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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size="4">The Moral and the Spiritual</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Is there anything essentially
wrong, evil in its very being and nature? Some religious traditions <span
class=GramE>say,</span> there is: Satan is such a thing, <span class=SpellE>Ahriman</span>
is such a thing, and what else is <span class=SpellE><i>maya</i></span><i>
</i>or <span class=SpellE><i>mara</i></span><i>?<o:p></o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>However
that may be, the sense of something essentially wrong is the fount and origin
of the moral sense. The moral sense stems <span class=SpellE>
<span style="background-color: #FFFFFF">from</span></span> and
lives on the sense of sin and guilt. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
sense of sin is the fundamental inspiration behind some religious disciplines,
even the sense of something irrevocably bad or something irreparable; for that
gives a stronger impetus, a more dynamic urge to the spur of the religious consciousness.
The sense of something irreparable, a final doom, has before it the vision of
an eternal hell, the Lord of hell and his hosts and his captives. Upon this
basic picture of Hell has loomed out Dante's vision of <st1:place>Paradise</st1:place>.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
Indian consciousness did not consider anything essentially evil, anything
irrevocably and eternally condemned to perdition. Even the <span class=SpellE>Asura</span>,
the anti-Divine is viewed, in the last analysis of things, also as an aspect, a
formation of the Divine himself. <span class=SpellE>Diti</span> and <span
class=SpellE>Aditi</span> are sisters, twin aspects of the same Supreme Being.
All the legends in narrating the life history of the <span class=SpellE>Asura</span>
describe his end as a submission to the Divine Will and a merging in Him. An
entire life of bitter hostility culminates in the same degree of love for the
Divine. The process of enmity seems to have a deeper <span class=GramE>occult<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>meaning conducive to the more perfect
union with the Divine. We know in <i>Savitri </i>how Sri <span class=SpellE>Aurobindo</span>
speaks of Death as only a mask of Immortality.</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
In fact, evil, as we usually know it, as human mind construes it, is only a 
misplacement of a thing, a thing not in its place<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>–<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>a
thing need not be essentially wrong, it is wrong because it<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;border:medium none;
mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 287<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>is</span>
not in its right place. Even things considered reprehensible by the moral sense
are not so when they are viewed from another standpoint.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
moral consciousness seeks to rescue man from the animal consciousness. Its
effort is to be delivered from the inferior vital instincts and rise to
something higher, genuinely human. It does that or tries to do that by
cultivating a feeling of repulsion, even of horror towards things that are
sought to be rejected, cast out. The feeling of repulsion, of revulsion and
horror, is indispensable to the growth and maintenance of the moral feeling.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The Indian discipline, on the other hand,
teaches that to rise to a higher state of consciousness one need not have, one
must not have, any feeling of revulsion or hatred. There is no such thing as
saintly hatred. One must be free from attachment to the movements of inferior <span
class=GramE>nature,</span> one must cultivate detachment from them, but not
necessarily through hatred or horror. The spiritual discipline bases itself
upon a sense of perfect equality.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>When
you have hatred or horror for a thing it means you are on the same plane with
it, your consciousness is level with the consciousness of the opposite
feelings. You have to rise above the status of the lower nature and this can be
done only by a calm detachment, a quiet withdrawal. One need not entertain
repulsion or hatred for animal life in order to <span class=GramE>rise</span>
superior to it, one automatically rises superior to it when one links oneself
to the higher status, when one is imbued with the superior consciousness. The
animal consciousness is not a wrong consciousness in itself, it is a life of
the animal; the human consciousness may regard it as such and may still
discover a superior consciousness looking at the movements of the lower world
dispassionately, indifferently, or even appreciatively, for a thing of beauty
is there even in the animal life, for the Divine is everywhere.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.15in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The moral impulse is towards
a self-exceeding but this self-exceeding, I have said, is to be done in perfect
equanimity, in absolute detachment and indifference. To rise in consciousness,
from the physical and animal to the divine, means, of course, abandoning the
inferior, reaching the higher: but 'inferior' does not mean something low,
something to be</p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page
– 288<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>despised</span>
and reviled, but simply something to be passed over, transcended. And the ideal
would be not only to surpass but to find out a secret parallelism between the
two, discover the seed of the higher embedded even in the lower. <span
class=GramE>The Indian discipline, including the school that advocates total
rejection of the lower and enjoins simple detachment and separation, does not
approve of any feeling of contempt or disgust.</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The states of being or consciousness from
the animal, or down from Matter itself up to the Supreme <i>– <span
class=SpellE>abrahmastamba</span> – </i>constitute what is called a
hierarchy. Hierarchy means a structure rising upward tier upon tier, step by
step: it is a scale, as it were, of increasing values, only the values are not
moral, they indicate only a measure, a neutral measure respecting position or
a kind of mass content. As in a building where brick is laid upon brick, or
stone upon stone, the one laid above is not superior to the one <span
class=GramE>laid</span> below; the terms inferior and superior indicate only
the simple position of the objects. Even the system of the four social orders
in ancient&quot; <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>
was originally such a hierarchy. The higher and lower orders did not carry any
moral appreciation or depreciation. The four orders placed one above the other
schematically denote only the respective social functions classified according
to the nature of each, even as the human body represents such a hierarchy,
rising from the feet at the bottom towards the head at the top. This is to say
all objects and movements in nature are <i>right </i>when they are confined
each to its own domain, following its own dharma of that domain. Thus one can
be perfectly calm and at ease witnessing the <span class=SpellE>catastrophies</span>
and cataclysms in nature, for one knows it is the dharma of material nature.
Man terms them disasters for he judges them according to his own convenience.
Even so, one should not be perturbed at the wild <span class=SpellE>behaviour</span>–man
calls it wild – of wild animals. Likewise the gods in their sovereign <span
class=SpellE>tranquillity</span> smile at the crudeness and stupidities of
human beings. One has to lift oneself up, withdraw and stand high above all
that one wishes to surpass and look at it, with a benign godly smile.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
world is a gradation of developing consciousness, of growing states or status
of being. There is a higher and lower level in point of the measure of
consciousness but that involves no moral <span class=SpellE>judgement</span>:
the moral <span class=SpellE>judgement</span> is <span class=GramE>man's</span>;
it is 
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;border:medium none;
mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 289<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>man's</span>,
one might almost say, <span class=SpellE>idiosyncracy</span>, that is to say, a
notion that is a prop to help him mount the ladder. Though it might be
necessary at a certain stage, in certain circumstances, it is not a universal
or ineluctable law, not even in his personal domain. The growing consciousness
is like the growing tree rising upward first into a trunk, then spreading out
into branches, into twigs and tendrils, then in flowers and finally, in fruits.
These are mounting grades of growth, but the growth above is <i>not superior </i>to
the growth below. It is a one unified whole and each portion has its own
absolute value, beauty and utility.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:288.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The modern mind has forgotten this lesson. It is terribly
moral – I say moral, not immoral – Its immorality has found play, has almost
been cultured so that its moral sense may remain intact. Its dislike and even
abhorrence for things it chooses to call immoral is the ransom it pays for
rescuing its sense of morality, and paradoxically this very abhorrence for
unholy things has pushed it all the more into their grasp. This is the
characteristic turn or twist of the modern consciousness, the perversity
unkl1own to the ancient 'sinners'. Perversity means, you yield, not only yield,
but take delight in the thing you dislike, detest or abhor even. In the vein of
<st1:City><st1:place>St. Augustine</st1:place></st1:City> who said &quot;I
believe because it is impossible&quot;, 1 the modern consciousness says: I love
because I hate.<span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>A
strange fascination for the forbidden fruit has gripped the modern mentality
and the most significant part of the thing is that the forbidding comes from
within oneself, not from any authority outside – It is self-forbidden. We are
reminded here of the Kantian moral absolute – the categorical imperative. This
is a gospel based upon the Christian and Semitic tradition, polished by the
Greek (that is, Socratic) touch, quickened and sharpened by the intellectual
and social stress of European Culture. <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>
admitted no such moral absolute or mental categorical imperative. The urge of
her spiritual consciousness was always to go beyond, beyond the dualities,
beyond the trinities (the three <span class=SpellE><span class=GramE><i>gunas )</i></span><i> - all </i>mental or scriptural rules and
regulations. <span class=GramE>For her there is only one absolute – the transcendent,
the Supreme Divine himself – the Brahman, nothing else, <i>netaram.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:
8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>¹ <i>Credo <span class=SpellE>quia</span> <span
class=SpellE>impossibile</span> </i>is actually a phrase of <span class=SpellE>Tertullian</span>
vide his <i>De Carne Christi, </i>V – though often ascribed to <st1:City><st1:place>St. Augustine</st1:place></st1:City></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:11.75pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page – 290<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
Indian spiritual consciousness considers the secular distinction of good and evil
as otiose: both are <span class=SpellE>maya</span>, there must neither be
attachment to the Good, nor repulsion from Evil, the two, <span class=SpellE><i>dwandwas</i></span><i>,
</i>belong to the same category of relativity, that is, unreality.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Indian
artists and poets were steeped in that tradition, wholly inspired by that
spirit. Orthodox morality often wonders, is even shocked at the frankness, the
daring nonchalance in Indian art <span class=GramE>creations ,</span> – a
familiar prudery would call it shamelessness and even vulgarity, but to the
Indian view, 'the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant' are of equal value and
merit. The movement conventional morality calls 'libidinous' has a nobler name
in Indian tradition: it is <span class=SpellE>a<i>dirasa</i></span><i>, </i>the
first or primary delight of existence. As I have said, the modern consciousness
finds it a horror and is therefore all the more fascinated by it and dives into
it head foremost.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>To
cure the modern malady we have to go back again to something of the ancient
mentality. We have to cultivate a consciousness, now forgotten and alienated
but once natural to the human mind, the consciousness and status of a transcendence
built with the sense of absolute calm, an equality, all serene and all <span
class=SpellE><span class=GramE>englobing, that</span>
is God's consciousness.</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
'>Page – 291<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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