THE HINDU SOCIAL ORDER : ITS UNIQUE FEATURES 117
perfection with saying yea to life, triumphant sense of well-being in regard to itself and to life,—the Sun shines upon the whole book. All those things which Christianity smothers with its bottomless vulgarity; procreation, women, marriage are here treated with earnestness, with reverence, with love and confidence. How can one possibly place in the hands of children and women, a book that contains those vile words;’ to avoid fornication let every man have his wife, let every woman have her own husband….. It is better to marry than to burn. And is it decent to be a Christian so long as the very origin of man is Christianised—that is to say, befouled, by the idea of the immaculate conception.”
Nietzsche never got any respectful or serious hearing in his own country. In his own words, he was ‘sometimes defied as the philosopher of the aristocracy and squiarchy, sometimes hooted at, sometimes pitied and sometimes boycotted as an inhuman being.’ Nietzsche’s philosophy had become identified with will to power, will to violence and denial of spiritual values, sacrifice, servility to and debasement of the common man in the interest of the Superman. His philosophy with these high spots had created a feeling of loathsomeness and horror in the minds of the people of his own generation. He was utterly neglected if not shunned and Nietzsche himself took comfort by placing himself among the ‘posthumous men’. He foresaw for himself a remote public, centuries after his own time to appreciate him. Here too Nietzsche was destined to be disappointed. Instead of there being any appreciation of his philosophy the lapse of time has only augmented the horror and loathing which people of his generation felt for Nietzsche. Having regard to the vile nature of Nietzsche’s philosophy some people may not be ready to believe that the Hindu social order is based on the worship of the Superman.
Let the Manu Smriti speak on this point. This is what Manu says with regard to the position of the Brahmin in the Hindu social order.
I. 93. “As the Brahmana sprang from Prajapati’s (i.e. God’s) mouth, as he was first-born, and as he possesses the Veda, he is by right the Lord of this whole creation.”
I. 94. “For the self-existent (Swayambhu) i.e. God having performed austerities, produced him first from his own mouth, in order that the offerings might be conveyed to the Gods and Manes and that this universe might be preserved.”
I. 95. “What created being can surpass him, through whose mouth the Gods continually consume the sacrificial viands and the Manes the offerings to the dead.”