Civility of conduct1 is more radiant than knowledge, art, poetry, literature, wealth and kingship. In attaining decency of conduct, a poor man can dominate even the hearts of kings. The faculty for art, literature and music are obtained through this state of civilization, kingship develops a refined sweetness. Shiva’s third eye of learning opens; paintings sing the silent ragas. He who speaks falls into silence, the writer’s writing draws to a halt. Before the idol-maker, new cheeks, new eyes, a whole new image reveals itself.
The formal language of refined conduct is always unspoken. In its lexicon, the pages are unwritten, perfectly white. This refinement is silent even in speech. In discoursing, it veils itself behind discourse. In singing the ragas, it disappears within the tones of the ragas. Civility and refinement of conduct are imbued in sweetness of speech. Humility, kindness, love and generosity are all silent idioms in the language of civilization. These idioms profoundly affect a man’s life and become a part of his soul.
The godlike divinity of this science of silence is beyond the language of love. The essence of life is beyond the grasp of words. The transformative impact of true conduct can be captured neither in the minutiae of literature, nor merely through the sweet exhortations of the srutis of the Vedas, the Gospels, the Quran, nor through religious discourse, or through religious congregations. For the man thrown into the forest of life, the virtues found in the wordless toil of nature and human life, like the soft pattering of the goldsmith’s little hammer, forge the shape of refined civilized conduct.
Today, the snow-turbaned Himalayas seem sublime, standing tall and proud. Nature has, over the ages, toiled to collect grains of sand, each washed in the ocean’s waters, shaped with the precise blows of nature’s various tools, and so presented this Himalayas to us. Correctness of conduct too is a temple situated at a great height. To cultivate it takes an eternity.
The Creator is forever silent. This silence is not the purview of language or speech. It can only whisper the guru-mantar in the ears of the civilized; only in the heart of the sage can it cast its light of wisdom.
That someone’s bearings may be shaken by a gust of wind, but a furious hail of literature does not move even a hair of his head—this is to be expected. One may be moved by the touch of a flower’s soft petal; the coolness of water may pacify one’s anger or prurience. The sight of snow may inspire purity, one’s gaze be cleansed by sunlight—but a discourse in English, even if penned by Carlyle, makes scarce any sense to the priests of Banaras. Similarly, the priests’ exegetic debates on the nuances of justice and grammar hold no more meaning for those unacquainted with Sanskrit than a steam engine’s roar. Were you to claim that lectures, sermons and theological discourses have had a profound impact on the hearts of many men and women, one can reply that it is not words that have an effect—the effect is always of good conduct. Generally, sermons are delivered in every church, temple and mosque, but they stir us only when the priest of the church is transfigured into Jesus himself—the priest of the temple himself becomes a Brahma-rishi—the mullah of the mosque himself channels the Prophet.
The vastness of man’s disposition is such that many principles, high and low, virtuous and profane, wealth and poverty, progress and destruction etc., come together to give form to its conduct. The sacrality of the profane is as powerful as the sacrality of the sacred. All that is present in the world is meant only for the refinement of one’s conduct. The inner soul responds to what is reflected in the mingling of phenomenal elements. The ones we know as holy men—who can say what depths they descended to before discovering the light? Who knows what sins or vices paved their path to divine wisdom? Perhaps the ones we call civilized, the ones who treasure purity above all else, were wallowing in wicked and immoral indulgences no more than a few days ago.
Until one does not step outside the lightless dungeon filled with traditions accrued birth after birth, and bask in the open country of light and clear winds, until purity of disposition does not open one’s eyes, how can one hope to understand the core of religion? What benefit can darkness draw from light? What can the deaf gain from ragas? What is the use of poetry, literature, saints, prophets, gurus, teachers, sages etc., if the soul does not possess the strength to learn from them? As long as the life-seed remains buried in the filth of the earth, until it does not bloom out from the manure, sprouting two new leaves, what do light and wind mean to it?
Sects across the world describe ineffable and unknown phenomena, but our eyes continue to be blindfolded by Maya2—and yet, it is also necessary to keep them covered under Maya’s veil in one’s experience of religion! How, then, can I discern their meaning? The feelings and disposition which resides in the heart of those teachers, which sit cocooned in silence within their speech—until I myself cultivate the same disposition as them, how can I hope to know them?
Where is this disposition, which resides in the unspoken speech of religious sects, found within us? If it does not exist at all, then why must these sects not become the Kurukshetra of our psychological Mahabharatas? What keeps hatred, profanity, murder and atrocities from spilling our blood in the name of these sects? No sect can be of any use to a men incapable of correct conduct. On the other hand, to the man possessed of refined bearing, all sects are beneficial. A true sage brings glory to religion; to put on a religious garb does not compel another’s piety.
If I do not have any knowledge of God, so be it. What is the use of such knowledge? As long as I wield my hammer properly and forge a sword from formless iron, even if I do not have knowledge of God, so be it. What is the use of that knowledge to me—as long as I pursue my salvation with the correct rites, even if I do not experience any sense of spiritual purity, so be it. What would one achieve from that? As long as a ship’s captain has the courage in his heart to not abandon his ship even in the most precarious adversity, then what does it matter if he is a drunkard or a womanizer in your eyes or mine? What is the use of talking ill about him? Lightning may tear through the skies or storms may engulf the sea, but he perseveres with his religion day and night, as he stands on the bridge of the ship with his eyes wide open to protect his ship. When the sea swallows his ship, he goes down with it; he does not think about saving his own life. Is his conduct in any way less magnificent than the nonsense spoken by us while sprawled in our beds and lolling in our seats?
The high stature that the Anglo-Saxon race has attained is because of its connection with and command over the sea, forests and mountains. Its progress has been the result of a life of fighting, killing and being killed, plundering and being plundered, hunting and being hunted. People say that religion alone can elevate a race. That is fine, but the blossoming of faith that uplifts a race does not bloom upon the dirty ash heap of such an uncivilized, sin-riddled life. Europe did not reach such heights through the dim glow of candles in temples and churches. The harsh life-force that does not find peace unless it roams about in search of distant countries, whose inner fire is not quenched without conquering, plundering, killing and ruling over other peoples, only such a force can move them to sail the vast oceans and cross mountains, and has steered them, and continues to steer them, towards greatness.
When one beholds today’s ammunitions, warships and trading fleets, it has to be said these will aid the birth of an even higher civilization through the present one. Had warships not spread like flies across the seas of Europe, had every house of Europe not been filled with gold and diamonds, the teachers and sages of material science would never have arisen there. That crown of knowledge that mankind wears today would never have been received by Europe, if the Europeans had not turned into brutes to amass wealth and glory. On the one hand, the first part of Europe’s life appears barbaric and uncivilized; on the other, the second half of Europe’s life, in which the sun of the sages of science and wisdom blazes, appears so great that in no time, we shall surely forget the first part.
If all the water of all the oceans were to evaporate, a kernel of radium will be found somewhere. Can the radium of purity of disposition, of refined conduct, be acquired without turning every man, every race, all of the world and nature’s expanse into manure? Nature must not be dismissed as myth, but utilized in the genesis of newer myths. Amrita3 must be extracted from the seas (and how much?—a little bit!). The ashes of the whole world must be sifted through to find the gold that is correct conduct.
Had the Hindus had any contact with an ancient barbaric race, surely their current lineage would have produced stronger men. They too would bear sages, mighty generals and resilient fighters today. Instead, engrossed in the supremely sacred lives of the ancient sages of the Upanishads, they grow arrogant even as they continue to degenerate day by day. Had they been the children of a wild race, they too would have been sages and mighty warriors. We agree that the Europeans were once a barbaric race, but today we are the uncivilized ones.
With its face turned towards the stars, Bharat is about to tumble into the seas. One more step, and lo! The only reason for this is that it has preferred to lose itself in daydreams, for it has decided that it can survive without bread; that it can perform padmasanas in the air, lift itself off the earth; it can gauge the mysteries of the Sun and the stars through yoga and siddhis4; it can sleep soundly on the ocean’s bed. But as of today, neither in the eyes of the world nor of God has any of it been proven true. If it still refuses to wake up, then we must blow the conch fearlessly, ring the gong of the march, and inform the world that the people of Bharat have left this world!
What the author means is that refinement and correctness of conduct are never acquired by building castles in the air: it must be whittled with rocks. If parsing through the pages of spiritual tomes for thousands of years has brought you no special benefit, why do you persevere so? Can you not see your own condition? Why don’t you march ahead with ploughs in hand? What is the use of looking back? Let loose the horse of your ashvamedha-yajna5 in the open world. You must take the risk and test your worth.
It is in withstanding the storms and vicissitudes of ordinary life, its intensities and plateaus, wealth and poverty, that one truly performs tapas. The visions of spiritual religiosity only seem beauteous and graceful when accompanied by the practical religion of life. The metaphysical beauty of the open sea can be contemplated only on a sailing ship. To the hungry, even the moon and the sun appear to be just two big rotis. It is in the shelter of the hut that the divine beauty of sun, storm and snow can be tasted. Inner order follows the establishment of worldly order, and only then it can maintain stability. Attaining civility and refinement of conduct is possible when there is inner spiritual order, and only then it can maintain stability. As long as the poor man continues to fill his stomach through sin, the wealthy man’s pure conduct cannot be proved. Similarly, as long as the ignorant man’s conduct remains impure, the conduct of the wise cannot be proved— until then there is no state of civilization in the world.
To split every single substance into atoms, and to find oneself in each of these atoms, to gather these atoms again into unity—this is to attain true refinement of conduct. The attainment of refined conduct is the attainment of the state of unity, be it a bed of flowers or of thorns, the poor or the rich, a king or a farmer, the sick or the healthy— the heart expands and allows the whole of the world to lay its bed inside it and rest in bliss. When the civilization of correct conduct arrives in the world, man hears the voices of the gods from the blue heavens. Men and women blossom like flowers. Where such men congregate, where such light glows, that is the golden land of the civilization of pure conduct. That country is the true home of man. It is not good to sleep away from home. Idleness is death. Articles and essays are like pictures of trees: these are not trees that can bear fruit. The author has crafted this picture in the hope that it may compel someone to go and behold a real tree.
ਆਚਰਣ ਦੀ ਸਭਿਅਤਾ, variously translated here as ‘refinement of conduct,’ ‘purity of disposition,’ ‘correctness of conduct,’ ‘civilization,’ &c.
power of creation, nature, perceived reality; by extension: illusion.
lit. ‘elixir of immortality’
occult powers, supernatural abilities
The Vedic horse sacrifice ritual, ‘a special rite performed by the kings with the aim of expanding their kingdom’ (Gopal 1990). The sacrificer would release the horse, accompanied by the king’s soldiers, to wander for a year. Wandering into a rival’s territory entailed conflict, victory affirming the sacrificer’s sovereignty.