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Updated: May 26, 2025
And, throughout forty centuries, or more, this race has held steadfastly to the original doctrine, until now the West is looking again to it for light on the great problems of human life and existence, and now, in the Twentieth Century, many careful thinkers consider that in the study and understanding of the great fundamental thoughts of the Vedas and the Upanishads, the West will find the only possible antidote to the virus of Materialism that is poisoning the veins of Western spiritual understanding.
In India the Râmâyaṇa is a favourite recitation among all classes, and dramatized versions of various episodes are performed as religious plays. Though two late Upanishads, the Râmapûrvatâpanîya and Râmauttaratâpaniya extol Râma as the Supreme Being, there is no Râmapurâṇa.
To be a Hindu it is not sufficient to hold the doctrine of the Upanishads or any other scriptures: it is necessary to be a member of a Hindu caste and observe its regulations. It is not quite correct to say that one must be born a Hindu, since Hinduism has grown by gradually hinduizing the wilder tribes of India and the process still continues.
How, indeed, was Vritra, who was virtuous, devoted to Vishnu, endued with knowledge of truth derivable from a just comprehension of the Upanishads and Vedanta, vanquished by Indra, O foremost of men? O chief of the Bharatas, resolve me this doubt. Indeed, tell me, O tiger among kings, how Vritra was vanquished by Sakra! My curiosity to hear it is very great."
'But now, O sire, I have found all the wealth and treasure and honour of the universe in these words that were uttered by the King of Kings, the Lover of Love, the Giver of Heritages. There are in fact numerous passages in the Gita which, united, would form a Holy Living and a Holy Dying, if we were at the pains to add to the number of the passages a few taken from the Upanishads.
The heart will throb, the blood will leap in the veins, and the millions of living atoms of my body will vibrate in tune with the note of the harp-string that thrills at the touch of the master. The Upanishads say: "Man becomes true if in this life he can apprehend God; if not, it is the greatest calamity for him." But what is the nature of this attainment of God?
Leaving aside the four books of the Vedas; the Puranas which are written in Sanscrit and composed of eighteen volumes containing 400,000 strophes treating of law, rights, theogony, medicine, the creation and destruction of the world, etc.; the vast Shastras, which deal with mathematics, grammar, etc.; the Upa-Vedas, Upanishads, Upo-Puranas which are explanatory of the Puranas; and a number of other commentaries in several volumes; there still remain twelve vast books, containing the laws of Manu, the grandchild of Brahma books dealing not only with civil and criminal law, but also the canonical rules rules which impose upon the faithful such a considerable number of ceremonies that one is surprised into admiration of the illimitable patience the Hindus show in observance of the precepts inculcated by Saint Manu.
But a mere translation, however accurate and sympathetic, is not sufficient to make the Upanishads accessible to the Occidental mind.
By the time the sun rose, my father, after his prayers, finished with me our morning milk, and then, I standing at his side, he would once more hold communion with God, chanting the Upanishads. Then we would go out for a walk. But how should I keep pace with him? Many an older person could not!
When the Yogi has learnt to assume a permanent posture, he accustoms himself to regulate the acts of inspiration and expiration so as to prolong the period of quiescence between the two. He will thus remove the veils which cover the light within him. This practice probably depends on the idea which constantly crops up in the Upanishads that the breath is the life and the soul.
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