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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7176-h.zip b/7176-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20f99dd --- /dev/null +++ b/7176-h.zip diff --git a/7176-h/7176-h.htm b/7176-h/7176-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7c760c --- /dev/null +++ b/7176-h/7176-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1247 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + A Letter to a Hindu, by Leo Tolstoy + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to a Hindu, by Leo Tolstoy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Letter to a Hindu + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Commentator: M. K. Gandhi + +Release Date: April 6, 2009 [EBook #7176] +Last Updated: November 26, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + + + + +Produced by Chetan Jain, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + A LETTER TO A HINDU + </h1> + <h2> + THE SUBJECTION OF INDIA—<br /> ITS CAUSE AND CURE + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + <i>With an Introduction by</i> M. K. GANDHI + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + Leo Tolstoy + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h4> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> A LETTER TO A HINDU </a> + </h4> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + The letter printed below is a translation of Tolstoy's letter written in + Russian in reply to one from the Editor of Free Hindustan. After having + passed from hand to hand, this letter at last came into my possession + through a friend who asked me, as one much interested in Tolstoy's + writings, whether I thought it worth publishing. I at once replied in the + affirmative, and told him I should translate it myself into Gujarati and + induce others' to translate and publish it in various Indian vernaculars. + </p> + <p> + The letter as received by me was a type-written copy. It was therefore + referred to the author, who confirmed it as his and kindly granted me + permission to print it. + </p> + <p> + To me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have long looked + upon as one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to be connected with + the publication of his letter, such especially as the one which is now + being given to the world. + </p> + <p> + It is a mere statement of fact to say that every Indian, whether he owns + up to it or not, has national aspirations. But there are as many opinions + as there are Indian nationalists as to the exact meaning of that + aspiration, and more especially as to the methods to be used to attain the + end. + </p> + <p> + One of the accepted and 'time-honoured' methods to attain the end is that + of violence. The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie was an illustration of + that method in its worst and most detestable form. Tolstoy's life has been + devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or + securing reform by the method of non-resistance to evil. He would meet + hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self-suffering. He + admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. + He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind. + </p> + <p> + When a man like Tolstoy, one of the clearest thinkers in the western + world, one of the greatest writers, one who as a soldier has known what + violence is and what it can do, condemns Japan for having blindly followed + the law of modern science, falsely so-called, and fears for that country + 'the greatest calamities', it is for us to pause and consider whether, in + our impatience of English rule, we do not want to replace one evil by + another and a worse. India, which is the nursery of the great faiths of + the world, will cease to be nationalist India, whatever else she may + become, when she goes through the process of civilization in the shape of + reproduction on that sacred soil of gun factories and the hateful + industrialism which has reduced the people of Europe to a state of + slavery, and all but stifled among them the best instincts which are the + heritage of the human family. + </p> + <p> + If we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. Tolstoy + indicates it. 'Do not resist evil, but also do not yourselves participate + in evil—in the violent deeds of the administration of the law + courts, the collection of taxes and, what is more important, of the + soldiers, and no one in the world will enslave you', passionately declares + the sage of Yasnaya Polyana. Who can question the truth of what he says in + the following: 'A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two + hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will + fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it mean that thirty + thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and ordinary people, have + enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, clever, capable, freedom-loving + people? Do not the figures make it clear that not the English, but the + Indians, have enslaved themselves?' + </p> + <p> + One need not accept all that Tolstoy says—some of his facts are not + accurately stated—to realize the central truth of his indictment of + the present system, which is to understand and act upon the irresistible + power of the soul over the body, of love, which is an attribute of the + soul, over the brute or body force generated by the stirring in us of evil + passions. + </p> + <p> + There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy preaches. But + his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly forceful. His logic is + unassailable. And above all he endeavours to practise what he preaches. He + preaches to convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He commands attention. + </p> + <p> + [<i>19th November, 1909</i>] M. K. GANDHI + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LETTER TO A HINDU + </h2> + <p> + By Leo Tolstoy + </p> + <p> + <i>All that exists is One. People only call this One by different names.</i> + THE VEDAS. + </p> + <p> + <i>God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God + abideth in him.</i> I JOHN iv. 16. + </p> + <p> + <i>God is one whole; we are the parts.</i> EXPOSITION OF THE TEACHING OF + THE VEDAS BY VIVEKANANDA. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + Do not seek quiet and rest in those earthly realms where delusions and + desires are engendered, for if thou dost, thou wilt be dragged through the + rough wilderness of life, which is far from Me. + </p> + <p> + Whenever thou feelest that thy feet are becoming entangled in the + interlaced roots of life, know that thou has strayed from the path to + which I beckon thee: for I have placed thee in broad, smooth paths, which + are strewn with flowers. I have put a light before thee, which thou canst + follow and thus run without stumbling. KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + I have received your letter and two numbers of your periodical, both of + which interest me extremely. The oppression of a majority by a minority, + and the demoralization inevitably resulting from it, is a phenomenon that + has always occupied me and has done so most particularly of late. I will + try to explain to you what I think about that subject in general, and + particularly about the cause from which the dreadful evils of which you + write in your letter, and in the Hindu periodical you have sent me, have + arisen and continue to arise. + </p> + <p> + The reason for the astonishing fact that a majority of working people + submit to a handful of idlers who control their labour and their very + lives is always and everywhere the same—whether the oppressors and + oppressed are of one race or whether, as in India and elsewhere, the + oppressors are of a different nation. + </p> + <p> + This phenomenon seems particularly strange in India, for there more than + two hundred million people, highly gifted both physically and mentally, + find themselves in the power of a small group of people quite alien to + them in thought, and immeasurably inferior to them in religious morality. + </p> + <p> + From your letter and the articles in <i>Free Hindustan</i> as well as from + the very interesting writings of the Hindu Swami Vivekananda and others, + it appears that, as is the case in our time with the ills of all nations, + the reason lies in the lack of a reasonable religious teaching which by + explaining the meaning of life would supply a supreme law for the guidance + of conduct and would replace the more than dubious precepts of + pseudo-religion and pseudo-science with the immoral conclusions deduced + from them and commonly called 'civilization'. + </p> + <p> + Your letter, as well as the articles in <i>Free Hindustan</i> and Indian + political literature generally, shows that most of the leaders of public + opinion among your people no longer attach any significance to the + religious teachings that were and are professed by the peoples of India, + and recognize no possibility of freeing the people from the oppression + they endure except by adopting the irreligious and profoundly immoral + social arrangements under which the English and other pseudo-Christian + nations live to-day. + </p> + <p> + And yet the chief if not the sole cause of the enslavement of the Indian + peoples by the English lies in this very absence of a religious + consciousness and of the guidance for conduct which should flow from it—a + lack common in our day to all nations East and West, from Japan to England + and America alike. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + <i>O ye, who see perplexities over your heads, beneath your feet, and to + the right and left of you; you will be an eternal enigma unto yourselves + until ye become humble and joyful as children. Then will ye find Me, and + having found Me in yourselves, you will rule over worlds, and looking out + from the great world within to the little world without, you will bless + everything that is, and find all is well with time and with you.</i> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + To make my thoughts clear to you I must go farther back. We do not, + cannot, and I venture to say need not, know how men lived millions of + years ago or even ten thousand years ago, but we do know positively that, + as far back as we have any knowledge of mankind, it has always lived in + special groups of families, tribes, and nations in which the majority, in + the conviction that it must be so, submissively and willingly bowed to the + rule of one or more persons—that is to a very small minority. + Despite all varieties of circumstances and personalities these relations + manifested themselves among the various peoples of whose origin we have + any knowledge; and the farther back we go the more absolutely necessary + did this arrangement appear, both to the rulers and the ruled, to make it + possible for people to live peacefully together. + </p> + <p> + So it was everywhere. But though this external form of life existed for + centuries and still exists, very early—thousands of years before our + time—amid this life based on coercion, one and the same thought + constantly emerged among different nations, namely, that in every + individual a spiritual element is manifested that gives life to all that + exists, and that this spiritual element strives to unite with everything + of a like nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. This + thought appeared in most various forms at different times and places, with + varying completeness and clarity. It found expression in Brahmanism, + Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of Zoroaster), in Buddhism, Taoism, + Confucianism, and in the writings of the Greek and Roman sages, as well as + in Christianity and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this thought has + sprung up among different nations and at different times indicates that it + is inherent in human nature and contains the truth. But this truth was + made known to people who considered that a community could only be kept + together if some of them restrained others, and so it appeared quite + irreconcilable with the existing order of society. Moreover it was at + first expressed only fragmentarily, and so obscurely that though people + admitted its theoretic truth they could not entirely accept it as guidance + for their conduct. Then, too, the dissemination of the truth in a society + based on coercion was always hindered in one and the same manner, namely, + those in power, feeling that the recognition of this truth would undermine + their position, consciously or sometimes unconsciously perverted it by + explanations and additions quite foreign to it, and also opposed it by + open violence. Thus the truth—that his life should be directed by + the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself as love, + and which is so natural to man—this truth, in order to force a way + to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely against the obscurity + with which it was expressed and the intentional and unintentional + distortions surrounding it, but also against deliberate violence, which by + means of persecutions and punishments sought to compel men to accept + religious laws authorized by the rulers and conflicting with the truth. + Such a hindrance and misrepresentation of the truth—which had not + yet achieved complete clarity—occurred everywhere: in Confucianism + and Taoism, in Buddhism and in Christianity, in Mohammedanism and in your + Brahmanism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + <i>My hand has sowed love everywhere, giving unto all that will receive. + Blessings are offered unto all My children, but many times in their + blindness they fail to see them. How few there are who gather the gifts + which lie in profusion at their feet: how many there are, who, in wilful + waywardness, turn their eyes away from them and complain with a wail that + they have not that which I have given them; many of them defiantly + repudiate not only My gifts, but Me also, Me, the Source of all blessings + and the Author of their being.</i> KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + <i>I tarry awhile from the turmoil and strife of the world. I will + beautify and quicken thy life with love and with joy, for the light of the + soul is Love. Where Love is, there is contentment and peace, and where + there is contentment and peace, there am I, also, in their midst.</i> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + <i>The aim of the sinless One consists in acting without causing sorrow to + others, although he could attain to great power by ignoring their + feelings.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>The aim of the sinless One lies in not doing evil unto those who have + done evil unto him.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>If a man causes suffering even to those who hate him without any + reason, he will ultimately have grief not to be overcome.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of + themselves by doing them a great kindness.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>Of what use is superior knowledge in the one, if he does not endeavour + to relieve his neighbour's want as much as his own?</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>If, in the morning, a man wishes to do evil unto another, in the + evening the evil will return to him.</i> + </p> + <p> + THE HINDU KURAL. + </p> + <p> + Thus it went on everywhere. The recognition that love represents the + highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was so + interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted it, + that finally nothing of it remained but words. It was taught that this + highest morality was only applicable to private life—for home use, + as it were—but that in public life all forms of violence—such + as imprisonment, executions, and wars—might be used for the + protection of the majority against a minority of evildoers, though such + means were diametrically opposed to any vestige of love. And though common + sense indicated that if some men claim to decide who is to be subjected to + violence of all kinds for the benefit of others, these men to whom + violence is applied may, in turn, arrive at a similar conclusion with + regard to those who have employed violence to them, and though the great + religious teachers of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and above all of Christianity, + foreseeing such a perversion of the law of love, have constantly drawn + attention to the one invariable condition of love (namely, the enduring of + injuries, insults, and violence of all kinds without resisting evil by + evil) people continued—regardless of all that leads man forward—to + try to unite the incompatibles: the virtue of love, and what is opposed to + love, namely, the restraining of evil by violence. And such a teaching, + despite its inner contradiction, was so firmly established that the very + people who recognize love as a virtue accept as lawful at the same time an + order of life based on violence and allowing men not merely to torture but + even to kill one another. + </p> + <p> + For a long time people lived in this obvious contradiction without + noticing it. But a time arrived when this contradiction became more and + more evident to thinkers of various nations. And the old and simple truth + that it is natural for men to help and to love one another, but not to + torture and to kill one another, became ever clearer, so that fewer and + fewer people were able to believe the sophistries by which the distortion + of the truth had been made so plausible. + </p> + <p> + In former times the chief method of justifying the use of violence and + thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a divine right for the + rulers: the Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, and other heads of states. But + the longer humanity lived the weaker grew the belief in this peculiar, God—given + right of the ruler. That belief withered in the same way and almost + simultaneously in the Christian and the Brahman world, as well as in + Buddhist and Confucian spheres, and in recent times it has so faded away + as to prevail no longer against man's reasonable understanding and the + true religious feeling. People saw more and more clearly, and now the + majority see quite clearly, the senselessness and immorality of + subordinating their wills to those of other people just like themselves, + when they are bidden to do what is contrary not only to their interests + but also to their moral sense. And so one might suppose that having lost + confidence in any religious authority for a belief in the divinity of + potentates of various kinds, people would try to free themselves from + subjection to it. But unfortunately not only were the rulers, who were + considered supernatural beings, benefited by having the peoples in + subjection, but as a result of the belief in, and during the rule of, + these pseudodivine beings, ever larger and larger circles of people + grouped and established themselves around them, and under an appearance of + governing took advantage of the people. And when the old deception of a + supernatural and God-appointed authority had dwindled away these men were + only concerned to devise a new one which like its predecessor should make + it possible to hold the people in bondage to a limited number of rulers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + <i>Children, do you want to know by what your hearts should be guided? + Throw aside your longings and strivings after that which is null and void; + get rid of your erroneous thoughts about happiness and wisdom, and your + empty and insincere desires. Dispense with these and you will know Love.</i> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + <i>Be not the destroyers of yourselves. Arise to your true Being, and then + you will have nothing to fear.</i> KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + New justifications have now appeared in place of the antiquated, obsolete, + religious ones. These new justifications are just as inadequate as the old + ones, but as they are new their futility cannot immediately be recognized + by the majority of men. Besides this, those who enjoy power propagate + these new sophistries and support them so skilfully that they seem + irrefutable even to many of those who suffer from the oppression these + theories seek to justify. These new justifications are termed + 'scientific'. But by the term 'scientific' is understood just what was + formerly understood by the term 'religious': just as formerly everything + called 'religious' was held to be unquestionable simply because it was + called religious, so now all that is called 'scientific' is held to be + unquestionable. In the present case the obsolete religious justification + of violence which consisted in the recognition of the supernatural + personality of the God-ordained ruler ('there is no power but of God') has + been superseded by the 'scientific' justification which puts forward, + first, the assertion that because the coercion of man by man has existed + in all ages, it follows that such coercion must continue to exist. This + assertion that people should continue to live as they have done throughout + past ages rather than as their reason and conscience indicate, is what + 'science' calls 'the historic law'. A further 'scientific' justification + lies in the statement that as among plants and wild beasts there is a + constant struggle for existence which always results in the survival of + the fittest, a similar struggle should be carried on among human beings—beings, + that is, who are gifted with intelligence and love; faculties lacking in + the creatures subject to the struggle for existence and survival of the + fittest. Such is the second 'scientific' justification. + </p> + <p> + The third, most important, and unfortunately most widespread justification + is, at bottom, the age-old religious one just a little altered: that in + public life the suppression of some for the protection of the majority + cannot be avoided—so that coercion is unavoidable however desirable + reliance on love alone might be in human intercourse. The only difference + in this justification by pseudo-science consists in the fact that, to the + question why such and such people and not others have the right to decide + against whom violence may and must be used, pseudo-science now gives a + different reply to that given by religion—which declared that the + right to decide was valid because it was pronounced by persons possessed + of divine power. 'Science' says that these decisions represent the will of + the people, which under a constitutional form of government is supposed to + find expression in all the decisions and actions of those who are at the + helm at the moment. + </p> + <p> + Such are the scientific justifications of the principle of coercion. They + are not merely weak but absolutely invalid, yet they are so much needed by + those who occupy privileged positions that they believe in them as blindly + as they formerly believed in the immaculate conception, and propagate them + just as confidently. And the unfortunate majority of men bound to toil is + so dazzled by the pomp with which these 'scientific truths' are presented, + that under this new influence it accepts these scientific stupidities for + holy truth, just as it formerly accepted the pseudo-religious + justifications; and it continues to submit to the present holders of power + who are just as hard-hearted but rather more numerous than before. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + <i>Who am I? I am that which thou hast searched for since thy baby eyes + gazed wonderingly upon the world, whose horizon hides this real life from + thee. I am that which in thy heart thou hast prayed for, demanded as thy + birthright, although thou hast not known what it was. I am that which has + lain in thy soul for hundreds and thousands of years. Sometimes I lay in + thee grieving because thou didst not recognize me; sometimes I raised my + head, opened my eyes, and extended my arms calling thee either tenderly + and quietly, or strenuously, demanding that thou shouldst rebel against + the iron chains which bound thee to the earth.</i> + </p> + <p> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + So matters went on, and still go on, in the Christian world. But we might + have hope that in the immense Brahman, Buddhist, and Confucian worlds this + new scientific superstition would not establish itself, and that the + Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, once their eyes were opened to the + religious fraud justifying violence, would advance directly to a + recognition of the law of love inherent in humanity, and which had been so + forcibly enunciated by the great Eastern teachers. But what has happened + is that the scientific superstition replacing the religious one has been + accepted and secured a stronger and stronger hold in the East. + </p> + <p> + In your periodical you set out as the basic principle which should guide + the actions of your people the maxim that: 'Resistance to aggression is + not simply justifiable but imperative, nonresistance hurts both Altruism + and Egotism.' + </p> + <p> + Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it you too + have the only method of saving your people from enslavement. In very + ancient times love was proclaimed with special strength and clearness + among your people to be the religious basis of human life. Love, and + forcible resistance to evil-doers, involve such a mutual contradiction as + to destroy utterly the whole sense and meaning of the conception of love. + And what follows? With a light heart and in the twentieth century you, an + adherent of a religious people, deny their law, feeling convinced of your + scientific enlightenment and your right to do so, and you repeat (do not + take this amiss) the amazing stupidity indoctrinated in you by the + advocates of the use of violence—the enemies of truth, the servants + first of theology and then of science—your European teachers. + </p> + <p> + You say that the English have enslaved your people and hold them in + subjection because the latter have not resisted resolutely enough and have + not met force by force. + </p> + <p> + But the case is just the opposite. If the English have enslaved the people + of India it is just because the latter recognized, and still recognize, + force as the fundamental principle of the social order. In accord with + that principle they submitted to their little rajahs, and on their behalf + struggled against one another, fought the Europeans, the English, and are + now trying to fight with them again. + </p> + <p> + A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. + Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp what + these words mean. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes + but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million + vigorous, clever, capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the figures + make it clear that it is not the English who have enslaved the Indians, + but the Indians who have enslaved themselves? + </p> + <p> + When the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it is as if + drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers who have settled among them + have enslaved them. You tell them that they might give up drinking, but + they reply that they are so accustomed to it that they cannot abstain, and + that they must have alcohol to keep up their energy. Is it not the same + thing with the millions of people who submit to thousands' or even to + hundreds, of others—of their own or other nations? + </p> + <p> + If the people of India are enslaved by violence it is only because they + themselves live and have lived by violence, and do not recognize the + eternal law of love inherent in humanity. + </p> + <p> + <i>Pitiful and foolish is the man who seeks what he already has, and does + not know that he has it. Yes, Pitiful and foolish is he who does not know + the bliss of love which surrounds him and which I have given him.</i> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to + their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by + violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence—as + soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave + millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single + individual. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so, + either in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the + collection of taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the world + will be able to enslave you. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + <i>O ye who sit in bondage and continually seek and pant for freedom, seek + only for love. Love is peace in itself and peace which gives complete + satisfaction. I am the key that opens the portal to the rarely discovered + land where contentment alone is found.</i> KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like + what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to + adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided + his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard + suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, + distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery + and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time. + </p> + <p> + When an individual passes from one period of life to another a time comes + when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but + has to understand that although he has outgrown what before used to direct + him, this does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, + but rather that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life + corresponding to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. + And in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and development + of humanity. I believe that such a time has now arrived—not in the + sense that it has come in the year 1908, but that the inherent + contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme degree of tension: + on the one side there is the consciousness of the beneficence of the law + of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has for + centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of + life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of + violence. This contradiction must be faced, and the solution will + evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of violence, but to the + truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men from remote antiquity: the + truth that the law of love is in accord with the nature of man. + </p> + <p> + But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they have + completely freed themselves from all religious and scientific + superstitions and from all the consequent misrepresentations and + sophistical distortions by which its recognition has been hindered for + centuries. + </p> + <p> + To save a sinking ship it is necessary to throw overboard the ballast, + which though it may once have been needed would now cause the ship to + sink. And so it is with the scientific superstition which hides the truth + of their welfare from mankind. In order that men should embrace the truth—not + in the vague way they did in childhood, nor in the one-sided and perverted + way presented to them by their religious and scientific teachers, but + embrace it as their highest law—the complete liberation of this + truth from all and every superstition (both pseudo-religious and + pseudo-scientific) by which it is still obscured is essential: not a + partial, timid attempt, reckoning with traditions sanctified by age and + with the habits of the people—not such as was effected in the + religious sphere by Guru-Nanak, the founder of the sect of the Sikhs, and + in the Christian world by Luther, and by similar reformers in other + religions—but a fundamental cleansing of religious consciousness + from all ancient religious and modern scientific superstitions. + </p> + <p> + If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds of + Ormuzds, Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas and + Christs, from beliefs in Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and + resurrections, from belief in the interference of the Gods in the external + affairs of the universe, and above all, if they freed themselves from + belief in the infallibility of all the various Vedas, Bibles, Gospels, + Tripitakas, Korans, and the like, and also freed themselves from blind + belief in a variety of scientific teachings about infinitely small atoms + and molecules and in all the infinitely great and infinitely remote + worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from faith in the + infallibility of the scientific law to which humanity is at present + subjected: the historic law, the economic laws, the law of struggle and + survival, and so on—if people only freed themselves from this + terrible accumulation of futile exercises of our lower capacities of mind + and memory called the 'Sciences', and from the innumerable divisions of + all sorts of histories, anthropologies, homiletics, bacteriologics, + jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies—their name is legion—and + freed themselves from all this harmful, stupifying ballast—the + simple law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and solving all + questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and obligatory. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + <i>Children, look at the flowers at your feet; do not trample upon them. + Look at the love in your midst and do not repudiate it.</i> KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + <i>There is a higher reason which transcends all human minds. It is far + and near. It permeates all the worlds and at the same time is infinitely + higher than they.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>A man who sees that all things are contained in the higher spirit + cannot treat any being with contempt.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>For him to whom all spiritual beings are equal to the highest there can + be no room for deception or grief.</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>Those who are ignorant and are devoted to the religious rites only, are + in a deep gloom, but those who are given up to fruitless meditations are + in a still greater darkness.</i> + </p> + <p> + UPANISHADS, FROM VEDAS. + </p> + <p> + Yes, in our time all these things must be cleared away in order that + mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities that have reached an + extreme intensity. Whether an Indian seeks liberation from subjection to + the English, or anyone else struggles with an oppressor either of his own + nationality or of another—whether it be a Negro defending himself + against the North Americans; or Persians, Russians, or Turks against the + Persian, Russian, or Turkish governments, or any man seeking the greatest + welfare for himself and for everybody else—they do not need + explanations and justifications of old religious superstitions such as + have been formulated by your Vivekanandas, Baba Bharatis, and others, or + in the Christian world by a number of similar interpreters and exponents + of things that nobody needs; nor the innumerable scientific theories about + matters not only unnecessary but for the most part harmful. (In the + spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.) + What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the Frenchman, the + German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all + sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for + submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor + all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling + classes; nor new schools and universities with innumerable faculties of + science, nor an augmentation of papers and books, nor gramophones and + cinematographs, nor those childish and for the most part corrupt + stupidities termed art—but one thing only is needful: the knowledge + of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not + stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions—the truth that + for our life one law is valid—the law of love, which brings the + highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind. Free your + minds from those overgrown, mountainous imbecilities which hinder your + recognition of it, and at once the truth will emerge from amid the + pseudo-religious nonsense that has been smothering it: the indubitable, + eternal truth inherent in man, which is one and the same in all the great + religions of the world. It will in due time emerge and make its way to + general recognition, and the nonsense that has obscured it will disappear + of itself, and with it will go the evil from which humanity now suffers. + </p> + <p> + <i>Children, look upwards with your beclouded eyes, and a world full of + joy and love will disclose itself to you, a rational world made by My + wisdom, the only real world. Then you will know what love has done with + you, what love has bestowed upon you, what love demands from you.</i> + KRISHNA. + </p> + <p> + YASNAYA POLYANA. + </p> + <p> + December 14th, 1908. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to a Hindu, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + +***** This file should be named 7176-h.htm or 7176-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/7/7176/ + +Produced by Chetan Jain, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Letter to a Hindu + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Commentator: M. K. Gandhi + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7176] +Posting Date: April 6, 2009 [EBook #7176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + + + + +Produced by Chetan Jain + + + + + + + + +A LETTER TO A HINDU + + +THE SUBJECTION OF INDIA--ITS CAUSE AND CURE + + +_With an Introduction by_ M. K. GANDHI + + +By Leo Tolstoy + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The letter printed below is a translation of Tolstoy's letter written in +Russian in reply to one from the Editor of Free Hindustan. After having +passed from hand to hand, this letter at last came into my possession +through a friend who asked me, as one much interested in Tolstoy's +writings, whether I thought it worth publishing. I at once replied in +the affirmative, and told him I should translate it myself into Gujarati +and induce others' to translate and publish it in various Indian +vernaculars. + +The letter as received by me was a type-written copy. It was therefore +referred to the author, who confirmed it as his and kindly granted me +permission to print it. + +To me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have long +looked upon as one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to be +connected with the publication of his letter, such especially as the one +which is now being given to the world. + +It is a mere statement of fact to say that every Indian, whether he +owns up to it or not, has national aspirations. But there are as many +opinions as there are Indian nationalists as to the exact meaning of +that aspiration, and more especially as to the methods to be used to +attain the end. + +One of the accepted and 'time-honoured' methods to attain the end +is that of violence. The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie was an +illustration of that method in its worst and most detestable form. +Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for +removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non-resistance to +evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in +self-suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great +and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble +mankind. + +When a man like Tolstoy, one of the clearest thinkers in the western +world, one of the greatest writers, one who as a soldier has known +what violence is and what it can do, condemns Japan for having blindly +followed the law of modern science, falsely so-called, and fears for +that country 'the greatest calamities', it is for us to pause and +consider whether, in our impatience of English rule, we do not want to +replace one evil by another and a worse. India, which is the nursery +of the great faiths of the world, will cease to be nationalist India, +whatever else she may become, when she goes through the process of +civilization in the shape of reproduction on that sacred soil of gun +factories and the hateful industrialism which has reduced the people of +Europe to a state of slavery, and all but stifled among them the best +instincts which are the heritage of the human family. + +If we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. +Tolstoy indicates it. 'Do not resist evil, but also do not yourselves +participate in evil--in the violent deeds of the administration of the +law courts, the collection of taxes and, what is more important, of +the soldiers, and no one in the world will enslave you', passionately +declares the sage of Yasnaya Polyana. Who can question the truth of +what he says in the following: 'A commercial company enslaved a +nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from +superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words mean. What does +it mean that thirty thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and +ordinary people, have enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, clever, +capable, freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that +not the English, but the Indians, have enslaved themselves?' + +One need not accept all that Tolstoy says--some of his facts are not +accurately stated--to realize the central truth of his indictment of +the present system, which is to understand and act upon the irresistible +power of the soul over the body, of love, which is an attribute of the +soul, over the brute or body force generated by the stirring in us of +evil passions. + +There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy preaches. +But his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly forceful. His +logic is unassailable. And above all he endeavours to practise what +he preaches. He preaches to convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He +commands attention. + +[_19th November, 1909_] M. K. GANDHI + + + + + +A LETTER TO A HINDU + + +By Leo Tolstoy + + + +_All that exists is One. People only call this One by different names._ +THE VEDAS. + +_God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God +abideth in him._ I JOHN iv. 16. + +_God is one whole; we are the parts._ EXPOSITION OF THE TEACHING OF THE +VEDAS BY VIVEKANANDA. + + + + +I + + +Do not seek quiet and rest in those earthly realms where delusions and +desires are engendered, for if thou dost, thou wilt be dragged through +the rough wilderness of life, which is far from Me. + +Whenever thou feelest that thy feet are becoming entangled in the +interlaced roots of life, know that thou has strayed from the path to +which I beckon thee: for I have placed thee in broad, smooth paths, +which are strewn with flowers. I have put a light before thee, which +thou canst follow and thus run without stumbling. KRISHNA. + +I have received your letter and two numbers of your periodical, both of +which interest me extremely. The oppression of a majority by a minority, +and the demoralization inevitably resulting from it, is a phenomenon +that has always occupied me and has done so most particularly of late. +I will try to explain to you what I think about that subject in general, +and particularly about the cause from which the dreadful evils of which +you write in your letter, and in the Hindu periodical you have sent me, +have arisen and continue to arise. + +The reason for the astonishing fact that a majority of working people +submit to a handful of idlers who control their labour and their very +lives is always and everywhere the same--whether the oppressors and +oppressed are of one race or whether, as in India and elsewhere, the +oppressors are of a different nation. + +This phenomenon seems particularly strange in India, for there more than +two hundred million people, highly gifted both physically and mentally, +find themselves in the power of a small group of people quite alien +to them in thought, and immeasurably inferior to them in religious +morality. + +From your letter and the articles in _Free Hindustan_ as well as from +the very interesting writings of the Hindu Swami Vivekananda and +others, it appears that, as is the case in our time with the ills of all +nations, the reason lies in the lack of a reasonable religious teaching +which by explaining the meaning of life would supply a supreme law for +the guidance of conduct and would replace the more than dubious precepts +of pseudo-religion and pseudo-science with the immoral conclusions +deduced from them and commonly called 'civilization'. + +Your letter, as well as the articles in _Free Hindustan_ and Indian +political literature generally, shows that most of the leaders of public +opinion among your people no longer attach any significance to the +religious teachings that were and are professed by the peoples of India, +and recognize no possibility of freeing the people from the oppression +they endure except by adopting the irreligious and profoundly immoral +social arrangements under which the English and other pseudo-Christian +nations live to-day. + +And yet the chief if not the sole cause of the enslavement of the +Indian peoples by the English lies in this very absence of a religious +consciousness and of the guidance for conduct which should flow from +it--a lack common in our day to all nations East and West, from Japan to +England and America alike. + + + + +II + + +_O ye, who see perplexities over your heads, beneath your feet, and to +the right and left of you; you will be an eternal enigma unto yourselves +until ye become humble and joyful as children. Then will ye find Me, and +having found Me in yourselves, you will rule over worlds, and looking +out from the great world within to the little world without, you will +bless everything that is, and find all is well with time and with you._ +KRISHNA. + + +To make my thoughts clear to you I must go farther back. We do not, +cannot, and I venture to say need not, know how men lived millions of +years ago or even ten thousand years ago, but we do know positively +that, as far back as we have any knowledge of mankind, it has always +lived in special groups of families, tribes, and nations in which +the majority, in the conviction that it must be so, submissively and +willingly bowed to the rule of one or more persons--that is to a very +small minority. Despite all varieties of circumstances and personalities +these relations manifested themselves among the various peoples of +whose origin we have any knowledge; and the farther back we go the more +absolutely necessary did this arrangement appear, both to the rulers and +the ruled, to make it possible for people to live peacefully together. + +So it was everywhere. But though this external form of life existed for +centuries and still exists, very early--thousands of years before +our time--amid this life based on coercion, one and the same thought +constantly emerged among different nations, namely, that in every +individual a spiritual element is manifested that gives life to all that +exists, and that this spiritual element strives to unite with everything +of a like nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. This +thought appeared in most various forms at different times and +places, with varying completeness and clarity. It found expression in +Brahmanism, Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of Zoroaster), in Buddhism, +Taoism, Confucianism, and in the writings of the Greek and Roman sages, +as well as in Christianity and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this +thought has sprung up among different nations and at different times +indicates that it is inherent in human nature and contains the truth. +But this truth was made known to people who considered that a community +could only be kept together if some of them restrained others, and so +it appeared quite irreconcilable with the existing order of society. +Moreover it was at first expressed only fragmentarily, and so obscurely +that though people admitted its theoretic truth they could not entirely +accept it as guidance for their conduct. Then, too, the dissemination of +the truth in a society based on coercion was always hindered in one and +the same manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition +of this truth would undermine their position, consciously or sometimes +unconsciously perverted it by explanations and additions quite foreign +to it, and also opposed it by open violence. Thus the truth--that his +life should be directed by the spiritual element which is its basis, +which manifests itself as love, and which is so natural to man--this +truth, in order to force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle +not merely against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the +intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but also +against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions and +punishments sought to compel men to accept religious laws authorized +by the rulers and conflicting with the truth. Such a hindrance and +misrepresentation of the truth--which had not yet achieved complete +clarity--occurred everywhere: in Confucianism and Taoism, in Buddhism +and in Christianity, in Mohammedanism and in your Brahmanism. + + + + +III + + +_My hand has sowed love everywhere, giving unto all that will receive. +Blessings are offered unto all My children, but many times in their +blindness they fail to see them. How few there are who gather the gifts +which lie in profusion at their feet: how many there are, who, in wilful +waywardness, turn their eyes away from them and complain with a wail +that they have not that which I have given them; many of them defiantly +repudiate not only My gifts, but Me also, Me, the Source of all +blessings and the Author of their being._ KRISHNA. + +_I tarry awhile from the turmoil and strife of the world. I will +beautify and quicken thy life with love and with joy, for the light of +the soul is Love. Where Love is, there is contentment and peace, and +where there is contentment and peace, there am I, also, in their midst._ +KRISHNA. + +_The aim of the sinless One consists in acting without causing sorrow +to others, although he could attain to great power by ignoring their +feelings._ + +_The aim of the sinless One lies in not doing evil unto those who have +done evil unto him._ + +_If a man causes suffering even to those who hate him without any +reason, he will ultimately have grief not to be overcome._ + +_The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of +themselves by doing them a great kindness._ + +_Of what use is superior knowledge in the one, if he does not endeavour +to relieve his neighbour's want as much as his own?_ + +_If, in the morning, a man wishes to do evil unto another, in the +evening the evil will return to him._ + + +THE HINDU KURAL. + + +Thus it went on everywhere. The recognition that love represents the +highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was +so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted +it, that finally nothing of it remained but words. It was taught that +this highest morality was only applicable to private life--for home +use, as it were--but that in public life all forms of violence--such as +imprisonment, executions, and wars--might be used for the protection +of the majority against a minority of evildoers, though such means were +diametrically opposed to any vestige of love. And though common sense +indicated that if some men claim to decide who is to be subjected to +violence of all kinds for the benefit of others, these men to whom +violence is applied may, in turn, arrive at a similar conclusion with +regard to those who have employed violence to them, and though the +great religious teachers of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and above all of +Christianity, foreseeing such a perversion of the law of love, have +constantly drawn attention to the one invariable condition of love +(namely, the enduring of injuries, insults, and violence of all kinds +without resisting evil by evil) people continued--regardless of all +that leads man forward--to try to unite the incompatibles: the virtue +of love, and what is opposed to love, namely, the restraining of evil by +violence. And such a teaching, despite its inner contradiction, was so +firmly established that the very people who recognize love as a virtue +accept as lawful at the same time an order of life based on violence and +allowing men not merely to torture but even to kill one another. + +For a long time people lived in this obvious contradiction without +noticing it. But a time arrived when this contradiction became more +and more evident to thinkers of various nations. And the old and simple +truth that it is natural for men to help and to love one another, but +not to torture and to kill one another, became ever clearer, so that +fewer and fewer people were able to believe the sophistries by which the +distortion of the truth had been made so plausible. + +In former times the chief method of justifying the use of violence and +thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a divine right +for the rulers: the Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, and other heads of +states. But the longer humanity lived the weaker grew the belief in this +peculiar, God--given right of the ruler. That belief withered in the +same way and almost simultaneously in the Christian and the Brahman +world, as well as in Buddhist and Confucian spheres, and in recent times +it has so faded away as to prevail no longer against man's reasonable +understanding and the true religious feeling. People saw more and more +clearly, and now the majority see quite clearly, the senselessness and +immorality of subordinating their wills to those of other people just +like themselves, when they are bidden to do what is contrary not only to +their interests but also to their moral sense. And so one might suppose +that having lost confidence in any religious authority for a belief in +the divinity of potentates of various kinds, people would try to free +themselves from subjection to it. But unfortunately not only were the +rulers, who were considered supernatural beings, benefited by having the +peoples in subjection, but as a result of the belief in, and during the +rule of, these pseudodivine beings, ever larger and larger circles of +people grouped and established themselves around them, and under an +appearance of governing took advantage of the people. And when the old +deception of a supernatural and God-appointed authority had dwindled +away these men were only concerned to devise a new one which like its +predecessor should make it possible to hold the people in bondage to a +limited number of rulers. + + + + +IV + + +_Children, do you want to know by what your hearts should be guided? +Throw aside your longings and strivings after that which is null and +void; get rid of your erroneous thoughts about happiness and wisdom, and +your empty and insincere desires. Dispense with these and you will know +Love._ KRISHNA. + +_Be not the destroyers of yourselves. Arise to your true Being, and then +you will have nothing to fear._ KRISHNA. + + +New justifications have now appeared in place of the antiquated, +obsolete, religious ones. These new justifications are just as +inadequate as the old ones, but as they are new their futility cannot +immediately be recognized by the majority of men. Besides this, those +who enjoy power propagate these new sophistries and support them so +skilfully that they seem irrefutable even to many of those who +suffer from the oppression these theories seek to justify. These new +justifications are termed 'scientific'. But by the term 'scientific' is +understood just what was formerly understood by the term 'religious': +just as formerly everything called 'religious' was held to be +unquestionable simply because it was called religious, so now all that +is called 'scientific' is held to be unquestionable. In the present case +the obsolete religious justification of violence which consisted in the +recognition of the supernatural personality of the God-ordained ruler +('there is no power but of God') has been superseded by the 'scientific' +justification which puts forward, first, the assertion that because the +coercion of man by man has existed in all ages, it follows that such +coercion must continue to exist. This assertion that people should +continue to live as they have done throughout past ages rather than +as their reason and conscience indicate, is what 'science' calls +'the historic law'. A further 'scientific' justification lies in the +statement that as among plants and wild beasts there is a constant +struggle for existence which always results in the survival of +the fittest, a similar struggle should be carried on among human +beings--beings, that is, who are gifted with intelligence and love; +faculties lacking in the creatures subject to the struggle for +existence and survival of the fittest. Such is the second 'scientific' +justification. + +The third, most important, and unfortunately most widespread +justification is, at bottom, the age-old religious one just a little +altered: that in public life the suppression of some for the protection +of the majority cannot be avoided--so that coercion is unavoidable +however desirable reliance on love alone might be in human intercourse. +The only difference in this justification by pseudo-science consists in +the fact that, to the question why such and such people and not others +have the right to decide against whom violence may and must be +used, pseudo-science now gives a different reply to that given by +religion--which declared that the right to decide was valid because it +was pronounced by persons possessed of divine power. 'Science' says +that these decisions represent the will of the people, which under a +constitutional form of government is supposed to find expression in all +the decisions and actions of those who are at the helm at the moment. + +Such are the scientific justifications of the principle of coercion. +They are not merely weak but absolutely invalid, yet they are so much +needed by those who occupy privileged positions that they believe in +them as blindly as they formerly believed in the immaculate conception, +and propagate them just as confidently. And the unfortunate majority of +men bound to toil is so dazzled by the pomp with which these 'scientific +truths' are presented, that under this new influence it accepts these +scientific stupidities for holy truth, just as it formerly accepted +the pseudo-religious justifications; and it continues to submit to the +present holders of power who are just as hard-hearted but rather more +numerous than before. + + + + +V + + +_Who am I? I am that which thou hast searched for since thy baby eyes +gazed wonderingly upon the world, whose horizon hides this real life +from thee. I am that which in thy heart thou hast prayed for, demanded +as thy birthright, although thou hast not known what it was. I am +that which has lain in thy soul for hundreds and thousands of years. +Sometimes I lay in thee grieving because thou didst not recognize me; +sometimes I raised my head, opened my eyes, and extended my arms calling +thee either tenderly and quietly, or strenuously, demanding that thou +shouldst rebel against the iron chains which bound thee to the earth._ + +KRISHNA. + + +So matters went on, and still go on, in the Christian world. But we +might have hope that in the immense Brahman, Buddhist, and Confucian +worlds this new scientific superstition would not establish itself, and +that the Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, once their eyes were opened to +the religious fraud justifying violence, would advance directly to a +recognition of the law of love inherent in humanity, and which had +been so forcibly enunciated by the great Eastern teachers. But what has +happened is that the scientific superstition replacing the religious one +has been accepted and secured a stronger and stronger hold in the East. + +In your periodical you set out as the basic principle which should guide +the actions of your people the maxim that: 'Resistance to aggression is +not simply justifiable but imperative, nonresistance hurts both Altruism +and Egotism.' + +Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it you +too have the only method of saving your people from enslavement. In very +ancient times love was proclaimed with special strength and clearness +among your people to be the religious basis of human life. Love, and +forcible resistance to evil-doers, involve such a mutual contradiction +as to destroy utterly the whole sense and meaning of the conception of +love. And what follows? With a light heart and in the twentieth +century you, an adherent of a religious people, deny their law, feeling +convinced of your scientific enlightenment and your right to do so, and +you repeat (do not take this amiss) the amazing stupidity indoctrinated +in you by the advocates of the use of violence--the enemies of truth, +the servants first of theology and then of science--your European +teachers. + +You say that the English have enslaved your people and hold them in +subjection because the latter have not resisted resolutely enough and +have not met force by force. + +But the case is just the opposite. If the English have enslaved the +people of India it is just because the latter recognized, and still +recognize, force as the fundamental principle of the social order. In +accord with that principle they submitted to their little rajahs, and +on their behalf struggled against one another, fought the Europeans, the +English, and are now trying to fight with them again. + +A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. +Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp +what these words mean. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not +athletes but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred +million vigorous, clever, capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the +figures make it clear that it is not the English who have enslaved the +Indians, but the Indians who have enslaved themselves? + +When the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it is as +if drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers who have settled among +them have enslaved them. You tell them that they might give up drinking, +but they reply that they are so accustomed to it that they cannot +abstain, and that they must have alcohol to keep up their energy. Is it +not the same thing with the millions of people who submit to thousands' +or even to hundreds, of others--of their own or other nations? + +If the people of India are enslaved by violence it is only because they +themselves live and have lived by violence, and do not recognize the +eternal law of love inherent in humanity. + +_Pitiful and foolish is the man who seeks what he already has, and does +not know that he has it. Yes, Pitiful and foolish is he who does not +know the bliss of love which surrounds him and which I have given him._ +KRISHNA. + + +As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to +their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance +by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in +violence--as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to +enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single +individual. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so, +either in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, +the collection of taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the +world will be able to enslave you. + + + + +VI + + +_O ye who sit in bondage and continually seek and pant for freedom, seek +only for love. Love is peace in itself and peace which gives complete +satisfaction. I am the key that opens the portal to the rarely +discovered land where contentment alone is found._ KRISHNA. + +What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is +like what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to +adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided +his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard +suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, +distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery +and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time. + +When an individual passes from one period of life to another a time +comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as +before, but has to understand that although he has outgrown what before +used to direct him, this does not mean that he must live without any +reasonable guidance, but rather that he must formulate for himself an +understanding of life corresponding to his age, and having elucidated +it must be guided by it. And in the same way a similar time must come in +the growth and development of humanity. I believe that such a time has +now arrived--not in the sense that it has come in the year 1908, but +that the inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme +degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of the +beneficence of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of +life which has for centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and +troubled mode of life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and +built on the use of violence. This contradiction must be faced, and +the solution will evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of +violence, but to the truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men from +remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is in accord with the +nature of man. + +But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they +have completely freed themselves from all religious and scientific +superstitions and from all the consequent misrepresentations and +sophistical distortions by which its recognition has been hindered for +centuries. + +To save a sinking ship it is necessary to throw overboard the ballast, +which though it may once have been needed would now cause the ship to +sink. And so it is with the scientific superstition which hides the +truth of their welfare from mankind. In order that men should embrace +the truth--not in the vague way they did in childhood, nor in the +one-sided and perverted way presented to them by their religious and +scientific teachers, but embrace it as their highest law--the complete +liberation of this truth from all and every superstition (both +pseudo-religious and pseudo-scientific) by which it is still obscured +is essential: not a partial, timid attempt, reckoning with traditions +sanctified by age and with the habits of the people--not such as was +effected in the religious sphere by Guru-Nanak, the founder of the +sect of the Sikhs, and in the Christian world by Luther, and by similar +reformers in other religions--but a fundamental cleansing of religious +consciousness from all ancient religious and modern scientific +superstitions. + +If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds of +Ormuzds, Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas and +Christs, from beliefs in Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and +resurrections, from belief in the interference of the Gods in the +external affairs of the universe, and above all, if they freed +themselves from belief in the infallibility of all the various Vedas, +Bibles, Gospels, Tripitakas, Korans, and the like, and also freed +themselves from blind belief in a variety of scientific teachings about +infinitely small atoms and molecules and in all the infinitely great and +infinitely remote worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from +faith in the infallibility of the scientific law to which humanity is +at present subjected: the historic law, the economic laws, the law of +struggle and survival, and so on--if people only freed themselves from +this terrible accumulation of futile exercises of our lower capacities +of mind and memory called the 'Sciences', and from the innumerable +divisions of all sorts of histories, anthropologies, homiletics, +bacteriologics, jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies--their name +is legion--and freed themselves from all this harmful, stupifying +ballast--the simple law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and +solving all questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and +obligatory. + + + + +VII + + +_Children, look at the flowers at your feet; do not trample upon them. +Look at the love in your midst and do not repudiate it._ KRISHNA. + +_There is a higher reason which transcends all human minds. It is far +and near. It permeates all the worlds and at the same time is infinitely +higher than they._ + +_A man who sees that all things are contained in the higher spirit +cannot treat any being with contempt._ + +_For him to whom all spiritual beings are equal to the highest there can +be no room for deception or grief._ + +_Those who are ignorant and are devoted to the religious rites only, are +in a deep gloom, but those who are given up to fruitless meditations are +in a still greater darkness._ + + +UPANISHADS, FROM VEDAS. + + +Yes, in our time all these things must be cleared away in order that +mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities that have reached an +extreme intensity. Whether an Indian seeks liberation from subjection +to the English, or anyone else struggles with an oppressor either of his +own nationality or of another--whether it be a Negro defending himself +against the North Americans; or Persians, Russians, or Turks against +the Persian, Russian, or Turkish governments, or any man seeking the +greatest welfare for himself and for everybody else--they do not need +explanations and justifications of old religious superstitions such as +have been formulated by your Vivekanandas, Baba Bharatis, and others, or +in the Christian world by a number of similar interpreters and exponents +of things that nobody needs; nor the innumerable scientific theories +about matters not only unnecessary but for the most part harmful. +(In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is +harmful.) What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the +Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and +Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many +ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, +nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the +enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes; nor new schools and universities +with innumerable faculties of science, nor an augmentation of papers and +books, nor gramophones and cinematographs, nor those childish and for +the most part corrupt stupidities termed art--but one thing only is +needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds +place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific +superstitions--the truth that for our life one law is valid--the law of +love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well +as to all mankind. Free your minds from those overgrown, mountainous +imbecilities which hinder your recognition of it, and at once the +truth will emerge from amid the pseudo-religious nonsense that has been +smothering it: the indubitable, eternal truth inherent in man, which is +one and the same in all the great religions of the world. It will in due +time emerge and make its way to general recognition, and the nonsense +that has obscured it will disappear of itself, and with it will go the +evil from which humanity now suffers. + +_Children, look upwards with your beclouded eyes, and a world full of +joy and love will disclose itself to you, a rational world made by My +wisdom, the only real world. Then you will know what love has done +with you, what love has bestowed upon you, what love demands from you._ +KRISHNA. + + +YASNAYA POLYANA. + +December 14th, 1908. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to a Hindu, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + +***** This file should be named 7176.txt or 7176.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/7/7176/ + +Produced by Chetan Jain + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Letter to a Hindu + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7176] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 21, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Chetan Jain at BharatLiterature. + + + + + +A LETTER TO A HINDU + + +THE SUBJECTION OF INDIA--ITS CAUSE AND CURE + + +__With an Introduction by__ M. K. GANDHI + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The letter printed below is a translation of Tolstoy's letter +written in Russian in reply to one from the Editor of Free +Hindustan. After having passed from hand to hand, this letter at +last came into my possession through a friend who asked me, as +one much interested in Tolstoy's writings, whether I thought it +worth publishing. I at once replied in the affirmative, and told +him I should translate it myself into Gujarati and induce others' +to translate and publish it in various Indian vernaculars. + +The letter as received by me was a type-written copy. It was +therefore referred to the author, who confirmed it as his and +kindly granted me permission to print it. + +To me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have +long looked upon as one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to +be connected with the publication of his letter, such especially +as the one which is now being given to the world. + +It is a mere statement of fact to say that every Indian, whether +he owns up to it or not, has national aspirations. But there are +as many opinions as there are Indian nationalists as to the exact +meaning of that aspiration, and more especially as to the methods +to be used to attain the end. + +One of the accepted and 'time-honoured' methods to attain the end +is that of violence. The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie was +an illustration of that method in its worst and most detestable +form. Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of +violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of +non-resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in +violence by love expressed in self-suffering. He admits of no +exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He +applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind. + +When a man like Tolstoy, one of the clearest thinkers in the +western world, one of the greatest writers, one who as a soldier +has known what violence is and what it can do, condemns Japan for +having blindly followed the law of modern science, falsely +so-called, and fears for that country 'the greatest calamities', +it is for us to pause and consider whether, in our impatience of +English rule, we do not want to replace one evil by another and a +worse. India, which is the nursery of the great faiths of the +world, will cease to be nationalist India, whatever else she may +become, when she goes through the process of civilization in the +shape of reproduction on that sacred soil of gun factories and +the hateful industrialism which has reduced the people of Europe +to a state of slavery, and all but stifled among them the best +instincts which are the heritage of the human family. + +If we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. +Tolstoy indicates it. 'Do not resist evil, but also do not +yourselves participate in evil--in the violent deeds of the +administration of the law courts, the collection of taxes and, +what is more important, of the soldiers, and no one in the world +will enslave you', passionately declares the sage of Yasnaya +Polyana. Who can question the truth of what he says in the +following: 'A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two +hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and +he will fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it mean +that thirty thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and +ordinary people, have enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, +clever, capable, freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make +it clear that not the English, but the Indians, have enslaved +themselves?' + +One need not accept all that Tolstoy says--some of his facts are +not accurately stated--to realize the central truth of his +indictment of the present system, which is to understand and act +upon the irresistible power of the soul over the body, of love, +which is an attribute of the soul, over the brute or body force +generated by the stirring in us of evil passions. + +There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy +preaches. But his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly +forceful. His logic is unassailable. And above all he +endeavours to practise what he preaches. He preaches to +convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He commands attention. + +[__19th November, 1909__] M. K. GANDHI + + + + +A LETTER TO A HINDU + + +By LEO TOLSTOY + + + +__All that exists is One. People only call this One by different +names.__ THE VEDAS. + +__God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and +God abideth in him.__ I JOHN iv. 16. + +__God is one whole; we are the parts.__ EXPOSITION OF THE +TEACHING OF THE VEDAS BY VIVEKANANDA. + + + +I + + +Do not seek quiet and rest in those earthly realms where delusions +and desires are engendered, for if thou dost, thou wilt be dragged +through the rough wilderness of life, which is far from Me. + +Whenever thou feelest that thy feet are becoming entangled in the +interlaced roots of life, know that thou has strayed from the +path to which I beckon thee: for I have placed thee in broad, +smooth paths, which are strewn with flowers. I have put a light +before thee, which thou canst follow and thus run without +stumbling. KRISHNA. + +I have received your letter and two numbers of your periodical, +both of which interest me extremely. The oppression of a +majority by a minority, and the demoralization inevitably +resulting from it, is a phenomenon that has always occupied me +and has done so most particularly of late. I will try to explain +to you what I think about that subject in general, and +particularly about the cause from which the dreadful evils of +which you write in your letter, and in the Hindu periodical you +have sent me, have arisen and continue to arise. + +The reason for the astonishing fact that a majority of working +people submit to a handful of idlers who control their labour and +their very lives is always and everywhere the same--whether the +oppressors and oppressed are of one race or whether, as in India +and elsewhere, the oppressors are of a different nation. + +This phenomenon seems particularly strange in India, for there +more than two hundred million people, highly gifted both +physically and mentally, find themselves in the power of a small +group of people quite alien to them in thought, and immeasurably +inferior to them in religious morality. + +From your letter and the articles in __Free Hindustan__ as well +as from the very interesting writings of the Hindu Swami +Vivekananda and others, it appears that, as is the case in our +time with the ills of all nations, the reason lies in the lack of +a reasonable religious teaching which by explaining the meaning +of life would supply a supreme law for the guidance of conduct +and would replace the more than dubious precepts of pseudo- +religion and pseudo-science with the immoral conclusions deduced +from them and commonly called 'civilization'. + +Your letter, as well as the articles in __Free Hindustan__ and +Indian political literature generally, shows that most of the +leaders of public opinion among your people no longer attach any +significance to the religious teachings that were and are +professed by the peoples of India, and recognize no possibility +of freeing the people from the oppression they endure except by +adopting the irreligious and profoundly immoral social +arrangements under which the English and other pseudo-Christian +nations live to-day. + +And yet the chief if not the sole cause of the enslavement of the +Indian peoples by the English lies in this very absence of a +religious consciousness and of the guidance for conduct which +should flow from it--a lack common in our day to all nations East +and West, from Japan to England and America alike. + + + +II + + +__O ye, who see perplexities over your heads, beneath your feet, +and to the right and left of you; you will be an eternal enigma +unto yourselves until ye become humble and joyful as children. +Then will ye find Me, and having found Me in yourselves, you will +rule over worlds, and looking out from the great world within to +the little world without, you will bless everything that is, and +find all is well with time and with you.__ KRISHNA. + + +To make my thoughts clear to you I must go farther back. We do +not, cannot, and I venture to say need not, know how men lived +millions of years ago or even ten thousand years ago, but we do +know positively that, as far back as we have any knowledge of +mankind, it has always lived in special groups of families, +tribes, and nations in which the majority, in the conviction that +it must be so, submissively and willingly bowed to the rule of +one or more persons--that is to a very small minority. Despite +all varieties of circumstances and personalities these relations +manifested themselves among the various peoples of whose origin +we have any knowledge; and the farther back we go the more +absolutely necessary did this arrangement appear, both to the +rulers and the ruled, to make it possible for people to live +peacefully together. + +So it was everywhere. But though this external form of life +existed for centuries and still exists, very early--thousands of +years before our time--amid this life based on coercion, one and +the same thought constantly emerged among different nations, +namely, that in every individual a spiritual element is +manifested that gives life to all that exists, and that this +spiritual element strives to unite with everything of a like +nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. This +thought appeared in most various forms at different times and +places, with varying completeness and clarity. It found +expression in Brahmanism, Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of +Zoroaster), in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and in the +writings of the Greek and Roman sages, as well as in Christianity +and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this thought has sprung up +among different nations and at different times indicates that it +is inherent in human nature and contains the truth. But this +truth was made known to people who considered that a community +could only be kept together if some of them restrained others, +and so it appeared quite irreconcilable with the existing order +of society. Moreover it was at first expressed only +fragmentarily, and so obscurely that though people admitted its +theoretic truth they could not entirely accept it as guidance for +their conduct. Then, too, the dissemination of the truth in a +society based on coercion was always hindered in one and the same +manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition of +this truth would undermine their position, consciously or +sometimes unconsciously perverted it by explanations and +additions quite foreign to it, and also opposed it by open +violence. Thus the truth--that his life should be directed by +the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself +as love, and which is so natural to man--this truth, in order to +force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely +against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the +intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but +also against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions +and punishments sought to compel men to accept religious laws +authorized by the rulers and conflicting with the truth. Such a +hindrance and misrepresentation of the truth--which had not yet +achieved complete clarity--occurred everywhere: in Confucianism +and Taoism, in Buddhism and in Christianity, in Mohammedanism and +in your Brahmanism. + + + +III + + +__My hand has sowed love everywhere, giving unto all that will +receive. Blessings are offered unto all My children, but many +times in their blindness they fail to see them. How few there +are who gather the gifts which lie in profusion at their feet: +how many there are, who, in wilful waywardness, turn their eyes +away from them and complain with a wail that they have not that +which I have given them; many of them defiantly repudiate not +only My gifts, but Me also, Me, the Source of all blessings and +the Author of their being.__ KRISHNA. + +__I tarry awhile from the turmoil and strife of the world. I +will beautify and quicken thy life with love and with joy, for +the light of the soul is Love. Where Love is, there is +contentment and peace, and where there is contentment and peace, +there am I, also, in their midst.__ KRISHNA. + +__The aim of the sinless One consists in acting without causing +sorrow to others, although he could attain to great power by +ignoring their feelings.__ + +__The aim of the sinless One lies in not doing evil unto those +who have done evil unto him.__ + +__If a man causes suffering even to those who hate him without +any reason, he will ultimately have grief not to be overcome.__ + +__The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel +ashamed of themselves by doing them a great kindness.__ + +__Of what use is superior knowledge in the one, if he does not +endeavour to relieve his neighbour's want as much as his own?__ + +__If, in the morning, a man wishes to do evil unto another, in +the evening the evil will return to him.__ + +THE HINDU KURAL. + + +Thus it went on everywhere. The recognition that love represents +the highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this +truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods +which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but +words. It was taught that this highest morality was only +applicable to private life--for home use, as it were--but that in +public life all forms of violence--such as imprisonment, +executions, and wars--might be used for the protection of the +majority against a minority of evildoers, though such means were +diametrically opposed to any vestige of love. And though common +sense indicated that if some men claim to decide who is to be +subjected to violence of all kinds for the benefit of others, +these men to whom violence is applied may, in turn, arrive at a +similar conclusion with regard to those who have employed +violence to them, and though the great religious teachers of +Brahmanism, Buddhism, and above all of Christianity, foreseeing +such a perversion of the law of love, have constantly drawn +attention to the one invariable condition of love (namely, the +enduring of injuries, insults, and violence of all kinds without +resisting evil by evil) people continued--regardless of all that +leads man forward--to try to unite the incompatibles: the virtue +of love, and what is opposed to love, namely, the restraining of +evil by violence. And such a teaching, despite its inner +contradiction, was so firmly established that the very people who +recognize love as a virtue accept as lawful at the same time an +order of life based on violence and allowing men not merely to +torture but even to kill one another. + +For a long time people lived in this obvious contradiction +without noticing it. But a time arrived when this contradiction +became more and more evident to thinkers of various nations. And +the old and simple truth that it is natural for men to help and +to love one another, but not to torture and to kill one another, +became ever clearer, so that fewer and fewer people were able to +believe the sophistries by which the distortion of the truth had +been made so plausible. + +In former times the chief method of justifying the use of +violence and thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a +divine right for the rulers: the Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, +and other heads of states. But the longer humanity lived the +weaker grew the belief in this peculiar, God--given right of the +ruler. That belief withered in the same way and almost +simultaneously in the Christian and the Brahman world, as well as +in Buddhist and Confucian spheres, and in recent times it has so +faded away as to prevail no longer against man's reasonable +understanding and the true religious feeling. People saw more +and more clearly, and now the majority see quite clearly, the +senselessness and immorality of subordinating their wills to +those of other people just like themselves, when they are bidden +to do what is contrary not only to their interests but also to +their moral sense. And so one might suppose that having lost +confidence in any religious authority for a belief in the +divinity of potentates of various kinds, people would try to free +themselves from subjection to it. But unfortunately not only +were the rulers, who were considered supernatural beings, +benefited by having the peoples in subjection, but as a result of +the belief in, and during the rule of, these pseudodivine beings, +ever larger and larger circles of people grouped and established +themselves around them, and under an appearance of governing took +advantage of the people. And when the old deception of a +supernatural and God-appointed authority had dwindled away these +men were only concerned to devise a new one which like its +predecessor should make it possible to hold the people in bondage +to a limited number of rulers. + + + +IV + + +__Children, do you want to know by what your hearts should be +guided? Throw aside your longings and strivings after that which +is null and void; get rid of your erroneous thoughts about +happiness and wisdom, and your empty and insincere desires. +Dispense with these and you will know Love.__ KRISHNA. + +__Be not the destroyers of yourselves. Arise to your true Being, +and then you will have nothing to fear.__ KRISHNA. + + +New justifications have now appeared in place of the antiquated, +obsolete, religious ones. These new justifications are just as +inadequate as the old ones, but as they are new their futility +cannot immediately be recognized by the majority of men. Besides +this, those who enjoy power propagate these new sophistries and +support them so skilfully that they seem irrefutable even to many +of those who suffer from the oppression these theories seek to +justify. These new justifications are termed 'scientific'. But +by the term 'scientific' is understood just what was formerly +understood by the term 'religious': just as formerly everything +called 'religious' was held to be unquestionable simply because +it was called religious, so now all that is called 'scientific' +is held to be unquestionable. In the present case the obsolete +religious justification of violence which consisted in the +recognition of the supernatural personality of the God-ordained +ruler ('there is no power but of God') has been superseded by the +'scientific' justification which puts forward, first, the +assertion that because the coercion of man by man has existed in +all ages, it follows that such coercion must continue to exist. +This assertion that people should continue to live as they have +done throughout past ages rather than as their reason and +conscience indicate, is what 'science' calls 'the historic law'. +A further 'scientific' justification lies in the statement that +as among plants and wild beasts there is a constant struggle for +existence which always results in the survival of the fittest, a +similar struggle should be carried on among human beings--beings, +that is, who are gifted with intelligence and love; faculties +lacking in the creatures subject to the struggle for existence +and survival of the fittest. Such is the second 'scientific' +justification. + +The third, most important, and unfortunately most widespread +justification is, at bottom, the age-old religious one just a +little altered: that in public life the suppression of some for +the protection of the majority cannot be avoided--so that coercion +is unavoidable however desirable reliance on love alone might be +in human intercourse. The only difference in this justification +by pseudo-science consists in the fact that, to the question why +such and such people and not others have the right to decide +against whom violence may and must be used, pseudo-science now +gives a different reply to that given by religion--which declared +that the right to decide was valid because it was pronounced by +persons possessed of divine power. 'Science' says that these +decisions represent the will of the people, which under a +constitutional form of government is supposed to find expression +in all the decisions and actions of those who are at the helm at +the moment. + +Such are the scientific justifications of the principle of +coercion. They are not merely weak but absolutely invalid, yet +they are so much needed by those who occupy privileged positions +that they believe in them as blindly as they formerly believed in +the immaculate conception, and propagate them just as +confidently. And the unfortunate majority of men bound to toil +is so dazzled by the pomp with which these 'scientific truths' +are presented, that under this new influence it accepts these +scientific stupidities for holy truth, just as it formerly +accepted the pseudo-religious justifications; and it continues to +submit to the present holders of power who are just as +hard-hearted but rather more numerous than before. + + + +V + + +__Who am I? I am that which thou hast searched for since thy baby +eyes gazed wonderingly upon the world, whose horizon hides this +real life from thee. I am that which in thy heart thou hast +prayed for, demanded as thy birthright, although thou hast not +known what it was. I am that which has lain in thy soul for +hundreds and thousands of years. Sometimes I lay in thee +grieving because thou didst not recognize me; sometimes I raised +my head, opened my eyes, and extended my arms calling thee either +tenderly and quietly, or strenuously, demanding that thou shouldst +rebel against the iron chains which bound thee to the earth.__ + +KRISHNA. + + +So matters went on, and still go on, in the Christian world. But +we might have hope that in the immense Brahman, Buddhist, and +Confucian worlds this new scientific superstition would not +establish itself, and that the Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, +once their eyes were opened to the religious fraud justifying +violence, would advance directly to a recognition of the law of +love inherent in humanity, and which had been so forcibly +enunciated by the great Eastern teachers. But what has happened +is that the scientific superstition replacing the religious one +has been accepted and secured a stronger and stronger hold in the +East. + +In your periodical you set out as the basic principle which +should guide the actions of your people the maxim that: +'Resistance to aggression is not simply justifiable but +imperative, nonresistance hurts both Altruism and Egotism.' + +Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it +you too have the only method of saving your people from +enslavement. In very ancient times love was proclaimed with +special strength and clearness among your people to be the +religious basis of human life. Love, and forcible resistance to +evil-doers, involve such a mutual contradiction as to destroy +utterly the whole sense and meaning of the conception of love. +And what follows? With a light heart and in the twentieth century +you, an adherent of a religious people, deny their law, feeling +convinced of your scientific enlightenment and your right to do +so, and you repeat (do not take this amiss) the amazing stupidity +indoctrinated in you by the advocates of the use of violence--the +enemies of truth, the servants first of theology and then of +science--your European teachers. + +You say that the English have enslaved your people and hold them +in subjection because the latter have not resisted resolutely +enough and have not met force by force. + +But the case is just the opposite. If the English have enslaved +the people of India it is just because the latter recognized, and +still recognize, force as the fundamental principle of the social +order. In accord with that principle they submitted to their +little rajahs, and on their behalf struggled against one another, +fought the Europeans, the English, and are now trying to fight +with them again. + +A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred +millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will +fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it mean that +thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather weak and ordinary +people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever, +capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it +clear that it is not the English who have enslaved the Indians, +but the Indians who have enslaved themselves? + +When the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it +is as if drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers who have +settled among them have enslaved them. You tell them that they +might give up drinking, but they reply that they are so +accustomed to it that they cannot abstain, and that they must +have alcohol to keep up their energy. Is it not the same thing +with the millions of people who submit to thousands' or even to +hundreds, of others--of their own or other nations? + +If the people of India are enslaved by violence it is only +because they themselves live and have lived by violence, and do +not recognize the eternal law of love inherent in humanity. + +__Pitiful and foolish is the man who seeks what he already has, +and does not know that he has it. Yes, Pitiful and foolish is he +who does not know the bliss of love which surrounds him and which +I have given him.__ KRISHNA. + + +As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love +natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes +all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all +participation in violence--as soon as this happens, not only will +hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions +will be able to enslave a single individual. Do not resist the +evil-doer and take no part in doing so, either in the violent +deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the collection of +taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the world will +be able to enslave you. + + + +VI + + +__O ye who sit in bondage and continually seek and pant for +freedom, seek only for love. Love is peace in itself and peace +which gives complete satisfaction. I am the key that opens the +portal to the rarely discovered land where contentment alone is +found.__ KRISHNA. + +What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is +like what happens to every individual when he passes from +childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses +what had hitherto guided his life and lives without direction, +not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he +invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and +stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery and +senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long +time. + +When an individual passes from one period of life to another a +time comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and +excitement as before, but has to understand that although he has +outgrown what before used to direct him, this does not mean that +he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather that he +must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding +to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And +in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and +development of humanity. I believe that such a time has now +arrived--not in the sense that it has come in the year 1908, but +that the inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an +extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the +consciousness of the beneficence of the law of love, and on the +other the existing order of life which has for centuries +occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of +life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on +the use of violence. This contradiction must be faced, and the +solution will evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of +violence, but to the truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men +from remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is in +accord with the nature of man. + +But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when +they have completely freed themselves from all religious and +scientific superstitions and from all the consequent +misrepresentations and sophistical distortions by which its +recognition has been hindered for centuries. + +To save a sinking ship it is necessary to throw overboard the +ballast, which though it may once have been needed would now +cause the ship to sink. And so it is with the scientific +superstition which hides the truth of their welfare from mankind. +In order that men should embrace the truth--not in the vague way +they did in childhood, nor in the one-sided and perverted way +presented to them by their religious and scientific teachers, but +embrace it as their highest law--the complete liberation of this +truth from all and every superstition (both pseudo-religious and +pseudo-scientific) by which it is still obscured is essential: +not a partial, timid attempt, reckoning with traditions +sanctified by age and with the habits of the people--not such as +was effected in the religious sphere by Guru-Nanak, the founder +of the sect of the Sikhs, and in the Christian world by Luther, +and by similar reformers in other religions--but a fundamental +cleansing of religious consciousness from all ancient religious +and modern scientific superstitions. + +If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds +of Ormuzds, Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas +and Christs, from beliefs in Paradises and Hells, in +reincarnations and resurrections, from belief in the interference +of the Gods in the external affairs of the universe, and above +all, if they freed themselves from belief in the infallibility of +all the various Vedas, Bibles, Gospels, Tripitakas, Korans, and +the like, and also freed themselves from blind belief in a +variety of scientific teachings about infinitely small atoms and +molecules and in all the infinitely great and infinitely remote +worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from faith in the +infallibility of the scientific law to which humanity is at +present subjected: the historic law, the economic laws, the law +of struggle and survival, and so on--if people only freed +themselves from this terrible accumulation of futile exercises of +our lower capacities of mind and memory called the 'Sciences', +and from the innumerable divisions of all sorts of histories, +anthropologies, homiletics, bacteriologics, jurisprudences, +cosmographies, strategies--their name is legion--and freed +themselves from all this harmful, stupifying ballast--the simple +law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and solving all +questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and +obligatory. + + + +VII + + +__Children, look at the flowers at your feet; do not trample upon +them. Look at the love in your midst and do not repudiate it.__ +KRISHNA. + +__There is a higher reason which transcends all human minds. It +is far and near. It permeates all the worlds and at the same +time is infinitely higher than they.__ + +__A man who sees that all things are contained in the higher +spirit cannot treat any being with contempt.__ + +__For him to whom all spiritual beings are equal to the highest +there can be no room for deception or grief.__ + +__Those who are ignorant and are devoted to the religious rites +only, are in a deep gloom, but those who are given up to +fruitless meditations are in a still greater darkness.__ + +UPANISHADS, FROM VEDAS. + + +Yes, in our time all these things must be cleared away in order +that mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities that have +reached an extreme intensity. Whether an Indian seeks liberation +from subjection to the English, or anyone else struggles with an +oppressor either of his own nationality or of another--whether it +be a Negro defending himself against the North Americans; or +Persians, Russians, or Turks against the Persian, Russian, or +Turkish governments, or any man seeking the greatest welfare for +himself and for everybody else--they do not need explanations and +justifications of old religious superstitions such as have been +formulated by your Vivekanandas, Baba Bharatis, and others, or in +the Christian world by a number of similar interpreters and +exponents of things that nobody needs; nor the innumerable +scientific theories about matters not only unnecessary but for +the most part harmful. (In the spiritual realm nothing is +indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.) What are wanted for +the Indian as for the Englishman, the Frenchman, the German, and +the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all sorts +of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for +submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful +explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment +of the rich, ruling classes; nor new schools and universities +with innumerable faculties of science, nor an augmentation of +papers and books, nor gramophones and cinematographs, nor those +childish and for the most part corrupt stupidities termed art--but +one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear +truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by +religious and scientific superstitions--the truth that for our +life one law is valid--the law of love, which brings the highest +happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind. Free +your minds from those overgrown, mountainous imbecilities which +hinder your recognition of it, and at once the truth will emerge +from amid the pseudo-religious nonsense that has been smothering +it: the indubitable, eternal truth inherent in man, which is one +and the same in all the great religions of the world. It will in +due time emerge and make its way to general recognition, and the +nonsense that has obscured it will disappear of itself, and with +it will go the evil from which humanity now suffers. + +__Children, look upwards with your beclouded eyes, and a world +full of joy and love will disclose itself to you, a rational +world made by My wisdom, the only real world. Then you will know +what love has done with you, what love has bestowed upon you, +what love demands from you.__ KRISHNA. + + +YASNAYA POLYANA. + +December 14th, 1908. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to a Hindu, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO A HINDU *** + +This file should be named hindu10.txt or hindu10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, hindu11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hindu10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Chetan Jain at BharatLiterature. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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