smaller world' seems to cause him many evil consequences. Some of the varieties of minute germs that live grow and die in a few moments are bad. Their capacity to multiply themselves enables them to fill the surrounding space very rapidly; and they force themselves in the food he eats the water he drinks or the air he breathes. The entry of some kinds of germs into the human system is productive of serious and sometimes fatal illness. Cholera, consumption and similar other diseases are attributed to them.
(iv) How 'Nature' is responsible for Man's Troubles;
(b) His neglect of her
On certain occasions, man's own ignorance or negligence of even the ordinary precautions leads him to trouble. He cannot avoid the activities of 'nature'; but he can prevent the consequences of some of her deeds from affecting him. One exposed to the sun for a prolonged period will have probably to suffer from bronchitis and several other maladies, if he suddenly goes in for a cold drink, as 'chill' is the source of several diseases. A man living on a low ground or near a swamp stands exposed to a possible attack of fever. Some ignorant people, closing every avenue for the inlet of fresh air during their sleeping hours, and rendering the situation worse by keeping fire or a burning lamp, cause themselves liable to asphyxia. Others, trespassing the limits of moderation in food or drink, or in their conjugal or social relations, form burden unto themselves and to others.
(v) Conclusion
Man's contact with 'nature' is thus responsible for a good deal of his sufferings. 'Nature' is ever busy; she is ever busy evolving and involving systems. Man cannot avoid her operations; but, in certain cases, he can prevent the consequences thereof on him. Either because he is ignorant or negligent, or because he stands in the way of nature's activities, he must, whether he wills it or not, submit himself to sufferings and calamities.
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CHAPTER IV

THE TROUBLES OF MAN- PHYSICAL
MAN AND SOCIETY- SOCIAL EVOLUTION
(i) Evolution of Human Society: -
(a) Biological and psychological Causes

Man, being a social animal, cannot avoid society-society, its origin- Dominant motives of life among animals-Man, actuated by similar motives- Distinction between man and animals- Man's superiority- The growth of human society.

(ii) Evolution of Human Society-
(b) Man's Necessity
Society, another origin-Man's desire to safe-guard himself against nature's freaks-House-Dress-Food-Etc. -Necessity, the origin of human society.

(iii) Human Society: - It's Fundamental Feature
Society, no mere number-Binding Interest-Inter-dependence-The nature of the bond-Status or contract-Illustrations- Bonds, their violation- Examples- Sanctions to enforce the bond- Different kinds of sanctions- Their comparative strength and weakness- The common aim of sanctions.
(iv) Society; Its growth: -

Gradations of human society-Family, the unit-Description of a family-Husband and wife-Ideal family-Parents and children-Union of men and women that are not families-Examples-(a) Unions for ultra-mundane purposes-(b) Unions for the satisfaction of lust-The requirements of a real family- (c) polyandry, polygamy and prostitution-(d) Matriarchal groups-Patriarchal groups are real families; their demands.
(v) Family and upwards
Widening of families through marriages-Endogamy and exogamy-Interracial marriages-their possible weakness-Marriages becoming institutions of contract-Marriage, taken to be a necessity.
(vi) Growth of Society Through other means
Factors, other than marriage, for social growth-What is a real society? -Modern society, is it ideal?

(I) Evolution of Human Society: -
(a) Biological and Psychological Causes

The troubles of man, such as those, which are called 'physical', may also be accounted for by his contact with his fellow-beings. As it is impossible for him to avoid 'nature' and her 'laws' that surround him, so it is impossible for him absolutely to isolate himself from his fellows. He has been well described as a 'social animal'.
All animals, be they of the higher order or of the lower, are moved by two dominant motives in their lives-the motives of self-preservation and self-propagation. To preserve one's living body inviolate from any injury through attack from any external object or through the operation of any internal cause like illness is the first dominant motive. To every animal, its life is a precious possession, and no animal will willingly court death. Next to this comes the motive to propagate itself. To produce young ones like itself in form and fashion, and to be surrounded by those young ones which it considers its own, constitute another impelling desire in the life of every animal. No animal is free from either of these motives. Only, the motive for self-preservation is the primary one, and takes hold of the animal even from its birth. The other, the motive for self-propagation, arises later in life, at a stage when the animal has attained maturity of limbs and bodily strength. Though this motive is the second in the order of origin, it is equally strong with the other and earlier one. Impelled by these two motives, the animal kingdom lives, moves and has its being; and, but for them the whole race of animals would early become extinct.
Man is no exception to this plan of evolution. He lives and grows, because he is also subject to the desires of self-preservation and self-propagation. He too, like animals, values his life most, and tries to guard it carefully from all forces that might deprive him of it. He, like the same animals, is moved by the desire to multiply himself, and for that purpose is induced to seek a mate.
One point of difference, however, between animals and man is this; while the former act under Instinct, the latter works under the guidance of a far superior rationalistic intelligence. Instinct in animals is nothing but well-seated physical habit. It is therefore a part of their very nature. As such, they act in their lives with great accuracy; but they act blindly also. Most of their actions take place under a force that is unerring, but unreasoning. There is no occasion or even necessity for them to think; they do not ponder over the probable courses and consequences of their deeds. They do not discriminate; they have no scope for selection; they are not capable of distinguishing one from another, and argue out conclusions from given conditions or premises. There are, however, certain animals, like the dog, the monkey or the elephant, whose actions do seem to be guided, not by mere unthinking Instinct, but by a wonderful sagacity and even an amount of foresight that are really surprising. They seem to select with precision and intelligently adjust their conduct, so as to suit themselves to their environments. This involves reasoning; but this capacity of theirs is limited, as it is not capable of easy growth through voluntary exercise. Otherwise, dogs, monkeys and elephants would have long ago out-grown man. They would have made great inroads into the unknown mysteries of life and nature, and contributed much to the advancement of knowledge. This defect of theirs is evidenced enough by their inability to go against the authority of man; and, however well-built they may be, whatever the amount of their physical strength, and however keen their intelligence, they still allow themselves to be easily mastered over by men.
It is given to man alone to think, to discriminate between objects, to distinguish those that are beneficial from those that are not. He is capable of selection, not only with reference 'to his present and immediate needs, but also those of the past and the future. He can argue out the possible consequences of his conduct by means of collection and distinction of facts. He is endowed with the capacity of rationalism that is either absent or poorly present in animals; and in him it is such as to be capable of indefinite growth through repeated and constant exercise. There seems to be no limit to his volitional capacity; there is no part of life or nature into whose mysteries he cannot probe and whose secrets he cannot unravel.
While therefore man, like animals, desires to save his life and propagate that life through progeny, he may, unlike them, avoid a state of warfare with his neighbours. Instead of looking on them with jealousy and anger, he can manage to live with them in amity and peace. By correcting himself and correcting others, he may avoid the miseries and uncertainties that would otherwise be the case. Through self-restraint and restraint of others, he can do away with the predatory condition of life with all its horrors, fears and hopes. He can be certain of a settled and peaceful living in which, through acquaintance and friendship, through willing co-operation and division of labour and its fruits, he can create opportunities for further progress. This is the 'origin of human society'; and, in so far as man, like animals, loves to live and spread himself, and, unlike them, is capable of doing those things through peaceful co-operation with his fellows, he has been described a social animal.

(ii) Evolution of Human Society
(b) Man's Necessity

The justification for this title to man lies in another field also. The first thing that attracts man's attention, at all events that of the primitive man, is his being a plaything in the hands of the elements of nature. Heat and cold, rain and flood, he must secure himself against. Even his hunger and thirst he must periodically satisfy. He is therefore led to a series of experiments and failures in the midst of untold miseries and dangers; and he succeeds at last in erecting a small hut to himself, which can better shelter him against Sun and rain than the chance mountain-cave or the top of a tree. Next to the roof over his head, comes the necessity for dress. At first, man might have moved about naked. He is, however, no more an animal. The growth of his intelligence leads to a fall in his bodily strength; and in consequence there is an appreciable deterioration in his resisting capacity. The sense of shame also dawns on him in due course, and, for the double purpose of saving himself from cold and covering himself against shame, he has recourse to dress. Then there is the question of food. He can no longer like mere animals live on the uncooked, tasteless, raw fruit, flesh or fish that chance might bring in his way. He must be sure of the constancy of the means of his livelihood; and he therefore organises his methods to assure himself of that constancy. Hence, he regularises his fishing, hunting, rearing animals, or agriculture. He also develops taste; and, to satisfy it, he has recourse to artificial means like 'cooking' his food. By this time, during which probably long ages have passed in the life of the primitive man, he has become well-settled, having learnt to build a 'roof' over his head, to cover himself with 'clothing' against cold and shame, and to work on some sure source of 'food-supply'. He is no longer an animal, living and dying at the mercy of 'nature'. He has learnt to conquer 'nature', as it were, which ability on his part sees practically no end to itself. Man's brainpower is such that it is capable of indefinite expansion through repetition and application. Hence, he proceeds on the upward path of progress till he reaches the complex and complicated system of modern life.
Necessity thus drives man to mould his life and its goods, while his mental capacity aids him to achieve his ends. In all his progress from age to age, he discovers in an increasing degree the necessity for his dependence on his fellow-beings. The building of the hut, the weaving of the cloth, the hunting of animals, or the tilling of the soil, he cannot do single-handed. He needs the assistance of others, and those others need his help. This alliance or co-operation also gives rise to society.

(iii) Human Society: -
It's fundamental feature

Society is no mere aggregation of human individuals. Sheer number alone does not constitute a social group. A crowd of people, collecting itself in a market place, in a cinema hall or in the streets of a populous town, is no society. It is no more a society than a pack of wolves or dogs. There must be something more than mere number; there must be some permanent or temporary, but all the same binding, interest between one individual and another; and, where this interest is lacking, there is no society. The binding interest must be such as to cause one individual depend on another. The binding interest may vary in its extent or intensity, and as a result, may cause variations in the degree of the inter-dependence among the several individuals. All the same, that interest there must be, accompanied by its concomitant individual inter-dependence. It is this interest that one human being takes in another, and it is this dependence of one individual on another that is the real secret of society. It is the bedrock on which the whole social structure is built; and, but for it, society is so only in name existing like a house of cards.
The interest that one individual is expected to have in another may arise out of status or contract. Interests or relations of status between individuals are due to sentimental considerations; whereas those of contract, to the economic principle of 'give and take'. A mother's attachment to her child is one based on status, and that of a nurse hired for tending a child is one of contract. The former discharges her duties without expectations of reward, and continues to exhibit her affections in her darling even when the child grows to manhood. The nurse does her work for pay; and all the endearing terms and caresses that she bestows upon the baby are limited by considerations of remuneration, and terminate with the period of her service.
It is, however, not unlikely, that the bond among individuals may, on certain occasions, be violated. All persons are not of similar temperaments of mind, and there may be some who may feel the bond to be irksome. A father is expected to support his children; but there are fathers who mercilessly expose their offspring's to inexpressible sufferings. There are again persons who, in spite of their promises, oral and written diabolically attempt to deceive their creditors. Again, every one's liberty and property are required to be respected by every other; but rogues and rascals make it a regular profession of theirs to violate that restriction.
To prevent such a possible disobedience on the part of human beings, to keep each individual under check and to allow every person enough of liberty, certain sanctions have been invented. Those sanctions are more or less binding on all; but, while some of them are liable to be broken, others are not. They are of various characters. They are either moral or religious; they may emanate out of useful customs coming down from ages, or out of conventions invented by men from time to time. They may also be due to public opinion, or, at the last, to the will of the political authority in the land. Moral principles and religious sanctions, customs, conventions and public opinion are good guiding factors, but they lack coercive authority behind them. Time was in ancient days when those factors were as strong as the fiat of the political power of the land. They were capable of imposing punishments on the delinquent members of the community. Orders of excommunication from the religious head, or the judgement of the elders of the village from their assembly-hall were in days of yore as powerful as the statutory enactment's passed in regular manner by modern parliaments. But, as men emerge from village life to town life and widen their fields of knowledge and activity, coming into contact with different communities and countries varying in manners and customs, no other sanction than that of political authority appears to be powerful enough to keep them within bounds.
Whatever the strength of the sanctions concerned, their aim is the same. They aim at compelling each individual to keep himself in touch with other, without violating the sanctity of the person or the property of those others. In fact, the common aim of all the social sanctions is to create an inter-dependent relation among several individuals, so that each by his labours may contribute to the welfare of all, and, as each lives and prospers, others may also live and prosper without fear of intervention from intruders.

(iv) Society; Its Growth

Related and restrained in this manner, the whole of mankind falls into distinct groups, according to the closeness of the relation among the several individuals and according to the nature and the scope of the functions that are expected to be discharged by them. The smallest group, which is also believed at present to be the unit of the society, is the 'family'. Above that comes the clan or the community; still above that is the nation; and, at the top, the whole of humanity. This classification is by no means exhaustive; yet, it may be taken as marking the stages in the evolution of man's relations with his fellows, starting from 'isolated individualism' and ending in 'universal brotherhood.'
A 'family' is that part of human society in which the relation between the several individuals thereof is based mainly on status, and where the degree of the inter-dependence among them is the closest. It is the only group where the relations of 'husband and wife,' 'father and mother,' 'brother and sister' exist and persist. Between the husband and the wife, there is no superiority or inferiority of rank; and each looks on the other as his or her help-mate. In a properly constituted family, each to the other is a loyal servant, a trusted friend, an impartial counsellor and a bold critic. The affection, on the other hand, between parents and children is of a different category. The parental affection is one that is based on love combined with authority; and that of the children, on love combined with obedience. Where there is slackness in the authority of the parents, there is room for the perversion of their children; and, where they do not learn obedience, they lose the opportunity to grow up into proper men and women.
Such is a real family; and any other union of human beings is no family. Associations of persons of particular religious order are not families, though in them also each member addresses the other in terms of family relations-like father and mother, brother and sister. Such groups are ultra-mundane in their views and activities, created and maintained by persons of a particular bend of mind, for the perpetuation of their views of life. Such organisations are certainly of a higher order than mere families; but they are not families.
Mere unions of opposite sexes also are not families. They are only occasions for the satisfaction of the passion of lust. In them the desire is not for the propagation of humanity, much less its training to face the world. They are not made with an intent for their permanency. A real family requires the union of opposite sexes, under the witness of the public eye, in accordance with certain well-recognised formalities which the Society at large considers as sacred and necessary and which it connotes in the single word 'wedlock'. Only this form of union enjoins some amount of fixity and permanency in the relation of opposite sexes. Several clandestine methods of union between them have been existing, and society refuses to recognise such unions, as not being conducive to the stability of the relations between men and women. It does not also recognise, as good to the peace of the society, any system of relations that permit the presence of co-ordinate husbands or wives. Polyandry, polygamy or prostitution, it condemns in scathing terms; and it treats that class of people as boorish or uncivilised where the male and the female live apart without any touch of affection, coming together only in seasons of procreation. It also condemns that form of union where the male is devoid of the responsibility for the up bringing of the offspring's of his parentage; and, in fact, it allocates this form of matriarchal responsibility to semi-civilised and uncivilised tribes.
According to civilised society, that alone is a family which, -under the authority of the father and the care of the mother who have been brought together by means of wedlock, and between whom there are an abiding affection, a willing co-operation and a mutually understood co-ordination and division of powers and labour- is intended, not for the mere satisfaction of lust, not merely for the multiplication of human beings, but for the production of a carefully tended humanity which, as it increases in number, must perpetuate the same feelings of love and reverence, similar sentiments of tolerance and dependence, and like practices of co-operations and divisions of labour. For this purpose, only the patriarchal system as opposed to the matriarchal, and only the family as opposed to any other form of union have been recognised and assigned the first place in all organisations of human associations.

(v) Family and up-wards

From the 'family' as its basis, human society evolves upwards. The children of a family, trained under certain traditions and practices, grow up into men and women; and, in their turn, contracting marriage relations with others give rise to other families. In ancient societies in particular, and in many of the modern societies in general, the custom has been and still is to confine such marriages only to blood relations. They are kept strictly to members descending from common ancestors. As, however, centuries roll on, the circles of marriage widen when children of different ancestors contract relations among themselves. Endogamy becomes exogamy; and, still, certain restrictions are observed, chiefly those of language, religion and customs. A time may come, as it has already come, when marriages even without such restrictions may and do take place.
Mixed marriages of different races have not been and are not uncommon affairs. In such cases, either the mere exigencies of circumstances or real love between men and women happens to be the binding force. In such relations, however, there is room for reasonable apprehension whether the sheer necessity of the moment or the mere love between the parties, without the added weight of similarities of race, language, religion and customs, will be a permanent-binding factor. Without the proper background, the landscape may fade in color. The compelling necessity of the moment, that forces a man or a woman of one race to seek through wedlock his or her mate in another race, may bring on miseries to the one or the other, and may very likely end in the break-up of the union, with the possibility of his or her reverting to the old nationality. Again, the love that is another of the dominant factors leading to mixed unions may after all be a misdirected flush of wrongly conceived emotion of the moment; and it is highly doubtful whether unions based on it will be longstanding. Under such circumstances, marriages become mere relations of contract, to be taken on and off to suit individual will and convenience. The sanctity of wedlock then stands rebuked by the subtleties of the individual's idiosyncrasy, while human society gets built on foundations of falling sand.
Whether marriages are of status or contract, whether they lead to permanency of union or otherwise, society still places itself under the restriction that the union of sexes shall not be clandestine, but brought about in accordance with certain formalities and rituals.
,

(VI) Growth of Society through other Means

Marriages thus lead to the evolution of the human society from the family up-wards to the clan and the community, and even to the race. Marriages, however, are not the only channels through which the flood of social growth takes its course. There are other factors also that brings about the contact of one individual with another, and creates a relation of inter-dependence between them. A common love for the land of birth may be one such; or, the likenesses of racial, linguistic and religious feelings may be some others. Subjection to a common government may be one other; or, in the last, commercial and industrial undertakings may be some more. In the modern world, all such factors operate, and make the whole world one single human organisation. But, that is a real society where the relation of one individual to another is based, neither on considerations of benefit to the self nor on mere misplaced or over-drawn sentiments of the heart, but on a real sense of fellow-feeling. That is an Ideal society where each individual, if so needed, will be willing and ready to give up his whole for the sake of the rest. The world is yet full of shortcomings; and men and women do yet place their values and considerations on views of contract, thereby leading to troubles and miseries.

CHAPTER V

THE TROUBLES OF MAN-PHYSICAL
SOCIETY, THE CAUSE OF MAN'S TROUBLES

Extreme individualism, the cause of man's troubles; illustrations- Socialism or the total absorption of the individual in the society-Individuality and its ethical significance-Individuality and individualism-Socialism, its doctrines and consequences-Modern society, how it is the cause of man's troubles-Suppression of the weaker by the stronger (1) Women- (2) Different kinds of communalism; (a) Political communalism; (b) Economic communalism; (c) Religious communalism.
The absolute isolation of a human being from the rest of his fellows is as bad for humanity as the total absorption of the individual in the society. Except in the cases of seers and saints, extreme individualism and extreme socialism lead to one and the same end-Misery; only, in the former it is simple and silent; and in the latter it comes at the end of a wide-spread chaos. Stories of misers are often told us as to how, through insatiable selfishness and uncontrollable fear, they slowly perish, leading during their life-time the lives of brutes, ever timid and ever suspicious. Sentences of banishment, either of social ex-communication or of political disfranchisement, have been or still are looked upon with horror, as they practically isolate the person concerned from the rest of the human world. Cases are often quoted where people, given to persistent physical or mental activity, have become virtually insane through inanity, under orders of prolonged imprisonment of a rigorous type. People of a nomadic order, moving restlessly about in search of food and living on the bounty of nature, perish miserably through starvation and stagnation when they are abandoned by their fellow-men. Persons of criminal habits fear to associate themselves with others and, living a much dreaded life, die at last uncared for and unsung. Such are the troubles attendant on man who, voluntarily or under compulsion, lives a life of absolute exclusion.
No less keen are the pains caused by the total absorption of the individual in the society. It is essential, from an ethical standpoint, that every individual member of a social organisation should sacrifice a portion, nay the whole, of his life for the betterment of his community or even of humanity. Individuals of the ancient Athenian society were taught to improve their respective mental and physical capacities so that through them the community as a whole might develop. It was the fall in the spirit of this deliberate surrender and service of the individual to the state that led to the decay of the democracy of Athens and to her final conquest by foreign powers. No individual should place himself above the society or consider himself apart from it. Every individual is an important element in the entire body politic; and that society alone prospers whose subordinates are loyal to it. Such a spirit on the part of the sacrificing individual constitutes 'individuality', and it must be welcomed and fostered wherever found, provided the individual's activities are prompted by no motives of self, good or bad, but are discharged out of an unalloyed sense of duty to others.
Individuality stands on a higher pedestal than 'individualism.' Both are assertions of the individual or the 'ego' in the man; but the assertion of the individual in the former is actuated by higher motives for social progress, and in the latter only for the person concerned. In the first, the man comes up to benefit his fellow-men; and in the second, himself. The one is sacrifice and the other is robbery. In the one, it constitutes 'selflessness;' in the other, 'selfishness.'
In discussing, however, the problem of socialism, the voluntary absorption of the individual for the benefit of the society is not meant. In socialism too the individual allows himself to be merged in the society; but it is the result, not of voluntary self-surrender, but of sheer helplessness. In socialism, the society acts as one piece, and individuals do not constitute the units thereof. The activities of such a society are guided by motives of social improvement, not however through the Individual's perfection and his subsequent sacrifice, but through the common activities of all for the common benefit of all. According to the notions of such a society, every individual is gifted with an equal amount of intelligence and physical strength, and every individual should therefore have equal shares in the goods and the enjoyments of the world. No one should have a greater proportion of the privileges and the properties of the world then his neighbours; and, if there be one, he must be made to give up his excess share. The votaries of such a socialistic deity freely question the rights of the one or the few to rule over the many, and the qualifications of some to possess greater amount of wealth than others. Authority, goods and other things should be enjoyed in common by all. Pushed to logical conclusion, they try to eliminate all differences in life.
They fail, however, to note that their doctrine is vicious and unnatural. Elimination of differences and absolute equalisation of orders is impossible of achievement. If it can ever be attained, it would deprive man of all incentives to further activities, thereby leading him to his extinction. If Sparta in ancient days could not achieve any great result like her sister city, Athens, it was because of the dead level of equality, which she forced on her citizens, and the consequent dearth of capable leaders. The doctrine of community of property is based upon the theory of equality of capacity among the several individuals to put forth equal amounts of labour and intelligence. This is untenable in the dispensation of nature; and the misapplication of the Elizabethan poor law by the sincere but sentimental justices of peace in the latter half of the eighteenth century led to the demoralisation of society and the out-break of popular riots. The history of socialism has been such; and, wherever it has been pushed ahead, it ended in the display of physical violence to the detriment of the security and the stability of the social order. Man, under the guidance of socialism, has nowhere prospered, but has brought much suffering on his head, and incidentally on that of the wider society which, through his doctrines, he has attempted to save.
Turning from either of the extremes, individualism and socialism, and taking man as he happens to be, it is doubtful if even here he is in a haven of happiness. The chief source of trouble to the modern man is the 'suppression of the weaker by the stronger.' Women figure most in this as the main sufferers; and it is the result of the position assigned to them by men. It has been forgotten that women constitute about one half of the human population and that they possess as much keenness of intellect and sobriety of views as men themselves. They may not possess as much physical strength, but in all moments, which require the subordination of the body to the mind, they equal men and excel them too. If today they appear to be less intelligent and less fitted to conceive and execute ideas, it is because of the training and the opportunities which men have Monopolised unto themselves. Generations of neglect and centuries of denial, either intentional or habitual, have been responsible for the settled dullness and the growing ignorance of our mothers and sisters with the result that today, instead of being a help to men, they are a drag on them. They are a dead weight trying to sink men down and not a boat to help them on in the crossing of the ocean of life. Men have been and still are who treat their women as parts of their household chattels, and not as their equal partners in life. The only function for which women are retained by them is to pander to their sensuality or to propagate the human species. They therefore guard their women with all the ferocity of the animal, suppressed or expressed. Communities are not unknown which preserve their women-folk in secluded spots and keep them from the gaze of others by artificial barriers. So long as men are under the delusion of this view of their better halves, the world's progress will be halting, if not retarded. Most of the bickering and ill-will in family circles, and some of the crimes in public life are due to women who, through men's persuasion or coercion, their arrogance or indifference, easily allow themselves to be exploited, dragging themselves and others with them into the mire of human sufferings.
The 'suppression of the weaker by the stronger' takes another channel also to be a source of trouble to the modern society. Nowhere does the suffering of the weaker find its expression in so glaring a color as in communalism. It is a wide term inclusive of several types. It varies in name and character according to the end, which it aims to achieve. There is the one which prevails in the political sphere; another in the economic field; still another on religious grounds. Above all, there is yet another type, which embraces every feature in its fold.
In its purely political character, it is akin to the 'party system' prominently connected with modern democracies. They are forms of government where each individual, with certain exceptions varying according to circumstances of time and place, is privileged to participate in the rights and duties thereof. Since every individual cannot be expected to entertain similar views about the methods and the ends of the whole or any part of the constitution, there may arise the necessity for the origination and the maintenance of the division of people into groups or parties. To avoid clash of aims, to prevent individual temper running high and to abolish the possibility of dead-lock in the working of the state, certain customs and conventions, with or without the legal coercive force, have been invented and are in practice. Despite such ingenious checks, no constitution going by the name of 'people's government' is free from imperfections. Be it an electioneering campaign, be it a momentous period for the adoption of a piece of legislation, it is one full of opportunities for the display of popular resentment. Such occasions give ample scope for the 'oppression of the weaker by the stronger'. Any party, be it the governmental one or the opposition, that may be the stronger of the two-either because of its popularity, or its number, the support that it may receive from the executive or the legislature, or of its greater cohesion born of racial communal, religious or economic considerations-tries to coerce the other. The question of unrepresented or ill-represented and intrinsically weak minorities is a great problem in modern democracies that desire to bee popular, representative and responsible.
In the present day order of industrialism, with its concomitant qualifications of large-scale production and factory system, of highly organised and concentrated authority, the 'oppression of the weaker by the stronger' has become a settled fact. Labour against capital is an important cause for the economic disorganisation of the modern social order. Capitalists all over the world, probably with a few noble exceptions, do attempt to exploit labourers in virtue of their command over money, of their possession of greater intelligence and experience, of their union and monopoly, and of the support that they may, and sometimes do, receive from the state. Labourers, on the other hand, despite their trade unions, conferences, and even occasional strikes, have failed to coerce capitalists to reason. Of recent date, the state has begun to show some amount of active sympathy on behalf of Labour. Its interference is still in an infant stage; and, beyond arranging for arbitration boards and occasionally trying through its influence to bring the contending parties round, it has not accomplished much. Labour is still the suffering party; and, though it has somewhat gained towards its physical comforts through limited work and opportunity for recreation, it has not achieved any tangible results for getting its due share in the earnings of business. It has undergone and is undergoing another evil consequence, far more serious than any other. It has lost its human character. Under the system of capitalistic production and factory organisation, the labourers are physical and moral wrecks.
The third type of communalism is found in connection with religion. It takes the form of exclusive groups or orders of man and women following particular faiths. Induced by an overwhelming zeal for their peculiar dogmas, they become extremely intolerant of other faiths. They are almost fanatic in their activities; and, in their desire to convert others to their views, they even resort to measures that are oppressive in the end. Islamism in the early stages of its expansive history and European Christendom as championed by Spain in the days of 'reformation' may be taken as illustrations; while the persecutions of the Buddhists by some of the Hindu rajahs prior to the tenth century A.D, and the inter-communal quarrels among the votaries of Shiva and Vishnu in medieval days in south India may well be added to the list. Catholicity of views and tolerance of conduct are vary rare objects in the armoury of such schools, and the tales of woe to which the general mass of mankind has been subjected fill the pages of the history of the world. It is really painful to note that, despite the spread of education and the growth of refinement in mind and morals, there still exist men and women of such temperament in all parts of the globe.
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CHAPTER VI

THE TROUBLES OF MAN-PHYSICAL
SOCIETY, THE CAUSE OF MAN'S TROUBLES
THE CASTE SYSTEM; ITS NATURE AND GROWTH

(1) The caste system, universal
Universality of the caste system-In ancient Greece-In ancient Rome -In ancient Egypt and Persia-In modern Europe.
(II) Ancient and modern caste systems compared
Difference between the modern European communities and those of the ancient world-The basis of the class distinction in modern Europe-the basis of the class distinction in the ancient world.
(III) The Hindu Caste System
(A) Its Origin; Traditional View
Among the Hindus of India-The supposed basis of the Hindu social arrangement-The four main classes and the fifth class-Origin of the Hindu castes, historic evolution or personal creation? -Manu and Manava Dharma Shastra-Are the Hindu castes coeval with the universe? -Consideration of the view.
(IV) The Hindu Caste System
(B) Its Origin; Historic Necessity
Castes, the out-come of historic necessity-Early Aryans; -the people, the nature of their history and their character-The necessary functions of the early Aryans-The rise of the military class-the military class becomes the ruling class -The necessity for and the rise of the Brahmin class-The duties and the character of the Brahmins-causes for their supremacy-The Vaishya community-Its rise and duties-the sufficiency of the three classes in early days-Their special sanctity.
(V) The Sudra Class and the sub-castes
Aryan contact with non-Aryans of merit-Their inclusion into the Aryan-fold-The fourth or the Sudra class-Its early independence and subsequent gradual decay-The necessity for and the rise of sub-castes.
(VI) The Fifth or the Depressed Class
The place and function of religion among ancient Aryans-The rise of the depressed class, through the excommunications of Aryan delinquents-The rise of the depressed class, through the enslavement of non-Aryans of inferior type-The modern Hindu society, the result of historic growth.

(I) The Caste System, Universal

The system of castes is an arrangement of society where the possession and enjoyment of privileges are conditioned by birth and inheritance. No part of the world and no section of human history have been free from it. Ancient Greece and ancient Rome, ancient Egypt and Persia, every country of antiquity that left a mark in the history of mankind, possessed and passed through it.
The Greeks based the possession and the enjoyment of privileges on the perpetuation and the maintenance of 'purity of birth'. They reserved all the political freedom, religious liberty and social equality of the land only to themselves, treating and excluding others as barbarians. This distinction was maintained by them, not only between themselves and non-Greeks, but even among the several sections of their own race. The Ionians represented by the city of Athens would have nothing to do with the Dorians of Sparta. One was the inveterate enemy of the other, not only because of their radically different types of governments and political doctrines, but also of their fundamentally varying customs and habits. In Rome, at all events in the early days of her republican Era, every benefit to life was reserved for, and perpetuated among, the patrician families. They would not mingle with the plebeians even in private affairs like marriages, adoptions and divisions and distributions of public wealth. They constituted a close corporation which by weddings confined to its members, preserved and even transmitted through heredity the entire supremacy of the state for the undiminished glory and profit of its own. It was only after centuries of hard struggle by the weaker that the patricians gave way and that too slowly and grudgingly. Similar were the affairs in ancient Egypt and Persia. How the Egyptian priests that conducted the worship of the bull, and in what manner the influential and learned magi of Persia held under thraldom the rest of their fellow beings including mighty crowned heads are matters of historic notoriety.
The desire for the exclusive possession of the privileges of life is prevalent even in modern days. In certain countries of Europe, there are hereditary aristocracies claiming advantages on no other basis than birth. The aristocratic homes, no doubt, have recently been attacked and pulled down by the advancing tides of democracy and socialism; but still, the aristocrats hold to their original position with a veiled but almost adamantine pertinacity.

(ii) Ancient and Modern Caste Systems Compared

The modern European class distinction, however, differs from that of the ancient world. Exclusive claims to privileges are not now based on considerations of 'religious superiority or inferiority;' or on peculiar views of 'profession or labour.' Christianity prevails over practically the entire continent; and one Christian is as good as any other, irrespective of differences in rank or occupation in life. On grounds of religion or occupation alone, one is not excluded or ill-treated by the rest. Still, differences persist, arising out of membership by birth in particular families, leading to exclusive claims of political and social advantages.
In the ancient world, on the other hand, the classification of human beings was based, not only on heredity, but also on purity of birth. These could be achieved only by the observance of certain religious practices and the adoption of some kinds of occupations or professions. They did not depend on the option of the individual, but were regulated by well-understood and unalterable rules by which professions depended upon religious practices, the various forms and grades of which were in turn allocated to particular families. One born in a certain family could observe the religious ways only of his ancestors and follow those professions, which they had done. Notions of 'dignity of labour and equality of religion' being absent, certain families with their progeny came to be considered superior to others who followed other and different rituals and occupations. Among the members of the several strata, no contact was permissable; and this led to the isolation and the exclusiveness of the various groups.

(III) The Hindu Caste System
(A) Its Origin; Traditional View

Such divisions into 'the pure and the impure'; the superior and the inferior are to be found in India too. Among the vast mass of people inhabiting that subcontinent, the majorities are of Hindu religion; and among them the distinction is found to prevail. It is based, as in the countries of antiquity, not on the individual's merits and talents, but on religious practices and the attached economic occupations which have descended from the past through channels of family groups. A certain member of a certain group cannot migrate to any other through marriage or adoption; he must be born in it. Rightly or wrongly, this rigid division is believed to receive its sanction and support from the basic principles of Hindu philosophy-the theory of multi-births and re-births determined by the theory of the individual's activities- Janma and Karma.
As things stand, there are four main castes, -the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Sudras-representing the priestly, the military, the commercial and the labouring classes. Each of these is again divided into sub-sections, each sub-section forming an exclusive corporation, avoiding, -under rigid regulations, customs and conventions-contact with others, whether of the same or of a different main class. Inter-marital relations or inter-dining's among them are considered irreligious, offending against the eyes of god and men. Each family of each sub-caste guards its tenets and habits with a great tenacity of spirit, and will not hand them over to any individual outside its circle. It adheres to the 'Theory and practice of heredity' very persistently and looks on communities alien to it, if not with active hostility, at least with passive indifference.
Besides these four-fold classes that have been recognised as forming the Hindu people, there is a vast mass of population that is Hindu only in name. It has been admitted to the extreme fringe of the Hindu circle, but has not been incorporated into any one of the four-fold recognised classes. It is kept at a distance and its members are treated as if their touch or even approach is pollution to those of the upper four. It has no specific term to indicate it. It is in modern days generally known as the 'Panchama' or the fifth class, and in the present day parlance as the 'depressed class'. In it, too, there are sub-sections, each with its peculiar and well-guarded manners and practices, both religious and social. The class as a whole is retained beyond the pale of all moderating and civilising influences and made to live in excluded areas, following avocations of life that are not praise-worthy.
The Hindu caste system is an ancient institution. It finds mention even in the Rigveda, now held to be the oldest literary record extant in the world. When exactly it originated is beyond the possibility and the capacity of human re-search to discover. That it could not have owed its origin to any particular author at any specific date is patent. That no human institution of a complex and complicated character ever came out of the fiat of a single individual or singular set of persons is an undisputed historic fact. Manu, the great lawgiver of ancient Aryan India, is sometimes credited with the authorship of the Indian castes. Like Lycurgus of Sparta or Romulus of Rome, Manu might have been the name of a school of successive legislators and administrators with probably an eminent person of that name at its head, entrusted with the function, in the ancient Hindu body-politic, of maintaining intact the Hindu society with its peculiar classifications and religious practices which had already become established. Manava Dharma Shastra or the code of Manu appears more to detail the facts, as they happened to be at the time of the author or authors than to sanction the origination of newer facts. Hence, the only conclusion that is probable is that the Hindu caste system is a fact of gradual historic evolution rather than of sudden divine or semi-divine creation, beginning with a humble and unrecognised origin and ending in all its rigidity and hereditary peculiarities as at present.
The very antiquity of the caste system has caused some to claim for it an origin as old as Creation itself. It is averred that its origin is one with the origin of the universe. It is said that the Hindu caste system is Anadi or without a beginning. Of the four main classes, only the first three, - the Brahmin, the Kshatriya and the Vaishya, -have been recognised as supreme from a purely religious standpoint. They alone are entitled to receive, at certain prescribed periods of their lives, sacred and secret religious instructions, in token of which they are permitted to wear 'sanctified threads.' This 'ceremony of investiture' which is symbolic of fitness for religious studies is, as it were, giving them a second birth, the first one being their natural physical birth. They are accordingly termed the dwijas or the twice-born. This sacred trio is believed to have originated out of the natural temperaments of humanity. The Brahmins are supposed to represent the Satwic tendency or the philosophic calmness; the Kshatriyas, the Rajasaic tendency or the militant character; and the Vaishyas, the Tamasic quality or the features of slowness and patient calculation. Satwa, raja and Tama indicate the three modes of human emotion; and, since they are believed by some to be as old as creation itself, the classes of Hindus who respectively represent those qualities must, according to them, also have been beginningless. This view must be respected more for its ingenuity than for its historic possibility. The Hindu caste system is a concrete human institution, and to connect it with abstract psychological principles is to make it unhistoric. That it arose out of the qualities of man at a time when the universe came into being, cannot stand historic tests; and what can be safely vouched is that it is a human institution which grew at some distant age out of economic or historic necessities and which in the course of centuries gathered volume reaching its present conditions.

(IV) The Hindu Caste System
(B) Its Origin; Historic Necessity

The formation of the caste system in the early history of the Aryans finds explanation in the very character of that history. The Aryans were a nomadic race moving from place to place and coming into contact with other races whom they were obliged to conquer and subdue. But, though a conquering race, they were no barbaric race. Even in those distant ages, they were superior to several other races. They made great discoveries in many mental and material arts. By the character of their lives and by the exigencies of their circumstances, they were compelled to unravel the mysteries of the objective reality and of the place of man in it. They were the first to find out and develop the sciences of astronomy and mathematics, the arts of medicine and agriculture, and even certain fine arts like music and painting. They were the first to enquire into the origin and the character of the surrounding physical nature and her phenomena. They were the pioneers in the theories of time, space and causation. They were the original people to discover the possibility of, nay even the necessity for, an 'immortal existence, uninfluenced by tangible changing circumstances'. They were no mere conquerors induced by thirst for land or lust for wealth. They were a race which, when compelled by inevitable conditions to expand, marched from their original homes into foreign lands, carrying with them their peculiar superior knowledge and its elevating and civilising influences into the midst of alien and inferior peoples.
Two things the Aryans of yore had to do. One was to carry on the work of conquest and colonisation so as to find expanded room for their increasing population, the other was to preserve from death or decay and, if possible, to improve their already acquired knowledge in the fields of mind and matter. It was found essential, for the discharge of this two-fold function, that there should be allocation of labour to particular individuals or families. A number of people were set apart for military and quasi-military duties. Another set came in due course to be specially intended for the preservation, the promotion and the propagation of their peculiar knowledge. With the separation of these two classes for distinct and definite functions, there arose a third to look after the satisfaction of the economic needs of the community by attending to agriculture and trade.
These three classes, however, could not have arisen simultaneously or as a result of any deliberate pre-meditated arrangement. They were the results of the unconscious adjustments from time to time of the Aryan community, with a view to successfully and efficiently meeting and combating the successive exigencies of the situation arising from within and without. The first consideration that would have attracted the attention of the strange and infant Aryan community struggling for existence and expansion in the midst of overwhelming odds would have been as how best to overcome the rising obstacles and thereby give peace and comfort to its weaker members. Naturally, all the able-bodied male adults of the community must have come forward to achieve and attend to this arduous task. Their offer and presence must have been in course of time permanently requisitioned as wars with hostile races extended to distant lands and over pro-longed periods. Those that have been put temporary warriors to begin with must, in course of time, have become a permanent body of soldiers with no other task than to fight the enemy, both immediate and prospective. And, naturally enough, they acquired a special skill in the art of warfare and began to constitute a separate class by themselves-the Kshatriyas. Inevitable logic led to the necessity of those, entrusted with the duty of protecting the weak in times of war, assuming the same duty in times of peace also. Hence, the military class- The Kshatriyas became the ruling class.
In the midst of struggles against hostile forces, the Aryans did not and could not forget the question of the preservation of their knowledge. Their peculiar discoveries and scientific achievements, their special traditions and specific lore's were as necessary and important for their very being as the immediate presence and protection of a well-disciplined army; for, those facts and fancies of knowledge of theirs gave their entire community a strong bond of unity and a separate identity, as contrasted with other and alien races with their different and multifarious traditions and facts. But for their special traditions and scientific knowledge, the Aryans of yore would have been absorbed into the inimical races, by the imitation and the adoption of the latter's customs and manners. Fear of extinction and anxiety for maintaining their specific identity thus necessitated them to look to the preservation of their peculiar mental and material achievements. This fact would not have made its presence keenly felt all at once. At first, the only absorbing ideas must have been conquest and expansion. During the course of those operations, stray cases of the Aryans becoming un-Aryanised through the adoption of foreign manners must have occurred; and, as these during the lapse of time increased, the Aryans must have got alarmed at the subtle but certain un-Aryanising influences. Hence, they must have felt the need for the presence of a class of men with knowledge, learning and authority enough who would, by practice and preaching, turn the straying sheep into the fold and keep the community under proper restraint. They were to be preachers and teachers. They were to be censors of the conduct and morality of the members of the society. To them were handed in due course the duties of the preservation and the propagation of the fruits of knowledge already achieved. They were also, if possible, to promote and increase that knowledge by study and re-search. By their labours and exertions, the new class of men, whose number must have swollen in the course of centuries, were thus to advance the sum-total of the Aryan knowledge; to preserve the Aryan morality intact; and lastly to administer, if need be to the religious needs of the state and the society. To allow that class to pursue its functions without diversion, its economic needs were arranged to be met by the society at large. To permit it to achieve its ends unmolested or without hindrance, a sacredness and an almost divine dignity were given to its members, to injure or even to oppose whom was to incur the displeasure of the gods and to commit a diabolical sin. This was the Brahmin class which, though it could have been only second in the order of origin, early came to acquire an undaunted supremacy over the entire community. Its culture, its custody over the Aryan knowledge, its censorial duties and powers, its presidency over the religious needs and performances of the community, its freedom from economic struggles and the special sanctity with which its members were looked up to must have contributed to its acquisition of that social eminence.
Still, there must have been others who must have found themselves unfit for the operations of a military or intellectual character. Either they were of a weaker physical constitution and therefore unable to face the disciplines and the exaction's of a soldier's life; or they could not satisfy the required type or standard of brainpower needed for the pursuit of study and re-search; or they felt disinclined to take upon themselves the practical life of asceticism that was demanded of real scholars. They chose to practice more peaceful and less exacting professions than those of a warrior and a student. They began to cater to the economic needs of the community and in consequence adopted the professions of agriculture and trade. They must have in due course become experts in those two arts, and thus formed a class by themselves. This constituted the Vaishya caste.
The needs of the early Aryans, like those of any other community of antiquity, must have been limited; and they were easily and fully satisfied by the gradual rise of the three classes for particular functions. Any community, like the ancient Aryans, if it is only nomadic, needs only three things-security against danger to the lives and properties of the members thereof; plenty of food, so that the latter may not suffer from famine, a fact inevitable in the lives of nomads; and some one to propitiate the gods, so as to give them peace and plenty. In fact, any nomadic race needs protection against its enemies including men and animals, against the erratic course of nature, and against the anger of the gods. The first stands against their movements, the second deprives them of their food and shelter, and the last, according to the beliefs of those people, may ruin their whole race. These three conditions being satisfied, primitive people are generally happy. And these three were early and easily met among the ancient Aryans when they divided themselves into the three classes-the Kshatriyas, the Brahmins and the Vaishyas-to protect them against their earthly and heavenly enemies and against nature's disappointments. Warrior's priests traders and agriculturists were all they needed; and, when they had them, they felt no more necessity for further classification. For a time, these three alone made up the Aryan folk, participating in its privileges and burdens. They alone therefore were eligible even for its religious instructions, in token whereof they were entitled to wear the sacred thread.

(V) The Sudra Class and the Sub-Castes

Continuous wars and gradual expansion over the face of the land must have brought the Aryans into contact with several non-Aryan races and tribes of various types of civilisation and levels of attainment. Some of them must have possessed several commendable points about them, and certain among them must have even excelled the Aryans themselves. It was essential in the interests of the new-comers that such non-Aryan tribes of merit should be preserved; as they would add to their own security by their power and local knowledge, while the admission of the latter's culture and civilisation would lead to the stability and the further expansion of the formers mental and material acquisitions. Conciliation with them rather than their extinction was therefore necessary; and conciliation demanded the inclusion of such classes into their fold. A place therefore must have been created for them in the Aryan body-politic, which could not have at first necessarily been sub-ordinate, as that would have wounded the dignity and the self-respect of the leading members thereof, who formed the ruling classes in their own spheres. Their personal vanity must be respected, and hence they were assigned quasi-political or quasi-military duties some of them were also allocated to the more independent profession of agriculture or other walks of life connected therewith. Such non-Aryan tribes, while leading by their contributions to the safety and the stability of the Aryans, must also have in their turn derived several benefits. Hence, there was a willing fusion of the two through mutual contribution and inclusion. In days when there was no superiority of one class over the rest and when each class had a definite function for the common benefit of all, the new-comers constituted an independent section among the general Aryan mass-the fourth, the Sudra class. General decay in the course of long ages and the deliberate or the unconscious assumption of authority of some over others must have been responsible for the fall in dignity of this fourth class
Being an ever expanding race and consequently militant and diplomatic, the Aryans must have found it necessary, in the face of new conquests, fresh colonisations and contacts with new and unknown tribes, to revise their social regulations as often as possible. Constant alterations in the internal management without seriously affecting the fixity of the fundamentals being discovered increasingly essential, need was felt for the division of the already existing four-fold main sections into sub-sections, each being intended for the discharge of a particular function. The numerous sub-castes, which now prevail in India, must have originated under such circumstances.

(vi) The Fifth or the Depressed Class

Religion among the ancient Aryans as among all ancient races, constituted the foundation for their very being; and every duty of every sub-section and even of every individual was interpreted from this standpoint. Since religion was construed to lead to betterment 'here and hereafter' the several duties and the many items of conduct of the various classes came to receive their sanction from it; and anything that religion did not or would not permit constituted a sin in the eyes of the society. Though many such were pardonable, many others lay beyond the pale of excuse and expiation. Imposition of corporeal punishments, imprisonment's of a rigorous type, political banishments for varying periods, and social excommunications were the several kinds of treatment to which social delinquents and religious perverts were subjected. But of all the punishments, excommunication seems to have been looked upon with great horror, as a person so treated completely lost all connection with his nearest and dearest, being deprived of every chance for participating in things social and domestic. He was practically lost to the world, and his life, uncared for and unaided, proved a burden to himself. Such a course of punishment seems to have been resorted to on a large scale, leading to the social disfranchisement of a large section, depriving it of all chances for the improvement of its body and mind. Denied the opportunity to perform the usual religious rites considered necessary, the excommunicated ones naturally sank to the lowest rung of the ladder becoming social and moral wrecks. They even adopted non-Aryan practices and customs; and a time came when, owing to several circumstances, they began to be considered and even treated as persons whose very approach or touch was pollution.
This, however, was not the only origin of what is at present known as the depressed class. Among the non-Aryans, there were several tribes who had not made much advance in civilisation, and, as they were conquered and subjugated, they were reduced to the position of slaves to minister unto the physical needs and comforts of their masters by their bodily labours. The Aryans of ancient India, like their brethren of ancient Greece, were a slave-owning aristocracy; and, as in the case of the Athenian community, the Indian slaves appear to have been utilised for the discharge of all functions which involved mere physical labour and which, according to the then prevailing notions and standards of dignity and personal self-respect, were considered inferior.
The caste system of India was thus the consequence of a slow evolution in the course of centuries of Aryan history. Unconscious adjustments of the social machinery to ever changing circumstances, deliberate reforms and repairs from time to time to keep in intact, centuries of unintentional or helpless indifference on the part of those that must have done their duty to their neighbours-such and similar ones seem to have been responsible for the present day Hindu society.

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CHAPTER VII

THE TROUBLES OF MAN- PHYSICAL
SOCIETY, THE CAUSE OF MAN'S TROUBLES.
THE CASTE SYSTEM; HOW OPPRESSIVE

(I) The castes, based on economic principles

Economic basis of caste system-The four-fold classification of people in medieval Europe-The difference between the Eastern and the Western systems.

(ii) Modern Hindu Castes; an Oppressive System
(A) Arrogance of Higher Castes

The condition of caste system in ancient India; liberty and tolerance- present condition of Hindu castes- The causes for the change- Higher castes and their arrogance- Human weakness; historic instances; in Greece and Rome; the Whigs of England; modern powers.

(B) Reservation of Knowledge by Higher Castes
Did the higher castes reserve all learning? -Village schools-Private schools-University centres-Other arrangements -Learned men in royal courts- Recital of religious stories-Village dramas-Why education was not more widespread? -Internal causes- Difficulties attendant on travel to seats of higher learning- Financial inability- The general indifference of the masses for higher culture- External cause- foreign invasions- The attitude of higher castes towards spreading knowledge- The significance (Omit the words "of the") of the word 'Veda'- What and why the Brahmins reserved for themselves- Economic necessity- Parallel illustrations from India; In Europe.

(C) Other Causes

Joint family life- Village life- Steps adopted to avoid extinction from alien faiths- The causes for the present state of Hindu society summarised- Its evils.

(I) The Castes, based on Economic Principles

Whatever else might have been the origin of castes in India, it is certain that such divisions were based on economic grounds. Similar classification prevailed for similar purposes even in Europe. The people of that continent fell into four-fold groups, chiefly in the middle ages; and they were the clergy, the barons, the traders and the agriculturists. In both the east and the west, the condition of the agricultural classes was serfdom- a condition of land-tenure by which they were to live within their territories and render bodily service to their lords, in return for a few pieces of land for their private use and for the protection of their person and property. Only, the four-fold division in the east was irrevocably connected with religion, which resolved itself into regulated practices and customs, affecting even the minute details of the people's daily life. It is at once a merit and a defect of the east that she construes religion to be the root and the fruit of human existence, embracing it in its entirety and in all its small and several points. In the west too, time was when religion constituted so prominent a factor in the affairs of men. There was no activity of theirs, be it a war or the creation of a constitutional institution or any thing else, that had not religion for its basis or a religious color. The English parliamentary struggles of the seventeenth century, the European wars of that and the prior periods, and the colonisation movements of the times were more or less religious. Only, of recent years, religion was deprived of its supremacy and relegated to a section of human life, being practically isolated from the rest of men's actions. But, despite the differences and the consequences thereof between the eastern and the western institutions, there was this much of similarity among them that they were based on and replied to the economic principle of 'division of labour', the utility and the significance of which are recognised and admitted even to this day.

(II) Modern Hindu Castes; an Oppressive System
(A) Arrogance of Higher Castes

In ancient India, there does not appear to have been much prohibition against the members of one caste practicing the profession of another. Liberty and tolerance seem to have existed; and there are instances of members of certain classes having been freely admitted into other and higher ones. Several of the ancient sages or Rishis were not Brahmins by birth, but were later admitted to Brahmin-hood. Even Brahmins, whose sole profession was study and the performance for others of their religious ceremonies, seem to have adopted the duties and functions of other classes, particularly those of the Kshatriyas, taking part in actual wars. No one was treated as an untouchable and none precluded from approach to the learned and the professional classes. The only grounds for the exclusion of certain members of the community as untouchables were depraved moral character and the deliberate practice of what was considered and treated as evil.
Today, the caste system is of a different character. Men are Brahmins, Kshatriyas or members of other classes, not because of their respective professions, but because of their heredity and family connections. One can be a member of a particular caste only if he is born in it. Heredity has taken the place of 'choice of profession'; and rigidity, prejudice and even mutual intolerance have come to stay. Professions are confined to particular families and are guarded with almost adamantine seclusion. Inter-communal migrations through choice, adoption or inter-marriage are completely prohibited, and inter-caste dining is treated as a pollution.
It is pointed out that the present state of isolation and conservatism, and the consequent degradation and indignity of certain castes is due to centuries of deliberate arrogance of and an artificial sense of superiority maintained and practised by certain other castes, which, because of the general utility of their professions, have been and still are considering themselves to be higher. It is not unlikely that a community like an individual, When used to peculiar privileges and undue respect would appropriate to itself all authority and influence. This is but an inevitable consequence of the very imperfection of human character. History bristles with instances where such has been the case all the world over. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, immediately after the fall of monarchy, power happened to reach the hands of such members of the body politic who, for the time being, were in possession of certain advantages. They alone were the learned and the wise. They alone had legal and religious knowledge. They alone knew the arts of government and warfare. The rest were sunk in ignorance, poverty and superstition; and, by that very cause, they were inevitably led to resign their privileges into the hands of their betters. And those betters, at first conducted themselves in a way that was beneficial to the entire society. They were considered as the best; and their system of government also was the best. They constituted the Aristocracy of the community, and the period of their government was one of the best periods in ancient days. A time, however, came when the once liberal aristocrats became narrow in mind and selfish in motives; and this degraded aristocracy or oligarchy was the source of several ills to the society at large. Similarly, in England during the eighteenth century, the Whigs, who were considered to have been the benefactors to the land, were an exclusive group maintaining and conducting the government for their particular benefit through every form of organised corruption. It is the very weakness of humanity that, when once it is entrusted with power, knowledge or wealth, it becomes haughty, jealous and intolerant. It is a matter of common knowledge that even in this comparatively advanced age, classes and races of men are not unknown who, happening to possess authority over others, treat the latter in a manner that will not stand the test of abstract political theories and even common human sense.
It is; however, to be doubted whether the arrogance and the artificial sense of superiority of the higher castes alone could have been responsible for the present-day rigidity of the Hindu society and the degradation of some of the sections thereof.

(B) Reservation of knowledge by Higher Castes

It cannot be said that the higher castes of India reserved all knowledge for themselves. From extant literary evidences it is clear that knowledge was widely diffused through several channels. There was in practically every village or hamlet a small school or 'Pattasala' kept by one of the villagers and maintained by the rest from certain customary contributions in kind. In it, elementary education was imparted, consisting of the three R's. and some select passages from religious books. Above such general schools, there were special ones located in certain centres and managed by well-known individuals. To them the children of the neighbourhood were admitted; and they were retained there in close contact with teachers for long periods. In them, the latter derived the means of their subsistence from chance donations of any stray donor, and from a small fee 'The guru Dakshina' paid by each student at the end of his scholastic career. Above such private schools there were famous university centres like Benares, Ujjain, Navadwip, Nalanda, Thakshasila, Pataliputra, Dwaraka, Kanchi and Madura. In them teaching in higher subjects was imparted, both in metaphysical and physical sciences, so far as they were collected and known at the time. To some of them, as is borne out even by the Greeks that came to India in the wake of Alexander's invasion, people of all classes and communities were freely admitted. As a result of such facilities, the level of general literacy and the number of persons of higher knowledge were far greater than at other times-medieval or modern. Megasthenes- the Greek; Hiuen Tsang- the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim; Alberuni the famous Mohamadan historian, and several others who were foreigners to the land bear testimony to this fact. Various other arrangements also were in vogue to keep the average intelligence of the general public at a high level. The courts of Hindu Rajahs were filled with learned men who, with the aid and under the patronage of their royal supporters, produced literary and other works on different subjects, through compilations or original compositions, and through re-editing or translating older ones. Means were also adopted for the periodic enlightenment of the rustics by occasional recitals of or readings from religious texts by permanent or wandering monks, and by the presentation of Puranic stories in the form of 'village dramas'. These served to convey abstruse philosophy through concrete instances and popular dialects to the uncultured minds of the rustic mass without any distinction of caste or class.
If education was not more widespread, the causes are to be traced to inevitable circumstances, both internal and external. Centres of higher education maintained by private individuals or supported by corporate bodies were not within the easy reach of all. Though there seem to have been perfect roads of communication at least between important towns, yet it was difficult for persons of ordinary means and for petty traders and agriculturists to undertake journeys over long distances involving, in the absence of rapid means of conveyance, heavy expenditure and much physical inconvenience. Educational centres and even teachers of private schools were not in the habit of receiving regulated periodic fees from their pupils. It was the belief of the times that to impart education in return for fees was equivalent to selling knowledge, which was considered a sin. They had to depend upon the generosity of the charitably inclined among the wealthy public or the periodic contributions of royal courts. It was really heavy for one or a few to undertake the maintenance of more than a certain number of schools or colleges; and the absence of regular income hindered the further spread of education than what it had reached or could possibly do. The masses too were generally indifferent towards higher culture. The people were assured of elementary education in their respective villages, and to them it was enough for all practical purposes, education was not a means of livelihood, but was persuade only for the sake of knowledge. This needed a particular aptitude and a special mentality; and only those that were endowed with them undertook the risks and the expenses involved in the journey to, and the stay in, the centres of higher culture. The rest, being content with their primary education, enough for the limited needs of village life, turned their attention from an early age to the earning and the improving of their avocations and means of subsistence, commercial, agricultural or mechanical. Added to these, the country was exposed to foreign invasions, and had to experience frequent political disturbances and untold miseries which seriously affected every native home and all native institutions.
The higher castes are said to have secretly guarded their knowledge, and spread it only among their progeny. They are even believed to have proposed and carried out barbaric punishments against the members of alien castes who attempted to pry into their hidden treasures. While there is truth in this statement, it must be admitted that what the higher castes reserved for themselves was not the whole of the then accumulated store of knowledge, but only a portion of it. It is now held that 'Vedas' refer to the rules and regulations connected with the conduct of sacrifices and religious ceremonies. 'Vedas' do mean these; they mean something more also. The word 'Veda' is a generic term meaning 'knowledge' in general, including every form and branch of it. There were in ancient India, four Vedas, six Shastras, eighteen Puranas, sixty-four Kalas and ninety-six Tatwas, in addition to the abstruse philosophy of the Upanishads and the quasi-historical or the allegoric-philosophical stories of a great variety. All these constituted the 'Veda' in general, and among them were the rules for religious rites and ceremonials. These lasts alone the higher castes reserved for themselves, while the rest they freely gave to all without reservation or restriction. The reason for this much of limitation too was due to the fact that religious knowledge constituted the means of their livelihood. The higher castes, particularly the Brahmin, according to the then understood code of morality and social conduct, were prohibited, on pain of ex-communication, from following any other profession than those of study and the ministering unto the religious needs of the body-politic. For the purpose of study, where they had to devote undivided attention for several years, they had to depend upon general contributions. These were not always readily forthcoming; or, if they did, were not enough. Hence they were expected to supplement their income by priestly calling, which brought in but limited return. It was but inevitable that, in the absence of any other profession to which they were eligible; they should guard the only means of their livelihood very zealously and with even vindictive tenacity. They were not the only class or community given in those days to guarding their professional secrets. Every other art or science which lent itself to practical application and could be used for earning bread was similarly treated. The 'Vaidya Shastra' or the 'medical science' is known to have been, and still to be, practiced only by certain sections or classes of people who kept or keep all the knowledge thereof carefully to themselves and their children. It was in fact the tendency of the times for the followers of any profession to form themselves into a close corporation, securing and saving the detailed knowledge of it against encroachments from without. Europe in the Middle Ages had her 'gild system' where the followers of each profession formed a separate and independent body, guarding their particular avocations with tenacious jealousy imposing severe strictures and punishments upon all trespassers. The castes of India but followed the practices inevitable under the economic needs and modes of the age, not confined to their country alone.

(C) Other Causes

Another circumstance also operated towards the rigidity of the castes in India; and it was the system of life prevalent in ancient days. The first factor was the family. In the Indian family, as in the families of all other ancient lands, the authority of the father was over-whelming. His will was law, and to go against his wishes was to sin in the eyes of the society. There was therefore no room for initiative or individual liberty on the part of other members; and it naturally became habitual for the whole family to follow but the profession of the head thereof who, in his turn, had got it from his ancestors. Professions in course of time became hereditary where only certain families could follow certain kinds of avocations.
Another feature of the Hindu society was its 'village life' More than three-quarters of the population of India live in villages even to this day. The proportion must have been greater in the past when rapid means of transit were absent, and when people had to cover long distances on foot or on slowly moving carts. Variations of languages from province to province, the presence of inaccessible mountains and unfordable rivers with their vast tracts of forests and deserts, must have deterred any venturing villager from leaving his native soil. Each village was practically isolated and, in the absence of communication with the outer world, became narrow, rigid and even suspicious. Every village grew to be a centre by itself, developing life on a co-operative basis, dividing and allocating particular kinds of labour to particular families, and, to avoid confusions born of constant changes, fixing them to their progeny.
One more circumstance probably contributed most to the present day peculiarities and prejudices of the Hindu communities. The caste-system of India is an Aryan institution; and at no time in its career was it allowed a peaceful life. On several occasions in the course of the history of the land, it had to face the danger of extinction. According to its leaders and periodical reformers, its purpose, though economic in the main, was to enable its members to attain perfection or 'Moksha' by the discharge, without attachment to wordly goods or pleasures and pains, of their duties chalked out by nature or birth. This is the goal of 'Vedanta', the ultimate philosophy of the Hindus. There happened to arise several factors, which shook this supreme Aryan faith to its foundation and incidentally the caste-system also. There was the 'Charvaka' system, followed by its more developed form, Buddhism. Then, there came Jainism, Mohamadanism and Christianity. Most of them had powerful political backing; and, supported by kings and emperors, they attempted to force their respective doctrines upon the followers of Vedanta and even convert them to their faiths, if possible through physical force. In the conflict with foreign invaders for the retention of political supremacy, pure Hindu kingdoms had vanished; while, consequent upon social confusion following political wars, organised Hindu public opinion has also decayed. The few struggling preserves of Hindu religion could but make frantic efforts to keep up their Vedantic faith. Backed by no armed rulers and supported by no friendly public opinion, they were compelled to have recourse to subtler measures. They took away the liberty of the individual Aryan in matters religious and social, and made the latter mere things of routine, passing them blindly from father to son. The Hindu religion and the Hindu philosophy with their attendant principles of communal 'division of labour' then automatically lived and throve. In consequence, the caste-system to-day is no more than a bundle of restrictive rules and practices to violate which is considered to invite the anger of the gods.
Thus, the very weakness of humanity and the consequent arrogation of power by the higher castes; the economic necessity of the times which forced the followers of the different professions to keep the secrets thereof only to themselves and to their children; the want of a more widespread education than was at all possible under the circumstance; the rapid succession of foreign invaders who upset the political stability of the land and even attacked the very foundations of the Aryan society and religion; the systems of 'Joint family life and village life' that prevailed in ancient times-these were some of the circumstances that changed the once free and tolerant caste system of India into the modern ironbound and intolerant system permitting of no liberty to the individual. As it now happens to be, millions therein are deprived of even their elementary rights and are compelled to live and grow in mire and dirt, in ignorance and superstition. Having lost its original grace and purpose, it has come to be an instrument of oppression, causing suffering to many and receiving the ridicule of many more.
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CHAPTER VIII

THE TROUBLES OF MAN-MENTAL
THE CONSTITUTION, THE FUNCTION AND
THE CAPACITY OF THE MIND

Some causes of man's troubles-Man's constitution, the body and the mind-The inter-dependence of the body and the mind-The growth of the mind depends on the growth of the body; stones and rocks; plants, animals-Evolution and what it is-Mind-Mind, material or non-material-The development of the mind; (I) through sense-impressions-the necessity of the mind for knowledge-The different activities of the mind towards the knowledge of the external world through sense-impressions-Is mind the ultimate knower of things?- The continuity of mental activities-How sense-impressions lead to knowledge-Presentation, re-presentation and like-presentation of sense-Impressions-Retention and revival or memory-Attention; selection-The development of the mind; (ii) through other means; (a) Comparison; (b) Thought; (c) Inference; (d) Judgment-Mind's capacity for re-action-The different states of the mind-Mind, its location and function in the process of knowledge-The capacity of the mind for infinite growth.
Man, as a product of 'physical nature' and therefore living in her midst, is exposed to a variety of troubles, consequent upon her formation and dissolution of the macrocosmic and the microcosmic worlds. As a social being, he lives and moves in the midst of highly organised or partly organised social institutions with varying degrees of individual freedom; and in the course of his unavoidable contact with his fellow beings he is subjected to misery and turmoil, anxiety and suspense. He does not feel happy, even if he evades all human company and leads the life of an absolutely isolated anchorite. This is against the nature of humanity; and, in trying to cut himself off from his fellows, he rebels against what is but proper and inevitable.
Physical nature and human society are entities that, as he thinks, are extraneous to man, causing him troubles. The possibility of their tyranny over him, however, is due to his own constitution. Man's life is the result of the action and the reaction of two factors-the body and the mind. Both are essential for the prosperity, nay the possibility, of man's life on earth. The body alone without the mind is akin to a stark or a stone, and is described as senseless and dead. The mind, deprived of the body, is nowhere known to exist and is said to lie beyond human 'understanding' that must be backed by the activities of the nervous system. Even the 'psychic school of scientists' has to work through a living human medium for the exhibition of departed sprits.
Where the mind or the body is absent, life's manifestation is absent too; and their very essentiality makes them inter-dependent. The degree of their inter-dependence determines the state and the stage of progress, which any being has made. Where there is a disproportionate development of one of them at the cost of the other, there is a disturbance in the equipment of the being's constitution. Both need equal attention; and both, simultaneous growth and training. Mere increase in the bodily strength makes one equal unto brutes, and the growth of muscles alone leads, to the growth of animal character. Enormous development of the mind on the other hands, without a simultaneous and proportionate growth of the bodily vitality renders one a weakling and deprives one of the general capacity to resist physical ills or bear physical exertions. He is a perfect man in whom both attain a harmonious growth and reach a degree of well-set equanimity.
Stones and rocks are immense in size and very heavy. Yet, they are incapable of voluntary action and are therefore subject to the operations of extraneous forces. Their very origin is supposed to be due to the activities of violent or silent subterranean forces, while their death or disappearance is brought about by the slow action on them of wind and rain that gradually wear them away. Even during their existence, they appear to possess no feeling or sensitiveness and therefore seem to be incapable of reaction or responsive action. Plants too appear to be as much dependent on extraneous forces for their birth and death, as stones and rocks. But, during their life-time on earth, they seem to feel, at all events possess sensitiveness to touch, which they display in a variety of ways as if to exhibit their likes and dislikes. In animals, though varying from class to class, this capacity to show their feelings is developed to a Marvellous degree. It is even prompted by, and it leads to, voluntary effort and conscious activity; while their birth, if not death seems to be determined by deliberate physical actions.
The gradual improvement from a state of unmanifested consciousness, non-feeling, and inaction to one of conscious and voluntary feeling and action is the result of evolution. Evolution is but the gradual unfoldment of the inner nature of beings through their ever varying and ever improving physical bodies. Where the body is undeveloped, the exhibition of the inner nature is either absent or limited; and where the body has reached an almost perfect development, the display of the inner character is really great. In a protoplasm which has not developed sense organs, there is no means for the open expression of its feelings, though it is capable of some amount of physical activity which is, for that reason, necessarily automatic. As the protoplasm gradually increases and improves in size and shape through accretion with or separation from other protoplasms, it develops the capacity to exhibit likes and dislikes, and therefore the power to act voluntarily. In the long, 'chain of evolution' with the protoplasmic cell at one end and man as the highest corporeal being at the other, the gradual formation of the physical body through the perfection and the distinction of organs has been observed to be the means for the gradually increasing exhibition of the inner nature. In a way, the determination of the character, and therefore the mode, of operation of the physical body seems to depend upon the nature and the quality of the circulating blood. In stones, there is no intelligence, because there is no blood to form flesh, bones and nerves. In plants, there is a certain kind and quality of life juice; and therefore they live and grow, and possibly even feel and act. In animals, the life-juice is of a different character, and the result is their increased capacity for knowledge and action. It seems not unlikely that, as the circulating life-juice gets altered in its nature through the formation and growth in it of particular kinds of corpuscles, the body gets developed, and consequently the power of the living being to feel and act also gets favourably enhanced. Among very low types of animals, which have not developed special organs for particular functions and whose life-juice has not reached the needed degree of improvement, even the mechanical actions of life are not distinguished. In Jelly-fish, the triple functions of seeing, hearing and breathing seem to be performed by one and the same organ, while it is a matter of common knowledge that snakes see and hear only by their organs of sight. In still lower beings, the protoplasmic cells for instance, ever this much of distinction of functions is absent, their one and only function being the automatic maintenance of mere life through the common and undiversified action of the entire body. Only as the chain of evolution gets lengthened and approaches are made towards the emergence of man through the improvement in the quality of the life-juice and the delimitation of the physical organs and nerve centres, the functions of living beings seem to become varied and specialised. And this development is the result of the gradual increase in the quality and volume of the 'Consciousness' of the animals. The purpose of evolution is to bring the underlying consciousness out into fuller view through certain physical agencies, including the mind.
The mind is an intangible, invisible entity that is somehow connected with the physicals body and that stands responsible for the awakening of knowledge. Cases of mind's absence have been discovered to be cases of unconsciousness, full or partial, permanent or temporary.
The nature and the constitution of the mind is the subject-matter of psychology. Whether it is material or non-material is a question of dispute. It is neither visible nor tangible. It does not possess the qualities characteristic of matter, such as the capacity to assume a particular form and the ability to occupy a portion in space. It must therefore be immaterial or non-material. But visibility and tangibility are not the only qualities of matter. Even change ability is an important feature, be it one of nature or quantity. In no instance has the mind been known to be permanent. It increases and decreases in strength and volume, from time to time or circumstances to circumstance; and this means that it is impermanent, at least in its quality. Things that are impermanent are not infinite, and finite ones are limited. Limitation is a factor of entities that are material; and, since the mind is impermanent and therefore limited, it must be matter.
The mind grows either by the impressions received from the outer world, or by its operations on its own previous states and stores. Every physical organ on the surface of our bodies like the eye or the ear is intended for some physical phenomenon like light or sound. By its peculiar construction, the organ in question is capable of receiving or catching the phenomenon for which it is constitutionally fit. Every such organ is connected with a special portion in the brain by means of nerves. No sooner does an organ catch a phenomenon, than does it send it to its particular centre in the brain; and the message, as it were, makes an impression on the brain or produces a fissure. The strength and the depth of the fissure depend upon the strength and the volume of the particular phenomenon.
These physical and physiological processes are necessary for knowledge, but they are only preliminary steps. What is most needed is the mind, and without it no knowledge is possible. The mind as an inevitable instrument for knowledge appears to be mostly connected with the brain. That it is unavoidable for the acquisition and the growth of knowledge is proved beyond doubt by the fact that, during deep sleep, one is not aware of anything that may take place around him. His mind is then at a low ebb, as it were, owing to the dullness of the activity of the nerves on which it depends, and is therefore, for the time being, beyond the reach of disturbance and awakening.
While for purposes of merely knowing the particulars of the external world, mind, as whole is enough, subtler analysis has discovered different states or modes in its operations. It is calm and unagitated before the receipt of a nervous impression on the brain; it gets disturbed when such an impression is produced; and, out of the general disturbances, it locates the source or the cause of that disturbance, which means that it recognises the impression and knows the particular object which has produced that impression. In its undisturbed and latent condition, it is termed Manas, in its awakened but undifferentiated state, Chitta; and in its determinative attitude Buddhi.
Psychology stops with the mind as the most important part of the human constitution for the knowledge of the surrounding world. But extra-psychological deliberations and deeper metaphysical speculations carry the analysis further and postulate some other entity beyond the mind, but for which any knowledge would be impossible. It is that which calls the world around, this body of ours and the mind also as 'my world', 'my body' and 'my mind,' and of which every thing else is but the possession or the property, the qualification or the thing owned. It is the bedrock of which all others are superficial structures; and it is that I or the person or the ego that is the ultimate knower of things. Before it, even the mind sinks but to the level of a transmitting agency.
Every moment of our lives hundreds of impressions are conveyed to the different brain centres from the several sense organs of our bodies; and consequently the mind, unless it is in a weak state or is totally absorbed, is ever agitated and is therefore always building up knowledge.
Every sense-experience, or 'sensation', caused by an external object produces a picture or impression, as it were, on the pliable material of the brain stuff and through it on the mind; and, when such an experience is repeated by the repeated presentation of the corresponding object, the impression gets strengthened with the result that the knowledge thereof built by the mind becomes clearer and more lasting.
No sentient being that is born in this world comes with an empty brain; and every sentient young one possesses, even from the moment of its nativity, a bundle of impressions or 'congenital Tendencies' derived partly through heredity and mostly through other sources. Starting from that original fun