PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM 87
the truth only to hate it. Tennyson said “We must love the highest when we see it”. It does not follow. Seen in pure objectivity the highest repels by its difference and distance; what we fear it, and what we fear we come to hate ......”
This is the fate of all treanscendal philosophies. They have no influence on the way of life. As Blake said “ Religion is politics and politics is Brotherhood. Philosophy must become Religion that is it must become a Working Ethic. It must not remain mere metaphysics. As Mr. Plowman says—
“If religion were a Metaphysic and nothing else, one thing is certain, it would never be the concern of the simple and humble men.
“To keep it wholly in the realm of Metaphysic is to make nonsense of it. For belief in religion as in something not directly and vitally effective of politics is ultimately belief that is strictly speaking idiotic; because in the effective sense such a belief makes no difference, and in the world of time and space what ‘makes no difference’ does not exist.”
It is for these very reasons that the philosophy of the Upanishads proved so ineffective.
It is therefore incontrovertible that notwithstanding the Hindu Code of Ethics, notwithstanding the philosophy of the Upanishads not a little not a jot did abate from the philosophy of Hinduism as propounded by Manu. They were ineffective and powerless to eraze the infamy preached by Manu in the name of religion. Notwithstanding their existence one can still say
“Hinduism! Thy name is inequality!”
V
Inequality is the soul of Hinduism. The morality of Hinduism is only social. It is unmoral and unhuman to say the least. What is unmoral and unhuman easily becomes immoral, inhuman and infamous. This is what Hinduism has become. Those who doubt this or deny this proposition should examine the social composition of the Hindu Society and ponder over the condition of some of the elements in it. Take the following cases.
First as to the Primitive Tribes. In what state of civilization are they ?
The history of human civilization includes the entire period of human progress from Savagery to Barbarism and from Barbarism to Civilization. The transition from one to other has been marked by